Among those part of and concerned with the Occupy Wall Street movement, it’s very common to hear complaints about the lack of mainstream media coverage. There’s even a sign at the occupation’s media center that says, “Welcome to the media blackout.” To a large extent, the blackout is real. The New York Times and other local papers didn’t give the movement headlines until almost a week in, with the exception of a cover story in Metro that first Wednesday. And, while several local TV stations were at Liberty Plaza during the first week, their reports weren’t being picked up by national affiliates. Only recently has this begun to change.
Online, there have been accusations of outright censorship. Yahoo has admitted to “not intentional” blocking of emails with links to occupywallst.org, blaming their spam filter. (This excuse is not widely believed, but plausible—I’ve seen the site trigger non-Yahoo spam filters as well.) Twitter has similarly blocked #occupywallstreet from being listed as a trending topic. (This may be because it keeps being throttled by Anonymous bots—or, more conspiratorially, because a considerable stake in the company is owned by JPMorgan Chase, which has also donated $4.5 million to the NYPD.)
Really, though, what do you expect? Resistance movements should not count on coverage by establishment news outlets, much less favorable coverage. Mainstream media are usually a part of a movement’s opponent, and they certainly are in this case. The movement’s job, then, is to make its actions so irresistible that the media have to cover it, despite themselves. In an instructive essay about her experience doing media relations during the fight for civil rights in the 1960s, Mary King writes:
[A]ttentive news coverage can never be taken for granted or assumed. It must be won. Gaining the attention of the news industry is one of the central functions that must be planned by a nonviolent movement that hopes to succeed.
In this respect, Occupy Wall Street is already succeeding.
These protests, it must be recognized, are getting much more coverage than any other protest in recent years (with the exception of ones held by the well-funded Tea Party), including ones involving far more people. Like unions, celebrities, police, and many would-be participants, though, it took some time for the media to begin to recognize that something of substance is taking place. By definition, the establishmentarian mainstream media will always be slow to react to a dynamic grassroots movement. That this is the case here could even be a good sign for the movement’s long-term prospects.
Part of the blame for poor coverage, too, lies in the movement’s own media strategy, or lack thereof. From the outset, its organizers have focused primarily on creating their own media—just as Gandhi did during the Indian liberation struggle, and as so many other movements have since. The occupiers do this very well, with a (theoretically) 24-hour livestream, a newspaper, websites, and more. Meanwhile, many organizers have purposely avoided contact with mainstream media outlets, and no plan was in place at first for how to deal with them should they arrive. Reporters—with the sole exception of me, after a lengthy discussion on the matter—were asked not to be present at the planning meetings before September 17. For the first week of the occupation, media relations was being overseen largely by one valiant but overworked college student with no previous experience in it (plus a probably-counterproductive onslaught of Twitter mentions directed against news services who failed to give coverage). Wire services weren’t being informed about upcoming events. Those reporters who did show up at the plaza were left to wander, without guidance about whom to interview or what was going on.
This is changing. Several older people with experience in media relations have joined on to help, as well as more skilled young people. Now there’s an email list, a calendar, a workflow, and the wisdom gained from a few mistakes—such as, for instance, Friday’s Radiohead concert debacle, which appears to have been the work of a rogue prankster. So there’s hope.
Something changed over the course of last Monday, for instance, at least in the heads of the species of made-up, spotlessly-dressed television news reporters who were swarming among the dirty and battle-worn protesters. In the morning—and their trucks were out bright and early—the reporters were after one thing and one thing only: the pepper-sprayed girls. A mere witness wouldn’t do, Mr. Channel 7 told me, gravely. His journalistic integrity forbade it. He had to have one of those poor girls, caught on by-then viral video, who had been pepper-sprayed with no apparent provocation by the NYPD’s notorious Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna.
By afternoon, though, their attention shifted. Maybe it was because the sole pepper-sprayed girl who had been around that morning left. Maybe it was already old news. But then the questions they asked started getting more interesting. Instead of gory details, they finally began asking just what exactly all these people were doing in rechristened Liberty Plaza. And, after getting bored of asking sign holders “Why are you here?” and ogling at the generator-powered media center, they even became curious about the all-important General Assembly meetings.
They’ll probably never really get it, but, with time and help, they’ll get better. No mainstream news report, though, will ever substitute for seeing the occupation for yourself.
Strongly agree.
The only positive media we’ve had (in terms of antiwar resistance in Australia) has been recently – a front page article in one of the most conservative (Murdoch owned) newspapers in my state being a case in point (see it here: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/263483_10150306327645325_551145324_9682946_7990680_n.jpg). It was a clear sign to us that public opinion on the war had shifted so that opposing the war was an acceptable point of view to conservatives; what was more, they explicitly placed our actions on the side of the troops! (Normally – I assume it’s the same everywhere – if you oppose the war you are accused of being against the troops). In this case we had done nothing particularly different, it was just that the actions themselves were now able to be placed within the shifted context, enabling them to tell a different story to the usual one.
But I regard that as luck (in terms of prevailing political conditions) rather than anything we’ve done, which is why I agree that “Resistance movements should not count on coverage by establishment news outlets.” As we often say when people accuse us of being attention seekers or courting the media: media is both a blessing and a curse, and more often a curse for us. Not all publicity is good publicity, and we get more bad publicity than good. 🙂
Hopefully OWS can be part of the shift in prevailing political conditions by helping widen people’s imagination on what is possible.
Thanks for the comment, Simon. I think it’s better to think of mainstream media as neither a blessing nor a curse. Rather, it is a tool, and a canvas upon which to paint your actions. It is something to take account of, to strategize around, to attempt to win—not through compliments or pandering, but through shrewdly-designed tactics that ensure the viewers’ sympathy will be with the movement.
You’re probably too close to it to notice, but there has been a lot more coverage and mentions on Yahoo and from establishment media and just normal “average” people, especially after the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Absolutely. Actually, I spoke yesterday with a news reporter from New Zealand who said it was the bridge arrests that finally broke the story in his country.
Re: the PR coordination is improving… but…
As someone on the west coast trying to figure out what is going on… it is still really difficult. Your posts are the best I have found so far and I believe I originally found you through DemocracyNow. Keep up the great work!
The media is mentioning a big March on Wed., but you really have to dig through a google search to find any specific details. I have not been able to find info boldly posted on the occupywallst.org website or yours… the facebook event currently has the wrong date. For those of us willing to hop a plane to join the movement, it challenging to understand how to best help you increase your numbers during a critical time. The Wed March starts at noon? Are you coordinating with labor to do anything large later in the week or over the weekend?
Are you coordinating at all with the folks in Washington DC who are doing the Take Back the American Dream conference… ourfuture.org/conference… and Marching on Washington on Wed? Might some of their heavy hitters like Van Jones come join you later in the week? When will some occupy wall street leaders surface for Amy Goodman to interview on DemocracyNow? This is what progressives watching from a distance hope to see… I think this will bring out more masses from afar.
If you would be willing use your site to point to other reliable sources of info and organizing opportunities, that would be really helpful. From a distance, it is very hard to tell what is reliable and what are poser/impostor messages trying to disrupt your movement.
An idea: Has anyone created an on-line interactive map where people who come to the protest can “pin” where they are from so that people can begin to see that folks are coming from all over?
Who are you?
Where are you from?
What brought you here?
Thanks so much for these concerns, Kathryn. I don’t think we’ll be able to do something like that on this site, since we’re more focused on reporting and analysis, but I’ll pass this along to the administrators of occupywallst.org, which has come to serve as the movement’s main website.
Thanks for passing on the feedback. Keep up the AWESOME reporting and analysis work!
You are doing great work. I wish I could be there with you; you carry my hopes for the future of our country.
Keep moving forward!
“Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something. You disturb the air as you go forward, you disturb the dust, the ground. You trample upon things. When a whole society moves forward, this trampling is on a much bigger scale; and each thing that you disturb, each vested interest which
you want to remove, stands as an obstacle.”
M.K. Gandhi
Thank you, Nathan, for describing how a nonviolent movement can gain media attention without stating a particular objective. You may find useful some of the sections in my online work, Bypass Wall Street: The Direct Route to Raising Capital and Investing, bypasswallstreet.com.