Disputing narratives and promoting visibility: The communicative actions of Northeastern Afro-Brazilian women organizations on Instagram

Date of Award

5-11-2025

Date Published

June 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mass Communications

Advisor(s)

Anne Osborne

Keywords

Afro-Brazilian women;Black feminism;digital activism;Instagram;Latin America;social media

Subject Categories

Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

In this study, I examine the communicative digital actions by a network of Black feminist organizations from Brazil’s Northeast on social media. Specifically, I analyze their Instagram activities as a fundamental form of political expression by Northeastern Black women in Brazil through modes of public feminist pedagogy on social media. To do so, I adopted the principles of critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) to conduct a qualitative analysis of the social media archives shared on the public Instagram pages of eight Black feminist organizations affiliated with the Northeast Black Women’s Network in Brazil. This analysis is complemented by in-depth semi-structured interviews with members of five different organizations who have maintained the Instagram pages of their respective organizations. In the findings, I analyze their Instagram practices under two overarching themes: Disputing Narratives on Instagram and Connective Visibilities on Instagram. These overarching themes discuss how the organizations engage in discursive communicative practices that have potential to promote increased visibility to counter-hegemonic narratives about Afro-Brazilian women from Brazil's Northeast. I thus elaborate on the significance of their communicative practices on a platform substantially shaped by gendered and raced economies of visibility that tend to shape and constrain what gets to be seen and valued online.

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