PBS journalist recounts his arrest at #OccupyWall Street

[EFerrari]

Observations of a Jailed Journalist
John Farley | September 27, 2011 6:06 AM

On Sept. 24, while working on a story about citizen journalism for my employer, I found myself arrested, along with many other people. My arrest gave me a unique vantage point on the risks and rewards of citizen journalists, those non-professionals who capture stories (usually without pay) using videos and images via portable technology like a cell phone camera. Anyone, even a passerby or a police officer can be a citizen journalist. That’s its power.

Here’s what happened.

My colleague Sam Lewis and I had previously covered Occupy Wall Street, an ongoing demonstration against economic inequality, on the first day it began, Sept.17.

Throughout that day we noticed many protesters using their mobile devices to document their own experience, sometimes for themselves or their own blogs, sometimes to share with bona fide media organizations. So, midday this past Saturday, Sept. 24, we headed to Union Square, where the Occupy Wall Street protesters had marched that morning from Lower Manhattan.

When we first arrived on the scene, protesters were marching along the sidewalk in unison, chanting. There was no sense of chaos. Many held video and audio recording devices, including camera phones.

http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/news/2011/09/observations-of-a-jailed-journalist/

[Hoosier Daddy]

1. K&R

[Bryan Buchan]

2. We need more journalists like John Farley....

When I worked for DK, he and Dean really sparked this back in the 2004 campaign, DK repeated everywhere he went, "If you don't like the 'media' then be the media". Many of us in the Dean and Kucinich camps were very technically savvy...I am very happy to see with the increase consumerism of SM, web2.0, and mobile this really take off since then...it has changed the face of history really. Governments being over turned, citizen journalism being respected by major media outlets, birth of wikileaks, I could go on and on...I have so much respect for those new generation journalists...I have a lot of hope of its potential, wit and perseverance. They deserve much more respect than pundits on the right or left, they capture with their devices the reality of the moment.

[EFerrari]

5. I couldn't agree more.

:)

[tblue37]

3. knr

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Excellent story, excellent links. This looks like a starter for his career in journalism!

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Kick to the top.

[fasttense]

7. It seems that arresting protesters might just create more organized protesters. n/t

[malaise]

8. Excellent report

[mistertrickster]

9. Protesters should dress in cop uniforms. That would blow their minds, wouldn't it. nt