Old battles on new fronts

There were a lot of "demos" back in 70's London. A demonstration would usually involve thousands of people, with crudely daubed placards marching down Park Lane, maybe meeting in Trafalgur square. With plenty of aggressive unions, fashionable terrorists, spiralling inflation, less than frank government and the likelihood of thermonuclear destruction, people had a choice of issues to protest about.

A demonstration is only as good as its media coverage. But the "new media" path to finding and covering current events is a bit different - what follows is an example from this morning.

After noticing an interesting remark on Twitter , I was directed to a site that carried live feed from mobile phone cameras. I was surprised to see a live demonstration, outside the Scientology building close to where I work in Blackfriars. Indeed I've mentioned the cult and their occupation of a historic building previously. Shaky footage of casually dressed twenty somethings, complete with placards, confirmed that this was indeed an old style demo.

The self anonymisation of the protesters was interesting. Many were wearing masks, scarves and hoodies. While this was partly to get in the mood, the inevitable presence of filming observers and plentiful CCTV cameras provided another reason to cover up. The police presence appeared to be visible but restrained. The video mentioned 300 or so protestors.

The other interesting feature was the "back channel". While the live streaming video was coming through on the site, instant message style text comments from other web viewers was published below the images. This is a fairly common concept today, underlining that very little media need be passive. It would be quite reasonable to assume some of the protestors would see some of these comments; indeed there were comments directed to that end.

The nature of the protest was interesting. How do you protest against Scientology? It is a fairly daft venture even for a cult, but seems to have quite a bit of money behind it. The protesters did not seem well practiced in throwing live insults, and indeed the back channel tried to give hints and inspiration. They were also unsure whether they should "present" what was happening, or just point the camera. Many on the back channel wondered when the BBC would cover the protest. The main direction of complaint centred around the cult's secretive nature, the fact that it isn't free, and their habit of stifling complaint by litigation. There is also the distinct feeling that the movement seems to escape government scrutiny.

While the guiding hand of main stream media was evident in what occured, it has been the case that from seeing the link to writing this entry I have not turned on the radio, the TV or visited a recognised news website. I do still feel the need to see events reflected somewhere - the need for official blessing is strong. But it seems less fanciful to imagine that before long what was the source of news, slowly morphs to the lesser position of archive.