Black Social Television: How Black Twitter Changed Television

In this book, Sherri Williams explores the digital activism of the Black social TV audience, a subset of Black Twitter. In addition to demands for social equality and shifts in social justice, Williams argues, the Black social TV audience advocated for a representation revolution in television, leading to some shows being blocked from airing, some being taken off the air, and others even being revived. Williams positions this activism as an extension of Black people’s historic advocacy related to the use of their image, dating back a century to when the NAACP attempted to block screenings of the notoriously racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. This book details how Black audiences’ use of social media impacted the way television is watched, developed, and produced through digital discourse and activism, primarily on Twitter (now known as X). Williams also demonstrates how Black content directors, like Justin Simien and Quinta Brunson, used social networks to develop their content and loyalty among audiences to ultimately bypass Hollywood’s traditional gatekeepers. Finally, the book touches on contemporary events, such as the COVID pandemic and Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, have affected the ways in which Black content creators engage with their content and audience and vice versa. Scholars of television studies, social media studies, cultural studies, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Sherri Williams is professor of journalism and media studies at American University.