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What is #MarchForOurLives ?

March for Our Lives is the culmination of a month long effort to honor the 17 students and faculty members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and rally Americans across the United States to say enough to gun violence.With momentum from the National School Walkout still going strong, students are demanding that their voices be heard. Here's what you should know about the March for Our Lives:

What is it? March for Our Lives is a demonstration created and organized by #NeverAgain, a group of students who survived the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, is helping the students plan and coordinate the event.

After the shooting at Stoneman Douglas, in addition to the many others that have occurred this year, organizers are calling on lawmakers to address the issue of gun violence in American schools by implementing comprehensive gun control legislation.

According to a petition on the event's website, March for Our Lives has three primary demands: 1. Pass a law to ban the assault weapons frequently used to carry out mass shootings. 2. Stop the sale of high-capacity magazines, restricting the amount of ammunition. 3. Close loopholes in America's background checks and implement laws that require background checks on every gun purchase, including those that occur online or at gun shows

When was is it? The main march took place in Washington D.C. on Saturday, March 24, 2018, at noon. Participants gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue, just blocks away from the Capitol. Hundreds of sister marches also took place across the country and around the world.

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Jimmy Fallon takes time out to address the tragic school mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He expressed his plans to join the student led protest for gun control and school safety on March 24, 2018 in Washington, D.C. again adding to this celebrity influence and support. Another example of the power of a platform through this you can stand for something bigger than you and me.

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The Media’s Role

Through the different platforms, we get information from multiple competing narratives about the issue of gun control and gun violence. There is a gap between what is actual reality and misinformation. Depending on what media form one is exposed to determines their perception of topic despite the tragedies that occur in reality. The media glorifies shooting in a way that adds to this ongoing issue. At the same time, the media has given a platform to give voice to activism on gun control. With this constant output of misinformation, shared ideologies cannot be obtained across demographics.

There is a significant ongoing debate which has been guided by different platforms of media addressing the issue of gun control in several different perspectives. One of the catastrophic events to draw attention toward, and spark the intense conversation challenging the issue of gun control is the tragic shooting that occurred in the diverse community Parkland, Florida. This is an ongoing upsetting topic that will continue to progress until the real issues causing it are uncovered and resolved. This is an issue that, after the multiple recent cataclysmic events that have occurred in this country, will never be the same again. 

The media has single-handedly formatted the way in which we perceive this issue, along with many others. The controversy of gun control is one that has been exposed, but in a way, has digressed due to the way that the media strategically structures the argument, regardless of its various standpoints, to direct you towards one belief. Ultimately, deterring us from the real dispute at hand. Misinformation provided by media, split opinions causing divisions in people and constant opposing arguments, along with the issue of gun control are of the utmost importance when it comes to concerns that need to be illuminated.

#NeverAgain, #EnoughIsEnough, #ParklandShooting, #ParklandStudentsSpeak, #ParklandStrong, and #ParklandStudents just to name a few, are some of the other hashtags created that are relevant to this school shooting. All of these trending hashtags on Twitter are so prevalent to this conversation and analysis of information, for they say so much with such few words. With twitter, all the different topics of the subject matter are brought up, views are vocalized, and interpretations vary.

Each one of which gives perspective and another lens to this matter. The movement #MarchForOurLives is one that is just getting started, displaying how amazing kids are and how, with the tools of modern social media, they have the ability to show so much more authority and initiate versus the adults’ politics.

Overall, this movement is torn between many issues but the movement students are creating is allowing us to get to the core of this problem. Seeing the victims and the people affected by these catastrophic, depressing events is poignant to people and causing them to stand up and make a difference. Media distracts us from the actual problem due to the fabricated, messy conundrums set up around the circumstance to make the policy of gun control complicated when it could feasibly be very simple.

These various forms of news have many opposing views making a unified change a nearly impossible to happen, while this problem continues to get worse. Certain forms of media magnify this problem but it is no secret that social media and the news makes it so that opposing arguments can happen while no set solution is obtained.

Due to shootings being publicized the media makes it look somewhat accepted that these sorts of things happen in our society, which should never be the case. They attention brought towards the shooters instead of the victims can also be an inspiration for the potential threat of the next school shooter. Media focusing on victims instead of the shooters would create a different sense of how the issue was perceived.

Also, social media platforms are another hub for these trouble minds to gather. The shooter made these blatantly obvious statements of his plans, which should have stopped this from occurring, which is familiar re-occurrence in all these instances. The media is all the blame whether it is television, online, or through and smart device for constant misinformation across all platforms, the defiant split between the common people on all important topics, and for this gross neglect of the issue of gun control.

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References

Bump, P. (2018, February 14). Analysis | Eighteen years of gun violence in U.S. schools, mapped. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/14/eighteen-years-of-gun-violence-in-u-s-schools-mapped/?utm_term=.2958df6f4365

Berkowitz, B., Lu, D., & Alcantara, C. (2018, March 14). The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting.The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?utm_term=.e9341ef343e2

Chandler, M. A. (2018, March 20). More mass shooting survivors, inspired by Parkland, are joining the fight for gun reform. The Washington Post. Retrieved  from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/more-mass-shooting-survivors-inspired-by-parkland-are-joining-the-fight-for-gun-reform/2018/03/19/edf88316-285e-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cdea9995d321

Fortin, J. (2018, February 24). A List of the Companies Cutting Ties With the N.R.A. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/business/nra-companies-boycott.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FGun%20Control&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=28&pgtype=collection

Fox, K. (2018, March 09). America's gun culture vs. the world in 5 charts. CNN. Retrieved  from https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/americas/us-gun-statistics/index.html

Gun Violence Archive. (n.d.). Gun Control Archive. Retrieved from http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

Gun Violence by the Numbers. (2018, March 14). Every Town Research. Retrieved from https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

Lopez, G. (2018, February 21). I've covered gun violence for years. The solutions aren't a big mystery. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts

Maddow, R. (2018, February 14). Gun safety politics grows as gun violence victims increase. MSNBC. Retrieved from https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/gun-safety-politics-grows-as-gun-violence-victims-increase-1162006083873?playlist=associated

Talbot, M. (2018, March 12). The Gun-Control Debate After Parkland. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/the-gun-control-debate-after-parkland

The New York Times. (2018, March 24). March for Our Lives Highlights: Students Protesting Guns Say 'Enough Is Enough'. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html

Woodruff, J. (2018, February 21). These students are fed up with going to school scared for their lives. PBS Newshour. Retrieved February 25, 2018, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/students-are-fed-up-going-to-school-scared-for-their-lives

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An aerial view of March For Our Lives held on March 24, 2018 in Washington, D.C. This shows the sheer mass of this march and the supports of Americans of this movement.

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This showcases all the celebs that came out for the march on March 24, 2018. My theory is that the celebrity influence behind this movement has given it such momentum. Awareness of this movement was successful. On the other hand, for actual change occurring in legislation we have yet to see any.

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Live coverage stream of the March For Our Lives movement held on March 24, 2018 in Washington D.C.: A Rally To End Gun Violence.

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Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, & Miley Cyrus are just among a few of the celebrities that came out to show their support for the movement held on March 24, 2018. This march was unlike any before holding a stage with star-studded singing performances and guest speakers.

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The official Instagram for the March For Our Lives Movement.

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Join the discussion! The official Twitter for the March for Our Lives Movement.

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Want to get involved? The official website for the March For Our Lives movement. 

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This is another Ellen interview of Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting survivors Delaney Tarr and Sam Zeif two days before the actual march. Here they spoke about returning to school after the February attack, and pushing for gun control with the March for Our Lives event.

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What is unique about this movement is that it is student led ignited by one of the many mass shootings that have occurred in this country and around the world. Through this students that were directly effected by the movement took to social media and used it as a platform to be heard. There is something to learn by these students, proving that social media is effective in facilitating a movement that can evoke change and be a positive platform despite the hardship. A number of students have becomes faces of this movement. Through this almost past year since the tragedy, Ellen has had multiple activist and students featured on her show. This video above is merely a week after the tragic shooting has occurred. Ellen one of the many talk shows and celebrities that had also given their voice/platform for this movement.

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MEMES: These have arose due to this movement and ongoing debate on gun control. There are hundreds of thousand of others, although these are the ones I feel are most relevant to my analysis and advocacy of the overall thesis.

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Allow me to introduce myself..

Hey! Laura here. I am from New Jersey, born and bred, and a senior at Rutgers University.  My major is communications, specializing in strategic public communication and public relations with a minor in digital communication, information, and media (DCIM). 

The hashtag I am planning on studying for the purposes of this project is the #MarchForOurLives movement, which is one I have followed in great depth. I learned about this movement from social media igniting with the hashtag due to the Parkland, Fl. tragedy last February and the marches were then held in March. What I am interesting in finding out when studying this is how the movement has progressed in the past year due the reoccurring mass shootings and if they are making any impact or head way in legislation especially after the mid-term elections. In addition, I want to view the major speakers or faces of this movement and how they are using communication platforms as a voice. Looking forward to further analysis. Stay tuned.