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Andrew Hill
CMGT 510
August 9, 2015
Our Work Matters
A Campaign for the Expansion of Local Action in Association with #BlackLivesMatter
#BlackLivesMatter- A Movement Summary
The hashtag that became both banner and rallying cry for a new generation of the Civil
Rights Movement- Black Lives Matter. The Black Lives Matter Movement began in the
groundswell following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the accused party in the case of the
shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Black Lives Matter is a part of a larger historical backdrop of
tension between police and communities of color, with the new occurrences of perceived
extrajudicial harassment and murder of Black women and men inspiring protests nationally; from
these protests 26 chapters of Black Lives Matter have been founded from New York to
California, as well as Toronto, Canada.
Responding to these Challenges
With its international base, as well as nationally active demonstrations and events, Black
Lives Matter depends on its local chapters to provide cause-relevant local community stories and
participation to the advancement of Black Lives Matter. Cause-relevant community stories are
those of Trayvon Martin, of Eric Garner and Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, and more recently Sandra
Bland and Sam Dubose- people whose deaths bring to question the justice system and the

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pretenses that inform its execution.
The challenge is informing the broader public of the ongoing dialogue- with
innumerable contributors the conversation is vastly dispersed, while simultaneously exclusive as
much of the online exchange and tradigital media is targeted at millennials and their networks.
To that assertion, the online publication ColorofChange.org recently sponsored nine billboards
featured outside of the Quicken Loans Arena during the week of the U.S. Republican presidential
debate (i.e. pictured here).
The message the billboard’s headline text “He was a child playing at the park.” speaks of
Tamir Rice- a 12-year-old boy gunned down by a police officer while playing with a toy gun at a
park. This narrative (and the name to whom it belongs, Tamir Rice) is privileged information for
those within the network of those discussing it; a tragic but forgotten news story for those who
can recall the traditional media coverage of the case. Another point, the advertisement features a
hashtag that does not meaningfully inform the reader of the dialogue; it does not direct the reader
to the Black Lives Matter dialogue and it does not highlight the significance-in-association:
Tamir Rice was a child of Cleveland, Ohio, killed in Cleveland, Ohio, and in a convention where
presidential hopefuls pander to the rest of the country from Cleveland, Ohio they should forget
about the safety of Cleveland, Ohio’s children.

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The challenge is to also establish a locally-relevant platform connected to the
national body. Black Lives Matter has chapters in both Los Angeles and Long Beach, yet to the
average person in either southern California county how connected is Black Lives Matter to day-
to-day experience they have, or how important is it if it does not address the issues in my own
community? Without a meaningful bridge between the national voice and the local community
Black Lives Matter is a network of isolated action. A lesson learned from the protest movements
of the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘European Summer’ and the Occupy Movement is that the use of social
media can carry the sense of exclusivity, and of seclusion when not coupled with the traditional
organizer practices of local action and meaningful interaction with people regardless of their
personal investment in social media (Gerbaudo, 2012).
On ‘Our Work Matters’
This campaign is an extension of the Black Lives Matter Movement whose network
already includes several common-cause initiatives. As CNN reported in the days leading up to
the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, these
“disruptors” (Gregg et al., 2015)- grassroots bodies for Black lives- have revolutionized a
political dialogue for the 21st
century with an aim to changing the discourse altogether.
This campaign, “Our Work Matters” seeks to further the advocacy of this network into locally-
sustained communities. If the thrust of the Black Lives Matter Movement is to build a social
consciousness to the need for action against the systemic injustices of race and class (as well as
other social identity-based discriminations) then that goal must be actively shared intra-
communally.

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Campaign Goals
In light of the challenges listed previously [1. Informing the broader public of Black
Lives Matter and the advocacy it represents; and 2. Establishing a locally-relevant body
connected to the national movement] this campaign will:
a) Produce a community event for the recognition of the Black women and men who have
been lost to the violence of extrajudicial and/or racially-motivated circumstances. This
event will provide a service in celebrating the lives of these victims, and will bring their
stories to bear in the local community.
b) (From the community event) Aggregate demographic data informing future messaging
relative to the local issues held most highly by community members.
c) Develop a community team of contributors available to coordinate collective community
service and regular social media messaging [on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr;
publishing cross-platform content (Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc.) on Paper.li as
applicable]
d) Sustain an informed community voice through outreach and digital marketing- online
platforms, word-of-mouth (WOM)
Key to the success of the campaign- and central to the goals themselves- is the
engagement of the millennial demographic. The Millennials are a connected demographic in that
they occupy both higher academic and professional spaces, are old enough to have multiple
children (Centennials), while also being young enough to be living with their
parent(s)/guardian(s) (Baby Boomers). This generational and social network lends Millennials to
be a key medium of communication, being familiar with the technology of those before and after

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them.
Planned Demographic Outreach
Our target demographic overall are Millennials (ages 15-40) in the Los Angeles areas of
Baldwin Hills and Inglewood, and Long Beach. A concerted effort will be made in connecting
with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles (Facebook) and Black Lives Matter Long Beach (website),
as well as the Black Student Union at California State University, Long Beach and Long Beach
City College campuses.
Within the same geographic areas of southwest Los Angeles and Long Beach we will
look to engage seniors (ages 65+) through churches and senior centers, by way of recruitment
and, of the latter, service.
While this campaign’s messaging will focus on the latter two demographics, it is our
hope for serendipitous exposure with other community members through the ongoing social
media and community service presence. This would include the Latino populations of Long
Beach and Los Angeles, the Black communities of South Central and south Los Angeles-
Lawndale, Gardena, Carson, Compton, and Watts.
Further outreach will also be strategically implemented in consideration of the survey
results from the community event which is the starting point for this campaign. With thought to
what data the survey returns, participants will be asked to identify themselves by:
 Age,
 Ethnicity
 Area of residence
 Ages of those living with them

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 Their perception of the demographics of their neighborhood
 Their personal social media use, and
 A series of questions looking to understand what they feel the greatest issues are
in their immediate community
Campaign Structure & Theoretical Support
Central to “Our Work Matters” are the principles of Social Proof, Similarity and
Collectivism. The principle of social proof suggests that people categorize appropriate behavior
by what they perceive from others (Cialdini, 2009; Lun et al., 2007) It is also held that this
principle of persuasion is most effective when the people we observe are “just like us” (Cialdini,
2009; Festinger, 1954; Platow et al., 2005). With knowledge of these theories the central aim
was to highlight the community element, a fabric that people cling to in light of the common
needs and experiences on the basis of locality.
Community Coalition Gathering: Public Display of Awareness
In addition to promoting the sense of community, the emphasis on community service
follows the same principles in modeling the very behavior and culture we seek to further. Theory
supports demonstrations active community participation, especially in places or with projects
where that behavior is uncommon. Such a showing would constitute a “Disruption Trigger”- a
perceived break from normal (or “expected”) behavior- which would have a strong pull on the
attention of an observer (Parr, 2015). In the same way, our accumulated owned media content
should standout- this campaign relies on earned media exposure, the word-of-mouth and re-

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broadcasted story of the public work that we will do. Radio, local television and bystanders
alike, whether as street onlookers or social media consumers, can see the faces of the ongoing
work and commitment in their own areas- a model that we would hope to draw more people into
the exercise of intracommunity development.
#ForMyCommunity: Giving a Voice to the Streets Themselves
As modeling has been most effective when the observer perceives similarity to the
models performing the behavior, this campaign looks to emphasize that similarity with local
action and messaging highlighting collectivism. Some of the brand messaging considered thus
far include #ForMyCommunity #(My City) and #WhereWeCanBeGreater. The benefit to these
hashtags, specifically on Twitter and Instagram, is the ability to filter for the hashtag specifically
and to see the amassed content together. With that you can be directly linked to the local
conversation:
 #ForMyCommunity #(My City) is a through-line for all service through Our Work
Matters campaign and will be included on all images and videos shared of our service
experience, as well as for work done by local heroes yet apart from this campaign
 #WhereWeCanBeGreater would be a tag where people could ask for support in
community service in their area

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These stories would highlight faces familiar to a community
building the appeal for others to support the campaign effort.
The benefit to be available to various communities and being
outspoken (with shareable content) is that it gives an observer
a wider field from which to perceive similarity, a key tenet in
social liking (Cialdini, 2009; Burger et al., 2004). Thorough usage of ‘we’ and ‘community’
also promotes the sense of collectivism that has come to characterize activism and social
movements today- what Paul Gerbaudo, an ethnographic researcher of the ‘Arab Spring,’
‘European Summer,’ and ‘American Autumn’ protests of 2011-12, describes as
“choreography” (Gerbaudo, 2012). This campaign relies upon his notion that this nature of
collectivism can utilize the personal nature of social media participation to the end of
developing local spheres of familiarity (Gerbaudo, 2012). Success in this regard would be to
observe participation from community members outside our target audience, as seen in this
image (above). Images such as these would go even further in branding as the diversity and
presence of participation can snowball with people inspired to be part of the movement.
‘Share Our Stories’: Cross-Generational Dialogue
Stepping beyond the community service itself, “Our Work Matters” would want to
promote the development of community voice with the ‘Share Our Stories’ initiative. This
effort would be to open dialogue between Millennials and their elders, encouraging the
exchange of life experiences within their community. Having dedicated social media
planners would allow for the creation of content around the narratives people share around

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their personal history and the meaning in these stories today.
Video Production: Tupac’s Classic “Changes” and the Hope of “See You Again”
Additional social media production would be exercised in the creation of videos within
the #ForMyCommunity #(MyCity) initiative. According to Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends
report 64% of last year’s internet traffic was on video content (55% of mobile internet traffic)
(Meeker, 2015). This informs our campaign in creating video because there is such a demand for
that form of content [as well as being engaging content that can be repurposed for television].
Just as the images of Black Lives Matter protests are able to generate public buzz, video content
to new purposeful action would garner eyeballs from local media. Assuming copyrighting can be
negotiated, producing a number of videos to the soundtracks of Tupac Shakur’s “Changes” and
Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” would provide a familiarity for a wide demographic of media
consumers.
“Changes,” one of the most recognizable songs from the late visionary and artist Shakur (known

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as Tupac), speaks of his visions for a better community and challenging the status quo- in no
small way an influence for revolutionary spirit of Black Americans nationally. Creative editing
of recordings of service projects, in conjunction with footage of the ongoing Black Lives Matter
Movement unifies the message, placing the local in context of the national. In a more
emotionally-charged tone Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” proved a perfect soundtrack to the
closing scene of Furious 8 dedicated to the memory of the late Paul Walker. The song’s chorus
sang by the featured artist Charlie Puth carries the tone of a hopeful sadness- of loss and the faith
of a future reuniting. Placing this song as a backdrop to images of the women and men (and
children) inspiring the Black Lives Matter Movement would illicit an emotion response, and
further contextualize the emotional investment we have in our cause.
Paper.li: Web-Based Tool for the Collective; Community Newspaper
The key facilitator for this campaign and the management of its content (specifically in
balance to that of the national movement) is the implementation of the platform Paper.li. As a
web tool, Paper.li allows an author to aggregate and curate content into a web-based feed akin to
a newspaper. A chief reason this campaign seeks to limit social media profiles to Facebook,
Twitter and Tumblr is because Paper.li is equipped to aggregate content from Instagram,
Pinterest, blogs and other platforms, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Paper.li allows
the social media team for “Our Work Matters” to hone the message of the people we reach (i.e.
their services, their stories) along with that of the national movement into a coherent daily news
source, featuring tabs for various communities and thought pieces and content from their resident
voices. This too falls under the necessary ‘choreography’ of contemporary protest movements-

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Gerbaudo suggests the sustainability of a movement is predicated on the “popular reunion” or the
“fusion of individuals” into a collective of shared ambition (Gerbaudo, 2012). Reasonably, the
regular generation of new content speaks to the life and active body of the movement. Lacking
the uniqueness and creativity of the people who uplift the action in their participation in anyway
undercuts the very purpose of the collective. Social media as a resource created a channel
whereby no voice has to go unheard, and it is through “collective aggregation” of these voices
that the many become one, and that there can be “unity despite diversity.” (Gerbaudo, 2012)
Paper.li thus will act as the fulcrum for the social media presence, and the central means of “Our
Work Matters” providing an account for the communities with which it becomes connected.
Value in Sustainable Community Action
The impact of this campaign is ultimately measured in the outcomes received by communities in
need. This project was inspired by young people, still finding their ways professionally, but
emotionally invested in the needs of a community around themselves. That has been the power
of #BlackLivesMatter as it continues to call people to look outside themselves the innumerable
needs of the people across the U.S.
The hope for this campaign fits within the narrative of trying to narrow down the demographic
for this write-up: originally pegged for ages 18-30, the limits were slow stretched year-by-year to
15-40 years old because on one end the campaign needed to account for young parents (and their
parents) who would benefit from having an outing where the family can participate and the
community can support ad educate that child and her family; on the other end the campaign had
to account for the founders of this movement- many of whom are in their early-to-mid-thirties-

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and continue to bear the torch by combining their passion and professional expertise to move us
forward. This campaign is for them, and for us because our work matters.

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Bibliography
(Images Credit to ColorofChange.org and Tumblr)
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