From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere
The Occupy Wall Street movement – the story has moved on, but can the media keep up?
When the Occupy Wall Street protesters first took over Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, much of the media mocked them as a collection of odd balls, anarchists and hippies, with no clear agenda – struggling to find a clear message.
As the protesters persisted however, it became evident that they would not go quietly, but rather as their movement gained momentum, the media started drawing parallels with the Arab Spring protesters, a media comparison that at a first glance appeared as confused as the protests themselves. In the Arab world, protesters sought the downfall of a dictator, over on Wall Street, the movement has been fighting everything from corporate greed to inequality.
A month on, however, Occupy Wall Street has become Occupy Everywhere with demonstrations across 951 cities in 82 countries, and counting. In our News Divide this week, we look at how the media are struggling to cover a movement that just will not go away.
Quick hits from News Bytes: The head of France’s intelligence agency is to be investigated for spying on a journalist; France blocks access to a website that shows alleged police wrongdoing; Press TV looks set to be taken off the British airwaves; and the UK’s Guardian newspaper scores another point against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
For the past 60 years, North and South Korea have been engaged in an uneasy ceasefire. For much of the last decade, the South has sought to appease Pyongyang by implementing the Sunshine Policy – a tactic aimed at cooling down the rhetoric coming from its neighbour. Part of that policy was an agreement not to stir up dissent through radio broadcasts.
But last year, the North shelled a South Korean island and sunk one of its battleships. The incident has led to a change in the South’s stance, and in recent months the country has been turning a blind eye to activists who want to influence the way the North’s population view its leader. In this week’s feature, the Listening Post’s Simon Ostrovsky reports on the propaganda war between the two Koreas.
Have you ever wondered why some of the pictures your friends show you or post online are so well shot, the people in them are so well placed and everyone looks so happy? It could be that they are immensely talented photographers or maybe, just maybe they have digitally edited the pictures to make them look better. That is what US based comedy duo Rhett and Link recommend in our Video of the Week. We hope you enjoy the show.
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