The Role of Digital Media in The Occupy Wall Street Movement

Following in the footsteps of the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, the Occupy Wall Street protest was an anti capitalist and consumerist movement started in 2011 to challenge dominant economic ideology and policies. Like the Arab Spring uprising it marked the start of a new generation of methods to form protests through social media to rally support and add adherents and spread their message. One must ask to what degree has digital media aided in the formation and promulgation of the Occupy Wall Street movement message and challenge dominant ideologies? Also are their any potential drawbacks of using digital media as a method of starting social activist movements? Will the growing popularity and accessibility of new alternative media outlets mark an end or decline in the so called legacy media.

Introduction

With the Occupy wall street movement being one of the pioneer social movements formed on digital media in which to challenge the institutional and dominant ideologies in particular capitalism the economic system of prevalence in the western world. Digital media provided a cheap and effective method to disperse their message to the masses and did so with tremendous success. The ways in which Occupy Wall Street movement utilizes social media is multifaceted but can be summed up in these ways. First the use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter to gain support and audiences, how new modern forms of communication technology like cell phones in this electronic society made for outreach easier, and the use of a new form of citizen journalism to avoid the old traditional mainstream media providing unfiltered and on the ground coverage of the event. These three key issues will be the main arguments by which this Essay will seek to establish how new forms of digital media have benefited the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The innovation and development of the social platforms Facebook and Twitter created for the unique possibility to be use a platform to spread a message and activism. Then also give background information of why the Occupy Wall street Movement was formed and some of their stated goals and a definition of capitalism and how it is related to this issue and the ideologies they chose to challenge and fight. Over 450 000 Facebook users had joined the Occupy wall street movement page up until October 2011. Discussing how these social media platforms are used as tools by those with a voice and message to spread not something that supplants social and political uprisings. Discuss how these platforms enable thousands of people to gather and join together through tweets and Facebook posts and serves as a recruiting tools and how it help shed light and provide exposure to the issue they seek to solve, and how absent of these platforms the movement could not have formed as quickly because of the high interconnection these social media platforms create.

The technological invention of the cellular device made for a new age social revolutions and the increasing mobilization of society and how this places in the hand of each individual the power to reach a vast audience. Discuss how protesters armed with cell phones can record snap photos, tweet, and in many instances a merger between our offline and online lives and how we take advantage of what we call in the Gasher and Skinner book electronic society and so called global village of interconnection through the world wide web. Cover how the mobility of these devices enable protesters on the move to have access to a large cache of crucial information including where to meet up and gather for protest, or information pertaining to how to deal with tear gas or document instances of police brutality. Furthermore how this new form of digital media allowed for more participatory actions particularly those of the younger generations to be more involved in this social movement due to the fact that most people have cell phones. The power in which these devices yield has a profound impact on how future generations will organize such events and now anyone can be their own news source.

With platforms of Facebook and Twitter and cell phones opens up new opportunities for ordinary people to now be their own journalists and to ensure their message of the occupy wall street movement. In this paragraph demonstrate the significance of independent media in provided tools in which people involved in this movement can have free independent and side step the traditional legacy mainstream media. This avoids the course concept of what we call media framing in which mainstream media sources may frame stories to fit a certain narrative the independent journalism thus makes it possible to ensure that now the public can see and judge for themselves about their protest. Explore how the mainstream media were the gatekeepers of information and news since they were previously the only source of news can monopolize and spin stories how they please and how the citizen journalists can now serve to usurp this barrier.

Conclusion

In conclusion the Occupy wall street movement is one of the originator movements of the new age of mobile and internet technology and took advantage of it to have people of similar politics come together and challenge dominant ideologies in place. The utilization of social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with each other, while implementing and using mobile devices taking advantage of the global village of interconnections, thus in turn have the capability to have independent journalist and sidestep the legacy media who traditionally serve as gatekeepers.

Annotated Bibliography

• Kanalley, C., & Kanalley, C. (2017, December 06). The Impact Of Social Media On Occupy Wall Street. Retrieved February 10, 2019, from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/occupy-wall-street-social-media_n_999178?ec_carp=1545762232453217092
• Jurgenson, N. (2012). When Atoms Meet Bits: Social Media, the Mobile Web and Augmented Revolution. Future Internet,4(1), 83-91. doi:10.3390/fi4010083
• Cissel, M. (2012). Media Framing: a comparative content analysis on mainstream and alternative news coverage of Occupy Wall Street. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 3(1), 67-77.
• Fuchs, C. (2014). OccupyMedia!: The occupy movement and social media in crisis capitalism. Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Rushe, D. (2011, November 15). Occupy Wall Street: NYPD attempt media blackout at Zuccotti Park. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/15/occupy-journalists-media-blackout