The fact that media can influence politics is readily evident from the campaign trail, to the passing of laws, to grass roots campaigns such as Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy Wall Street campaign has been portrayed negatively by the mainstream media outlets. Newspapers, radio, television, and the internet have painted the movement with offensive undertones, reporting the lows of the movement rather than the revolutionary aspects of the movement. A possible reason that the media has consistently framed this movement in a negative manner is that the movement is operating against the forces of society. This opposing issue between the rich conservative mass media and the Occupy Wall Street movement has drawn the interest of the public from all walks to life to witness the song and dance being framed against the Occupiers. Who is winning this dance off? An examination of the facts will reveal how well this framing is influencing the political forces. The four forces of socialization, or how an audience, technology, the media industry and the product of the various media outlets react in the social world and the social construction of reality or the power to influence have concentrated on the Occupy Wall Street (Croteau, Hoynes, & Milan, 2012). Audiences have tuned into this movement since the first protest in September of 2011 (Occupy Wall Street, 2011). Protestors have been painted as “a motley collection of punks, anarchists, socialists, hackers, liberals, and artists” (Scherer, 2011, p. 22). A report by CNN (2011) stereotyped the protestors as hypocrites, because they have recently occupied an office near Wall Street, with a copier and furnishings, instead of the parks they had formerly protested from. An Occupy rep resp... ... middle of paper ... ... that the one percent is thriving, while the rest of America is starving, all because big business controls politics in America (Occupy, 2011). It is too early to call, but in the end if Occupiers lose the competition, at least they danced. Works Cited CNN. (2011). Exclusive: Inside offices of Occupy Wall Street. Retrieved from, http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/01/exclusive-inside-the-offices-of-occupy-wall-street/ Croteau, D., Hoynes, W., & Milan, S. (2012). Media/society (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Occupy Wall Street. (2011). About. Retrieved from, http://occupywallst.org/about/ Scherer, M. (2011). Taking it to the Streets. Time. 178(16). P. 20-24. Tharoor, I., & Rawlings, N. (2011). ‘The whole world is watching’: Occupy Wall Street stares down NYPD. Retrieved from, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2096976,00.html
Demonstrating a form of protest that was more of an art form and a statement than riots and violence, in September 2011, people occupied New York 's financial district of Wall Street over issues that Henry David
Malcolm Gladwell, a published author and staffed writer for The New Yorker since 1996, argues in his article “Small Change” that social media will not have a great impact on social change, and might even be demolishing the necessary tools that high-action activism has always been reliant on. Gladwell attempts to speak out to warn our current technological society, specifically to the young adults who frequent social media more than other ages. Gladwell highlights an event from 1960 when four college women from North Carolina A. & T. were denied service because of their race, and turned to protest as they sat at the lunch counter, refusing to move. The movement of sit-ins spread and grew until eventually seventy thousand students across the South were united in protest, without the use of technological communication. He focuses on the idea that this protest, like many others before the use of social media, was formed on the idea of strong bonds between real friendships, and not just loose relationships between acquaintances. But if we were to combine the key concepts Gladwell highlights that are needed within protests
How people imagine themselves and are imagined by the larger society in relation to the nation is mediated through the representations of immigrants’ lives in the media. Media spectacles transform immigrants’ lives into virtual lives, which are typically devoid of nuances and subtleties of real lived lives. It is in this case that the media spectacle transforms a “worldview,” or a taken-for-granted understanding of the world, into an objective idea taken as “truth.” In their coverage of immigration events, the media give voice to commentators and spectators who often invoke one or more of the many truths in the Latino threat narrative to support arguments and justify actions. In this way, media spectacles objectify and dehumanize Latinos, thus making it empathize for them and easier to pass policies and laws to limit their social integration and obstruct their economic mobility. Through its coverage of events, the media help constr...
John Stewart, a comedian, gave a thought provoking speech at the end of the “Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear” in Washington, DC about the reality of the political influence and provides ways to expose the media’s errors. Stewart builds a persuasive point about the danger of media influence by using simple, yet, truthful analogies and employs the use of repetition throughout his speech. In the beginning of Stewart’s speech, he uses analogies to link the idea of the media having a destructive influence on our society. The first analogy he used to express that the media explodes current day issues out of proportion by saying it is like they are using a “magnifying glass to light ants on fire.”
After identifying a commonality among individuals, a group will form. The decision of the collective group to mobilize is now under analysis. There are two patterns of action in relation to police brutality cases and/or against racial inequality: protests and riots. Boulding would argue that “more is required than a straight political statement,” in order to get recognition. Public demonstrations are considered contentious tactic in a conflict. The reason these tactics are chosen is most likely to gain media and in turn national attention for this pressing matter. Peaceful protests have been practices for decades and often do not receive media attention. Riots, on the other hand, always capture national recognition. Two great examples are
David. "Mass Media and the Loss of Individuality." Web log post. Gatlog. N.p., 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
Allen Ginsberg, a world renowned poet said “Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” Media has the ability to tell stories painting pictures for the general public. Sometimes though the stories they paint are not always based in fact or reality. For the purpose of this paper, it will compared two op-ed pieces. The first op-ed was written by Radley Balko (2015), a writer for the Washington Post on criminal justice. The second op-ed was authored by Perry Chiaramonte (2015), who is a New York journalist for Fox News. Both of the op-ed’s focus on the war on police and whether this is an actual war on the streets or a fairy tale filled with hyperboles. These op-ed pieces disagree with each other on the existence of this war,
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Mainstream media, as well as the government, typically attempt to maintain a narrow focus, and provide select information on what they want the public to acknowledge. On many occasions, these facets of information capture our attention, and suppress our curiosity by turning it away from the significant topics or important facts, rather than encouraging people to engage in critical discussion towards a situation in its entirety. Instead, much of the mainstream media focuses on stories that are often slanted, misleading, or missing details. Human Rights Watch is an independent and worldwide organization who acts as a form of media, which is determined to expose as many facts as possible when it concerns human rights cases. Not only do they conduct
...bout the “real” real world.” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol 2(4). Oct 2013. 237-250. PsychARTICLES. 29 Nov 2013
A form of political participation is protests. In this literature review the relation between different stages of protests and the role of traditional media in these specific stages will be elucidated. Yet, the relation between the traditional media and protests must be seen a bigger triptych framework consisting of the government, media and protests (Oliver and Maney 2000; Boyle, Amstrong and Mcleod 2012). The two aspects of this particular framework and their relation will be the focus of this literature review. First, the components of the traditional media which can be further explained as local, national and international newspapers. The different stages of the protests are divided in the three different stages: the creation, the actual protests and the aftermath of protests. This literature review will be divided in three subheadings. Firstly, the role is the traditional media in the mobilizing of protests. How can the media encourage the start of protests and what kind of news coverage mobilizes what kind of protests? Moreover, the influence of the political environment plays an important role in enabling the traditional media to influence the start of protests. Secondly, the role of the traditional media and the actual protests. How can the media encourage or discourage potential protesters to join the protests? Furthermore the role of the traditional media and their ability to create a myth around protests. Thirdly, the aftermath of protests. The role of the media in how we look back at certain protests. Were the protest a success or a failure and how do newspapers on that issue.