Occupy Wall Street: technology and activism

The United States has been in a recession for almost four years. We've witnessed political turmoil, government stagnation, and unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression. Citizens are discouraged and compelled to take action.

Armed with social media communication tools not available in previous US movements, some citizens have taken to the streets of New York to Occupy Wall Street and through the official blog http://occupywallst.org/ actions have spread to 1,500 cities worldwide. The official call to action for the Occupy Wall Street movement emphasizes that what those involved have in common us that "We are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%." 

Protesters began gathering for the Occupy Wall Street movement on September 17, 2011. Perhaps sparked by the Arab Spring pro-democracy efforts in the Middle East, or maybe just an accidental convergence of American desperation, distrust and technology, the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow.

This post is a review of how technology has allowed a small movement to gain awareness although their true agenda is yet to be defined. Some of the tools being utilized:

Email - The Canadian influence group first encouraged their readers to Occupy Wall Street in an email and set a date of September 17 for the movement to begin. #occupywallstreet 

Hashtags - By using a hashtag (#) the message was immediately sent to Twitter and re-tweeted by many followers or those just curious about what it might mean. 

Blog - The Occupy Wall Street movement created a blog and a forum, with content written and posted in their online forum by real people, participants in the movement from around the world.  

Related sites - The movement linked to related sites so individuals might learn how to create the grassroots movement of public assembly on the internet. 

Livestream - The group created a video channel for viewers to watch streaming and recorded video of the protest in New York City with links to more channels in other communities. 

Microblogs - Individuals involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement are heavily engaged in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and write and maintain their own blogs documenting their actions and thoughts.

Aggregation - An aggregated feed of all Occupy Wall Street tagged mentions can be found on the bookmarking site Reddit. 

What does all of this mean for the public relations activist? 

I propose that the Occupy Wall Street movement is a window exposing the level of distrust that exists around the world between citizens and the the multinational corporations and governments that control the economy. 

The effective use of technology provides a grassroots view of stories and situations that have prompted individuals into action. 

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn says, "Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change."

By scanning their publics, identifying their concerns at this unique time, I believe public relations professionals might use this platform to begin to make changes within their organizations. 

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Occupy Wall Street, http://occupywallstreet.org, accessed October 16, 2011.
ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/09/protesters-begin-effort-to-occupy-wall-street/, accessed October 16, 2011.