Occupy Wall Street is a fascinating movement that is both rooted in and breaking away from, well, everything: history, culture, even democracy as we know it. Thanks to media platforms new and old, everybody has heard about it, yet no one can seem to fully explain it. Todd Gitlin attempts to clear up some of the confusion surrounding this complex movement in his book, Occupy Nation.
Over the last decade or so, the theme of the United States has changed from one of prosperity to one of uncertainty and frustrated hopes, especially for the middle class. As Gitlin points out, many Americans feel that “banks got bailed out, we got sold out” and that the 1 percent that holds the majority of the nation’s wealth also holds the nation’s power, which, according to our democratic system, belongs to all American citizens by right.
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| Photo courtesy of CNN.com |
For the other 99 percent, things are a bit bleak. The ever-present threat of post graduation loan payments and job searches are likely to strike fear in all college students. It’s said that Generation Y (of which most of my classmates and I are a part) is the first generation in about a century that will most likely not be better off financially than their parents. If you’re not just a little terrified by that, you’re lying.
With the Gen Y problem in mind, it’s no wonder that a movement composed mainly of young educated people (“They’re deep. They’re analytical. They go to the root,” Yotam Marom told Gitlin) sprung up to take down big business and big government. It’s also no surprise that OWS has utilized the media, as many movements of the past century have, to launch and maintain its campaigns. Only today, the media play a different role.
The movement would never have grown as rapidly as it did without the use of social media, something that didn’t even exist during the civil rights or antiwar movements. Everyone can participate because everything is transparent. Live streaming and live tweeting is the norm. Because of social media, OWS is out there for the world to see, if only people take the time to sort through their clogged news feeds to look.
Traditional media have tried jumping on the OWS bandwagon as well, but the movement seems to be too complex for newspapers and TV stations to keep up. They simply end up taking the “newsworthy” parts of the movement and repackaging them as ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OCCUPY WALL STREET. This “need to know” approach by mainstream media really doesn’t do the movement justice, and certainly doesn’t do the general public any favors.
I could never begin to accurately describe such a complex movement. I’m glad we have books like Occupy Nation to explain it as it is, with its many facets and faults. Even so, Occupy can’t be our only source on the matter. In this day and age, with millions of sources of information, it’s our responsibility as media consumers to try to gain the clearest picture we can. For those of us who are, or will be, media producers, it’s our responsibility to report fairly what we can and to be honest about our biases and shortcomings. No media outlet contains the absolute truth and no one should try to pretend otherwise.
So keep consuming. Keep searching. Keep learning. Maybe we don’t all need to become hard-core activists, but if we evolve personally the way Occupy Wall Street has evolved, maybe we will learn to improve our lives. Are you ready, Gen Y?
With the Gen Y problem in mind, it’s no wonder that a movement composed mainly of young educated people (“They’re deep. They’re analytical. They go to the root,” Yotam Marom told Gitlin) sprung up to take down big business and big government. It’s also no surprise that OWS has utilized the media, as many movements of the past century have, to launch and maintain its campaigns. Only today, the media play a different role.
The movement would never have grown as rapidly as it did without the use of social media, something that didn’t even exist during the civil rights or antiwar movements. Everyone can participate because everything is transparent. Live streaming and live tweeting is the norm. Because of social media, OWS is out there for the world to see, if only people take the time to sort through their clogged news feeds to look.
Traditional media have tried jumping on the OWS bandwagon as well, but the movement seems to be too complex for newspapers and TV stations to keep up. They simply end up taking the “newsworthy” parts of the movement and repackaging them as ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OCCUPY WALL STREET. This “need to know” approach by mainstream media really doesn’t do the movement justice, and certainly doesn’t do the general public any favors.
I could never begin to accurately describe such a complex movement. I’m glad we have books like Occupy Nation to explain it as it is, with its many facets and faults. Even so, Occupy can’t be our only source on the matter. In this day and age, with millions of sources of information, it’s our responsibility as media consumers to try to gain the clearest picture we can. For those of us who are, or will be, media producers, it’s our responsibility to report fairly what we can and to be honest about our biases and shortcomings. No media outlet contains the absolute truth and no one should try to pretend otherwise.
So keep consuming. Keep searching. Keep learning. Maybe we don’t all need to become hard-core activists, but if we evolve personally the way Occupy Wall Street has evolved, maybe we will learn to improve our lives. Are you ready, Gen Y?
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