Copyright by Judith A. Thomas 2012
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Copyright by Judith A. Thomas 2012 The Thesis Committee for Judith A. Thomas Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Live Stream Micro-Media Activism in the Occupy Movement Mediatized Co-presence, Autonomy, and the Ambivalent Face APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Karin Gwinn Wilkins Joseph D. Straubhaar Live Stream Micro-Media Activism in the Occupy Movement Mediatized Co-presence, Autonomy, and the Ambivalent Face by Judith A. Thomas, BFA Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication For my husband, inspiration and co-conspirator, Rob Donald. (Photo: The First Adbusters’ Poster for Occupy Wall Street, September 2011. Acknowledgements The work of Manuel Castells on autonomous networks and communication power has had a profound impact on this scholarship. The breadth of his vision and theoretical analysis is inspiring and insightful. I hope this work contributes to the continuing critical cultural discussion of the potential of citizen micro-media in all contexts but especially the international uprisings of 2010-2012. Most especially, my sincere thanks to the following University of Texas at Austin professors whose knowledge and curiosity inspired me most: Joe Straubhaar, Paul Resta, Shanti Kumar, Sandy Stone, and especially my generous, gifted and patient supervisor, Karin Gwinn Wilkins. I will miss the depth and breadth of debate we shared, and I look forward to following your challenging work in the future. v Abstract Live Stream Micro-Media Activism in the Occupy Movement Mediatized Co-presence, Autonomy, and the Ambivalent Face Judith A. Thomas, MA The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Karin Gwinn Wilkins With camera, smart phone, and wireless connection to a worldwide distribution source on a single device that fits in your pocket, now billions of citizens are able to become sousveillant micro-media activist – in real time. This case study investigates purposive texts in detail from over 50 hours of live and archived streaming video webcasts taken from geographically diverse sites. The goal is to explore how this tool is being used by videographers in a complex 21st century social movement. My sample video texts were gathered in late February and early March 2012 as the Occupy Movement stirred to life after a relatively quiet winter (from the corporate media’s point- of-view). In this project, I examine how Occupy’s use of live-streaming video combines “mediated co-presence” (Giddens 1984; Ito 2005) with “networked autonomy” (Castells 2011) to represent the ambivalent face of a complex, postmodern movement for social justice. vi Table of Contents Table of Contents _____________________________________________________________________________ vii List of Figures __________________________________________________________________________________ ix I. Introduction ____________________________________________________________________________ 1 Overview _________________________________________________________________________________________ 2 “Everyone’s a journalist” _____________________________________________________________________ 2 Technological Affordances and Modern Protests ___________________________________________ 4 Structural Digital OBstacles __________________________________________________________________ 7 Methodology _____________________________________________________________________________________ 8 Theoretical Background and Literature Review ________________________________________ 11 Classic Communications Theory ___________________________________________________________ 12 Alternative Media & Social Movement Communications ________________________________ 13 Tactical Communications: the Do-It-Yourself rebellion _________________________________ 14 MoBile Media Communications Study _____________________________________________________ 15 II. Context Matters ______________________________________________________________________ 18 Economic Context _____________________________________________________________________________ 19 Political Context – Legislative, Executive, Judicial Branches __________________________ 29 Cultural Context - Shifting Sands ___________________________________________________________ 33 Occupy Wall Street ___________________________________________________________________________ 35 Origins _______________________________________________________________________________________ 38 Organizing an OccuPation: Consensus driven, Horizontal, Leaderless _________________ 41 The Ambivalent Face ________________________________________________________________________ 43 The Media Ecology of Occupy ______________________________________________________________ 47 GloBalRevolution.tv and OccuPyStreams.org _____________________________________________ 51 III. Content Matters – Live streaming micro-media @ Occupy ___________________ 55 The Study ______________________________________________________________________________________ 55 Analytical Overview __________________________________________________________________________ 67 “You are Not Alone” – Individual Voices within the CooPerative Effort ________________ 67 LSV and The Goals of the Movement ______________________________________________________ 69 LSV and Direct Democracy _________________________________________________________________ 78 Observations of the Stream Culture _______________________________________________________ 83 Mass Self Communication – Discussion of the Findings ________________________________ 92 Networked Autonomy ______________________________________________________________________ 93 Affective Mediated Co-Presence ___________________________________________________________ 96 The Ambivalent Face ________________________________________________________________________ 99 IV. Conclusion __________________________________________________________________________ 105 Limitations of This Study __________________________________________________________________ 106 Suggestions for Future Study ______________________________________________________________ 108 What is the role of the Video Activist? ____________________________________________________ 109 OCCUPY the World _________________________________________________________________________ 110 vii Appendices __________________________________________________________________________________ 113 ApPendix A. Declaration of the OccuPation of New York City __________________________ 113 ApPendix B. OccuPy Wall Street PrinciPles of Solidarity ________________________________ 115 ApPendix C. OccuPy Wall Street Statement of Autonomy ______________________________ 116 ApPendix D. Primary Data Collection: Recorded Streams Summary ___________________ 117 ApPendix E. Coding Categories ___________________________________________________________ 119 ApPendix F. FeBruary 29 Events List _____________________________________________________ 121 ApPendix G. Earliest Days of the OccuPy WeB Ecology __________________________________ 125 Bibiliography ________________________________________________________________________________ 126 Books and Journals _________________________________________________________________________ 126 NewsPaPers, Periodicals, Television RePorts ____________________________________________ 135 YouTube Videos, Websites & Blogs _______________________________________________________ 138 Vita ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 140 viii List of Figures Fig. 1. The WeBPage Menu Structure of OccuPywallst.org (aBove) and OccuPyoakland.org (Below) Livestream links 6 Fig. 2. American’s Net Worth Shrinks while Finance Industry Share of GNP Soars 22 Fig. 3. Median Income Remains Unchanged for 20 years. Source: US Census. 24 Fig. 4. Income Growth By Percentage of Population 25 Fig. 5. When Income Grows, Who Gains? 25 Fig. 6. Ariely Income DistriBution Study Diagram 27 Fig. 7. DistriBution of Wealth Pyramid Diagram, 2004 28 Fig. 8. Congressional Job APProval 2011 – GalluP Polls 29 Fig. 9. President Obama and the Economic Confidence Poll Results 2009-2012 30 Fig. 10. OccuPy the Dream Rally - January 2012, Washington D.C. 39 Fig. 11. AdBusters First Call to Action 38 Fig. 12. BloomBergville’s first Town Hall. 40 Fig. 13. BloomBergville Now! WeBsite Menu Structure (www.BloomBergvillenow.org). 40 Fig. 14. Tim Pool Live Streaming with his iPhone at OWS. Nov. 2011. 47 Fig. 15. #occuPywallstreet FaceBook Page 48 Fig. 16. OccuPy Media Images 50 Fig. 17. Three Global Revolution Video Jocks at HQ1 53 Fig. 18. The Link between Occupy Wall Street News and Occupy Streams. 56 Fig. 19. "We are Watching" Yellow UmBrellas at OccuPy Portland #F29 63 Fig. 20. Matt TaiBBi –Teach-In, NYC 61 Fig. 21. GloBalRevolution Screen #F29 11:00AM 61 Fig. 22. Woman with Walker Challenges Police in Portland 62 Fig. 23. OccuPySeattle Re-WeBcasting OccuPyPortland Feed Live 62 Fig. 24. A Chat Entry Posted During the a Live Video Stream on FeB. 28 67 Fig. 25. Horses invade the Crowd - Live Streaming from Portland, F29. 75 Fig. 26. Live Streaming a Nonviolent Standoff in Riverside CA 76 Fig. 27. From a LVS Training Video featured on Global Revolution on March 2nd 78 Fig. 28. The GA in Rochester, NY. March 2, 2012. 79 Fig. 29. Charlie at OccuPyTrenton. A TyPical Livestream Layout. 82 Fig. 30. Close UP ExcerPt