Occupy Wall Street Movement
Part 1
Visit the website for the Occupy Wall Street Movement and answer the following questions. You can borrow information from external sites such as this one.
- What is the central concern of this movement?
- How does this movement utilize social media in its cause?
- According to the information in your text, can an organization be successful without a recognized leader?
What is the central concern of this movement?
Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) was a liberal demonstration association which was started on 2011 September in Zuccotti Park, New York City. The movement was meant to address the economic and social inequalities and also reduce the influences of the corporate on the policy-making. The movement aims at protesting against the wide income disparity by drawing attention to the wealth concentration and political power of the people who form the top 1% income bracket. The rallying slogan is “we are 99%” which means that the people living in poverty and who are sidelined in wealth distribution belong to this bracket while the wealthy people and those holding political powers form only 1% (Kavada, 2015). Hence, the movement aims to decrease this wide disparity by advocating for equal distribution of wealth and powers. The movement provides a way to discuss income inequalities in the public forums. In other words, the movement provides a forum for the Americans to advocate for their rights to equal distribution of wealth and political powers, in an effort to decrease the gap between the poor and the rich citizens.
How does this movement utilize social media in its cause?
The social media plays a great role in achieving the goals of Occupy Wall Street Movement by enabling it to keep it alive. The movement was created online and used social media to create public discussion about the topic of income inequalities in America. Although it did not last long, the conversation is still alive and continues on the blogs, social media, and websites. For instance, Twitter hashtags are used to establish communication in general rallies while Facebook pages are used to recruit new members and also pass information (Tremayne, 2014). The videos posted on YouTube enable the members to remain lively. The social media provided the platform for the movement to the members to create a practical space for public discourse. The movement uses social media to communicate as the members are able to post ideas and suggest activities which are meant to further their cause. Again, through the social media, the members get to update each other about the actions taken in response to their woes. The areas that need to be addressed are also posted in the social media podiums such as Facebook and websites for the members to be aware and suggest ideas. The members of OWS also use social media to organize protests and communicate their objectives and activities (Penney & Dadas, 2014). The social media platforms also enable the members to overcome the barriers of cultural, social, religious, and ethnic differences in order to do things in oneness as a result of the unlimited interaction.
