There is evidence of press collusion with the government line. As many press outlets are owned by one mogul, known as Dennis O’Brien. http://mediabite.org/2014/11/27/irish-water-has-brought-us-together/#more-2406
This information on press propaganda is also shared on line. It’s is becoming more well known and it leaves a public in search of it’s own information.
here. http://mediabite.org/2014/11/27/irish-water-has-brought-us-together/#more-2406
Also the same man Dennis O’Brien is the major shareholder in siteserve (medium map link).
So, against this backdrop of propaganda. The water protest movement is still successful. The brilliantly written blogs and articles on the internet that are influential.
“The corporate state, which has proved utterly incapable of addressing the grievances and injustices endured by the underclass, is extremely nervous about the mass movements that have swept the country in recent years. And if protests erupt again—as I think they will—the state hopes it will have neutralized much of the potential leadership. Being an activist in peaceful mass protest is the only real “crime” . Chris Hedges on protest http://www.truthdig.com/report/page3/the_crime_of_peaceful_protest_20140427
John pilger
Chris hedges
Noam Chomsky
Stanley cohen
Manufacturing consent. Lipman. A technique of control. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCUouHTLWeg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr
Gramski
Moral panics at:
“In his book “Folk Devils and Moral Panics, first published in 1972, Stanley Cohen shows how public discourse tends to blame media and popular culture for triggering, causing or stimulating violence. “There is a long history of moral panics about the alleged harmful effects of exposure to popular media and cultural forms – comics and cartoons, popular theatre, cinema, rock music, video nasties, computer games, internet porn” – and, one should add today, social media. “For conservatives, the media glamorize crime, trivialize public insecurities and undermine moral authority; for liberals the media exaggerate the risks of crime and whip up moral panics to vindicate an unjust and authoritarian crime control policy” (Cohen, Stanley. 1972/2002. Folk devils and moral panics. Oxon: Routledge. Third edition. page xvii).”
Also, “Media and politicians created the impression that the riots were orchestrated by “Twitter mobs”, “Facebook mobs” and “Blackberry mobs”. After one a few month ago told we had “Twitter revolutions” and “Facebook revolutions” in Egypt and Tunisia, one now hears about “social media mobs” in the UK. So what to make of these claims?
And also, as usual in moral panics, the call for policing technology can be heard.
“One should not blame social media or popular culture, but the violent conditions of society for the UK riots. The mass media’s and politics’ focus on surveillance, law and order politics and the condemnation of social media will not solve the problems. A serious discussion about class, inequality and racism is needed, which also requires a change of policy regimes. The UK riots are not a “Blackberry mob”, not a “Facebook mob” and not a “Twitter mob”; they are the effects of the structural violence of neoliberalism and capitalism. Capitalism, crisis and class are the main contexts of unrests, uproars and social media today.”
The moral imperative of revolt
“Because what happens is that when you rise up, the elites can no longer count on the foot soldiers that maintain control both within the civil service, within the police and everywhere else, to protect them”.
I suppose they need to show public sympathy if only to get sales
http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/news-opinion/pat-flanagan-firm-terrorised-dead-6168669
The government use social media too!
https://criticl.me/post/citizen-journalism-its-place-free-republic-political-atheism-article-3-3419
” Today, 90% of the media you consume is owned by six major corporations. Why is that? If any of you are as old as myself, some of you can remember when you picked up a newspaper that most of the articles, while informative, were largely unable to hold the interest of most of us. Whether or not news was factual, objective, informative, fair and balanced then is a matter of debate. What is a fact is that just a mere thirty years ago, it was far more factual, objective, informative, fair and balanced then than it is now.”
I believe the on-line collaboration is working. However, is this networking enough and is it sufficient to cause real change? Cause apathy?
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell an angle well worth an exploration. Social media – Network versus hierarchy.Because networks don’t have a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority, they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically; they are chronically prone to conflict and error. How do you make difficult choices about tactics or strategy or philosophical direction when everyone has an equal say?
Also, “It shifts our energies from organizations that promote strategic and disciplined activity and toward those which promote resilience and adaptability. It makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact.”.
How connected are we ? Must social media be mobilized in a more strategic way?
What is the current connecting theme among the two cases? – I EU-IMF troika – comprising the commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF Is there other connecting factors? Austerity.
John Pilger http://store.counterpunch.org/john-pilger-episode-12/ on austerity and media
Birgitta Jónsdóttir is a poetician for the Pirate Party in the Icelandic parliament. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper, and had the honor to guest edit the January edition 2015 of the New Internationalist titled Democracy in the Digital era. She firmly believes individuals can change the world.
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cultureandsocietyme 