Intro to the blog- Karla Almonte.

Ferguson Case Protesters.

            I personally consume lots of media, in many different ways. Twitter is my daily newspaper, I browse through the news section whilst drinking my coffee in the morning and also check it several times throughout the day. In addition to this, I also become aware of current events by watching comedy skits which satirically bring attention into those occurrences and through many public figures whom tend to inform the masses through cybernetic platforms. 

It is apparent that social media forms an enormous part of our daily life, there’s no larger place to consume media than through our phones. Aside from Instagram being the place where people mostly pretend to live a far more interesting life than they actually do, it is also a great source utilized to incentivize others to research about certain social and political issues. One can become aware of stories and events much faster through those platforms, rather than waiting for a scheduled news program for a detailed overlook of the happening. Deciding whom to follow heavily affects the content which one intakes, for example, I prefer to follow people that are unbiased and care about issues that heavily affect the world socially, environmentally and sometimes politically. 

In regards to how the media covers activists, acts of resistance and protests; the media has become more accepting to a certain extent. Some have started to support the different causes, yet some also consider these group of revolutionaries as a bunch rebels wasting their time. However, by using their platforms to displays those acts of resistance, they are facilitating those groups to reach larger masses. It does not matter if the purpose of the article or a news’ segment is to slander them; the media is doing them a favor. Due to the limitations that traditional media has involving what they can say and cannot, social media has become activists’ new best-friend. We are in an era where everybody wants to be considered “woke”, some falsely support protesters just to seem cool and some do it for passion; either way they are able to get the attention they have wanted to get their message across.

In the link below, an example of the relationship between the media and activist is presented.  At first, the protesters were not taken seriously due to their age and inexperience, but once they united forces with reputable groups and drew in more people the media started to pay attention. When it escalated to a more violent protest, they received their full attention. It is evident that the media wants to portray activists as “dramatic, irrational extremists who will stop at nothing”, while in fact there are several cases which are the exception; meaning less violent protests. 

https://socialmediaferguson.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/how-are-social-movement-activists-portrayed-in-the-social-media/