Forum Post: Citizen Journalism and Social Media at the Occupy Movement
Posted 12 years ago on March 10, 2012, 6:24 a.m. EST by MarkNL
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from Bodegraven, ZH
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Hi Everyone,
I'd like to ask you how you think citizen journalism and social media have made a contribution to the Occupy movement. Has it helped to increase to number of protestors and has it helped to spread the message? I'm doing this for a school project and I would really appreciate it if you guys could let me know what you think. :)
Greetings, Mark
As Journalism it is far superior to the sanitized, edited, one minute reports that have a slant. The longer home made video gives a more complete picture of events. This is good journalism, but isn't necessarily good for the movement.
These reports often contain something for everyone to point to, both for and against the protestors' position. I also think they have had an enormous effect on the police response. I've watched many and the police are looking more and more like they are the calm reasonable ones. The more protests there are, the more practiced the police get at reasonable response.
The police repeat warnings and offer opportunities for protestors to avoid arrest. This makes the police look good and often many protestors melt away and they look uncommitted. This doesn't influence the people that already support the protest, but I feel it hurts the chance for growth.