| This thesis examines how the contemporary media environment and the highly-polarized political environment interact with social media to structure public discourse about important political and social issues. Expanding media ecology to consider the interaction of the political environment, I examine case studies that feature hashtag activism and reactionary hashtags, including Me Too, and theParkland school shooting. These events and topics span significant social issues including gender and sexual assault, and gun violence, which have dominated public discussion over the last several years following the politically polarizing 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and Donald Trump’s presidency. Through a traditional content analysis of tweets that utilize reactionary hashtags, it is clear that the discourse taking place on Twitter is subsumed by polarization and binaries that generate attention and energize engagement, but largely preclude democratic discourse, ultimately having serious potential impacts on democracy and society’s ability to consider these complex issues. KeyWords:Media Ecology, Political Ecology, Public Sphere, Social Media, Hashtag Activism, Parkland, Me Too, Twitter, #WalkUpNotOut, #HimToo, Reactionary Hashtag |