My Experience With the Media and Protesting

When I went to the New School in 2008-2009, I was thrown into the middle of a full out student protest against the president of the school, who was denying rights to faculty and students.

While attending a protest meeting in the lobby of the school, we were approached by security guards who told us that we were not allowed to meet and discuss the topic of student rights. We were told that if we did not leave within thirty minutes we would either be escorted out of the building or we would be expelled from the school. We did not move but demanded that we had the right to peacefully assemble and discuss our rights. Nothing was done, it was a bluff from the president.

The next week students broke into the old library and chained themselves together. The following article depicts this protest and takes the point of view from the police standpoint.


http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/

Following this incident, I tried to find news coverage and I could find was a couple of short videos showing police brutality and how the students were to blame. It wasn't until later in the semester that news stations fully covered both sides of the story. 

From reading the sections on news coverage of protesting and civil rights, I can see how the framing and positioning of protesting coverage is still slanted today. During the time that I was at the school the president held a lot of influence in the political scene (he was an ex-senator), therefore the stories in the news were shown and written to support Kerry's side and not the side of the students/teachers. 

In understanding this type of framework in 2009, I was outraged at the media and wish that they had shown both sides when some of the incidents took place. Most of the time, videos and stories from the students' side were deleted or erased from websites. No coverage of the protests made it to television. 

On page 200, Larson discusses this same point: "Local coverage promotes name recognition essential for victory and tends to be more positive, treating the legislator as "our advocate" rather than "another self-interested politician." The local press and the legislator have a symbiotic relationship that allows him or her to shape much of the news through press releases, newsletters, local columns, and interviews." Larson's examination of politicians and their influence on the news is right on, and I have witnessed this first hand and feel absolutely outraged that the media can be controlled so easily. 

Yet, now with avenues like YouTube the voices of the oppressed can be heard: