Large vocal protests can force mainstream media to platform dissenters

Evidence

The first has to do with the fact that you cannot strategize vis-à-vis other people if those people are present. Meyrowitz puts words to a feeling I sometimes have when watching protest movements unfold on Facebook, complete with event listings for protests where people voluntarily list themselves as “attending.” The whole process is laid out in the open. Sure, this makes it easier for potential participants to see, but it also makes it easier to find for police, detractors, and even just passersby derailing the conversation with irrelevant information. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 549 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mass anti-war mobilization permanently introduced suppressed social questions to public agenda — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 253; Moses’ defeat came when mass media finally covered a local protest — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4066; Well-planned protest spectacles can dictate front-page coverage — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 369 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Public social media platforms expose protest strategy to adversaries #complicates (0.95) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 549