Amy was an online handling editor on the 2014-2015 masthead. The revolution will not be televised—but it will be live streamed!
Last Saturday in Lower Manhattan’s financial district, 5,000 Americans demonstrated at a peaceful protest against Wall Street’s unregulated speculations that ultimately caused the global financial meltdown. A few hundred of the strong-willed camped out on the streets and continue to voice their concerns. Yesterday, police began arresting protesters for setting up tarps to protect themselves and their media equipment from rain.
I can’t help but wonder why media organizations aren’t getting more footage for themselves. It seems as if the New York Police Department specifically attacked protesters who were protecting their video equipment under a tarp from the rain: the more coverage, the more the public is riled up. When looking at the footage, you see an overwhelming amount of protesters pulling out their cameras and shooting videos.
And those who predicted a media blackout of the protests are proven correct because citizens’ hand-shot YouTube videos provide the main evidence of the aggressive arrests. This kind of footage is reminiscent of the G20 in 2010.
Although the videos continue to be re-posted by online news organizations, the mainstream news should be covering this protest themselves with thoroughness and precision alongside these protesters. Luckily, citizen journalists know that video evidence keeps the people’s power alive. Global Revolution has been live streaming the protests since Saturday, despite one of their videographers being arrested, and they continue to do so now.
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