Five Occupy stories everyone needs to read
From a comprehensive list of reporter arrests, to documentation of police brutality, to a roundup of the very first day, here are five Occupy stories that are helping to shape history.
- From the beginning of the Occupy movement, users have covered the protests with Storify. You can see that body of work here, on our Occupy topics page. (We have other topics pages as well. They are listed at the top of our front page.)We are committed to helping our users provide the best social media news coverage -- a different kind of egalitarian news coverage that is a perfect fit for this movement. To make sure those stories get the attention they deserve, we have provided social media optimization for our users' Occupy stories using a variety of tactics, including sponsored tweets.In early November we hosted an event called Occupy The News, to discuss social media coverage of the movement with the reporters who were in the trenches of the Occupy Oakland movement on the day after it erupted with incidents of police brutality.Here are five Occupy stories told on our platform that helped to capture the movement in history-making ways. The Storify users who built these stories have made significant contributions to the national coverage of the movement.
How one journalist made sure his colleagues' arrests did not go unnoticed
- For two months, Josh Stearns of the media nonprofit Free Press has been recording the arrests of journalists trying to cover the Occupy movement and police action around it. His dedication to the project gets at the very heart of the First Amendment, and is a valuable and disciplined watchdog effort.
I have been tracking, confirming and verifying reports of journalist arrests at Occupy protests all over the country since September. Help me by sending tips and tweets to @jcstearns.
A comprehensive narrative outlining incidents of police brutality
- Adbusters, an ad-free, activist magazine, has performed a daily service doing a roundup of major Occupy news since the beginning. In the past few days, Adbusters has built a story giving an inventory of police brutality at the protests. This goes far beyond the viral reach of the UC Davis pepper spray incident or Oakland violence. The listing of incidents here adds detailed substance to questions about how authorities have handled law enforcement policies, and gives evidence of a larger problem.
Veterans assaulted with truncheons, women dragged through the streets by their hair, grandmothers pepper sprayed in the face, peaceful protestors bludgeoned while sitting. Sound like something authorities in Egypt, Tunisia or Syria would order and condone? Think again. It's happening here in the US.
Humanizing, rather than vilifying, those on the other side of the brutality incidents
- Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic tweeted concern about masses of people on the internet blaming the police officer who pepper sprayed UC David students, rather than looking at a deeper cause for police treatment of protesters. William Ball, who tweets @ekstasis, built an essay on Storify about the ethical responsibilities for police actions against protesters. This important discussion went beyond blaming officers reacting badly in the heat of the moment to look more broadly at authority, divisiveness and moral responsibility when parts of a society protest.
The Davis Enterprise covers a local story as it goes national
- How did a small town in northern California become the epicenter of police brutality issues around Occupy? The surprising pepper spray incident on a typically calm college campus ignited anger about how the police treated protesters -- but also how university leadership handled the issue. Joe Boydston and The David Enterprise were in the middle of that national story as it exploded, and have Storified it steadily, providing a valuable running narrative.
Ongoing real-time social commentary, news, and information surrounding this topic.
Covering Occupy before Occupy was cool
- Adbusters' contribution to Occupy coverage on our platform has been consistently excellent. This story by Abdul Rehman Khawar began a daily regimen of rounding up news about Occupy. Sept. 17 is the day the movement officially began.
Tell us how we can continue to be the people's publisher on this story
- The obvious question is: Where to now? Should we do another Occupy The News event at Storify? How can we help support journalists and citizern journalists in their efforts to cover Occupy? Tell us. We want to know. And thank you for occupying Storify.
