Media's Involvement in Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a movement that has been spreading across the nation. People gather to show their protest to the "financial greed and corruption" shown today. Despite the number of people who have been active in this movement, large media corporations were slow to cover the story.

MSNBC led the way with coverage, with Keith Olbermann being the first anchor to cover the story. Better late than never I suppose.

Now that the story is starting to get more publicity beyond the world of Twitter, several criticisms are being made of journalists.

The number one mistake: media only shows the stereotypical outcast or "dirty hippie." This is not giving a proper representation of the masses.

Even though this may make the story more interesting, media should show a variety of people that accurately represents the protestors as a whole.

Another critique of the stories covering Occupy Wall Street is that they are being framed poorly, with a "law and order" bias. Arrests are being shown, but the innocent acts are less noteworthy.

“[Social] movements are ragged — they’re patched together, and they’re improvised, and if you want to size up where they’re going, you’ve got to talk to a range of people and decide what’s relevant.” says Mallory Jean Tenore.

I think this quote sums up the issue facing Occupy Wall Street coverage perfectly. Media organizations need to work harder to get the story, the whole story.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

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Olbermann is Olber-done

"In the mundane world of television goodbyes, reality is laughably uncooperative."

Those were some of the last words from Keith Olbermann's final "Countdown" Friday night. Olbermann, who was released from NBC Universal after being with the corporation since 2003, was grateful for the experiences he had while being host. No one is sure why the political pundit was booted from MSNBC, but there are some reports out there that make NBC once again the villain when it comes to releasing media personalities.

The release of the former ESPN anchor comes after two days after Comcast and Universal officially made their merger. Did the merger lead to Olbermann's ejection from MSNBC? A report from TruthOut says maybe. Senator Bernie Giffords now wants the merger to stop after believing that Olbermann being ousted was due to the merger.

NBC has its shadowy ways of how they oust their members. Most recently, it was Conan, now it's Olbermann to receive a pink slip. So what does NBC deserve?

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

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