Media perception of Protesters vs there effectiveness

The one down fall for direct action is how it is presented to the public and therefore perceived by them. On March 17 2009 George warcrimes Bush came to Calgary Alberta, he was fortunately met by protesters, unfortunately much of the media coverage such as this story by Calgary Herald (owned by CanWest Global so the TV news coverage was not much different):

tended to be fairly bias against the protest. Forgetting to add the context that George Bush as the president of the United States lied multiple times to the his people and the world on issues as serious as going to war, the article wrote the protesters off as your standard Bush haters- yes there were some there just because they saw Fahrenheit 911 but there were also people there protesting for accountability and the desire to have George W. rightly stand on trial for Suspicion of Warcrimes. the headline Arrests made in raucous anti-Bush protest Demonstrators hurl shoes and ridicule puts more hype around the story than necessary after all the police only arrested 4 individuals for fairly minor infractions (resisting arrest in the context of a protest is in most cases a minor crime in my books). The article goes on to paint the protesters as anti democratic or against freedom of speech for protesting the individuals who paid $400 a plate to listen to George Bush- a man who does not need let alone deserve anymore money for what he did as President. The most irritating thing about the coverage of this event was how the bad things that out way the good done by the Bush administration are practically forgotten about as if the world went back to the way it was before he came to power.

But back to the issue of media discrediting protests: right next to this article is a link to another one called The Protest Paradox (while it raises some important points it still comes off as an anti protest piece that does more to hurt the protest paradox than help it- a long as media focuses on the negative theatrics of protests they are contributing to problem. perhaps instead of doing human interest stories on the lady with the hat wearing Chihuahua

who's best friend is a really fat cat, they could do a story explaining why people- the intelligent ones- are at anti globalization protests- after all Global national's motto is 'news understood'

Cool Stuff

http://theyesmen.org/ - realy entertianing activists

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=43 a Vital and intersting Documentry:
Outfoxed

http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.browse&sort=Collection&imageField.x=15&imageField.y=14
- a online archive of documents from governements
during the Cold War

http://www.g7welcomingcommittee.com/ - its a Winnipeg record label started by members
of the punk band Propagandhi and features some
pretty awesome generally politicaly oriented music
(not limited to punk)

http://www.truthlifedocumentary.com/projects.php -I saw a portion of one of their
documentries at a film festival recently. its
pretty interesting and explores peoples
realityies and how we take our sweat lives
for granted.

http://www.myspace.com/burnside780 - all kinds of music, interesting interviews and proof of a positive world community.

A well ballanced media diet:

You may not think so but consumption of media is a lot like eating food, but for you mind. In North America, and probably elsewhere I don't have enough experience abroad to say for sure, we have problem in our media consumption that is similar to our epidemic of obesity. There is an epidemic of people who uncritically consume media- they are completely caught up in a fake realty of pointless celebrity gossip and the latest items they should buy.

Similar to the obesity issue , a common soft news story, the causes of this problem include laziness on the consumers part, slick marketing and trusted names feeding us low quality goods. If all you eat is fast food then you will likely become fat or at the very least really unhealthy- likewise if all you watch is so called reality television you will become dumb or at the very least stop viewing things critical.


The point that I am trying to make is that people need to start challenging themselves and their media providers. Do not always take the quick and easy route. whats a more enjoyable experience going to a fast food place picking a combo number and eating what they give you or going to one of those hot pot type places where you get to cook your own really tasty food?

In case you do not know what hot pot is check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6M7NJbaZ4 as for the fast food place I'm just going to assume you know. Oh while you are looking at that video do me a favor, look at the comments below look at trends there they will become important for later posts.


So why is it important to expand past reality TV and other fun programming and include things like news, documentary's or reading? well one of the awesome things about living in a democracy is your ability to participate, at some level, in running your country. Now obviously this is not going to change if you start watching the news but as a member in a free and open society you have the opportunity or really the obligation to pay attention to the world around you. How can you vote (which is officially the least you can do) if you do not know anything about the issues- that would be kind of like me voting for American Idol. the difference is that who wins American idol dose not affect what laws the government makes(which affect our way of life) .

As always Feel free to comment or question my thoughts as well as everyone else' s


Jonny B


oh here a link for some interesting documentaries- some I'm sure are boring but you might learn something interesting:

http://freedocumentaries.org/