ABSTRACT
Livestreams coming out of a church in Nicaragua caught the public’s attention as pro-government groups shot at student protesters taking refuge there. While livestreaming delivers gripping scenes from human and natural disasters to our feeds, moments of joy and beauty also flow into that space. The royal wedding and solar eclipse coexist on live social media platforms along with police shootings and hurricanes. From summer 2016 to 2017, eyewitness’s livestreamed violent events related to race – among them, Philando Castile’s death after a traffic stop outside Minneapolis, and the car attack that killed Heather Heyer after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Climate change ranked second for people in the study, and the third was a tie among gun violence, racial unrest, and loss of freedom. Sharing the content also contributes to the flow and appears related to people’s perception of social issues.
