Monday, October 05, 2009
The Digital Age of Protests
In the past were the local and international news was for most people the only source of news. Nowadays the news has spreed to so many different mediums that it has revolutionized the way we get our news. On area this has greatly affected is the coverage of a protest. Due to various innovations of the video camera, protests can now be seen from so many different vantage points and these can be instantly uploaded for the world to see over the internet.
The article talks about how incidents during protests can be seen by the world moments from when they occur,
"A tribute to the slain teenager—a clip of photos with music from a popular rock band, appeared on YouTube, the video-sharing site, shortly after his death; more than 160,000 people have seen it. A similar tribute group on Facebook has attracted more than 130,000 members, generating thousands of messages and offering links to more than 1,900 related items: images of the protests, cartoons and leaflets".
The article also talks about how the internet and text messaging has changed the way people organize protests and in some cases riots,
"This became obvious during the French riots of 2005, when teenagers posted blogs that urged people to “burn the cops”—and made massive use of text messages to co-ordinate the protests. The youths that trashed Budapest in 2006 relied on blogs to enlist supporters, and distribute an audio recording of the prime minister admitting government corruption".
