Making International Connections Assignment

Defining Protest Paper

Jaryd Eustace
International Studies 201
Dr. Otto
November 25, 2014

Jaryd Eustace
Jaryd Eustace
ITS201
Dr. Otto
25th November 2014
Defining Protest Paper
My perception of protest has changed significantly throughout the semester
because of the various speakers, events, and videos we observed. Initially, my
definition of protest was very simple and uneducated, having believed the groups of
people protesting were often unorganized and trying to cause a scene. My original
thought was that protestors were often the minority, small groups of people that
lacked support from their peers. As the semester progressed and I learned more about
specific protests, it expanded my knowledge of what a protest really means. After
attending these on-campus events and listening to speakers that have first-person
experiences with protesting I was able to come up with a more specific and
sophisticated definition of protest. A protest is the congregation of a group of people,
also known as a mass movement, that share the same opinion on a matter that opposes
the norm, and objects to the actions or words of the majority (usually a politically
group). I also believe that protests usually result in some kind of police retaliation or
political action on the protestors. Not only has my knowledge of protest evolved but
also in the modern day, protests have evolved themselves because of readily available
communication and technology. The addition of social media has also played a major
role in recent protests, creating the possibility for globalized protests because of the
accessibility to technology.

Prior to observing the Occupy Wall Street campus event, my thoughts of

protest were very limited but after the speaker I was able to comprehend a few more

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specifics of protest. Grayson Kirk discussed the idea of how ideas grow, spiral and
mutate. Two events in the Occupy Wall Street protest were influential in the growth
and mutation of the movement. Two women were pepper sprayed by police, followed
by a series of mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge. This police retaliation is an
example of the consequences involved with a protest. Not only can this affect the
protestors but also other citizens that may be in the vicinity of where the movement is
taking place. These events, along with other police clashes attracted the media to
broadcast this protest. This sparked thousands of reporters and media correspondents
to monitor the protest, which caused the movement to be observed both locally and
globally thanks to technology and social media. Immediately I was able to identify
how important this aspect was in protest, because this promotes the idea of a mass
movement. The guest speaker Dr. Sabea, who discussed the protests of Cairo, then
reinforced this idea. The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 is an example of a mass
movement, mainly focusing on civil rights and the effort to improve marginalized
groups. Marginalization, police brutality and the current political regime were all
responsible for sparking the protest. Dr. Sabea continued to discuss the protest and
how the Friday prayer was attractive for the protest because there was a large
congregation brought together because of this activity. These examples of mass
movements helped me to comprehend the complexity of protests and also how many
people are involved with the organization and development of protests. I always
thought of protests as minorities or small groups of people that didnt have enough
support of the rest of their communities.

The Arab Spring was a recent protest, comprising of movements located in the
Middle East and North Africa. These uprisings began on December 17th 2010, and

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originated because of the lack of human rights, issues with dictatorship or absolute
monarchy, government corruption and also the distribution of wealth. The push for
more stable local governments brought the people together, their desire for a different
outcome created the mass movement. A main component of the Arab Spring was the
involvement of social media. Due to the new communication methods available, the
social movement was able to spread to new extremes; this was done via the Internet.
The Internet was the main source for Egyptian activists to create Facebook pages,
Twitter accounts and various blogs that spoke about subjects that were related to
current living conditions and situations in Egypt. To complement the involvement of
social media and technology, the location of Tahir Square was used for the January 25
protests. Its central location in Cairo played a major role in the success of the
movement, allowing millions of people to congregate in the square. This unity was a
result of excessive social media communication. Not only was the information
available for those involved in the protest, but also individuals that were seeking help
or assistance during the movement could access the social media websites. The
minute-by-minute updates on sites, such as twitter brought a global perspective and
international attention to the mass movement and their actions. The government
attempted to ban reporters from the Tahir Square, but social media outlets enabled the
news to spread worldwide. This signified the importance of technology in recent
protests, the concept and definition of protest is constantly evolving because of the
available communication methods. Communication is one of the biggest parts for a
social movement to be successful, creating not only an agreement between protestors
but also an outlet for those seeking information about the movement.

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The Freedom Summer art exhibit provided a different representation of
protests, with visual evidence of various movements. The time period in which these
took place is also worth noting because of the lack of exposure through technology.
As aforementioned, communication is vital when trying to spark a social movement
and the campaign for voting rights known as the Freedom Summer attempted to make
a change without technology. Photographer Herbert Randall provides an insight into
the campaign and shows how useful volunteers were in this movement because of the
lack of technology, communication and globalization of the protest. The civil rights
activists are on display thanks to Randall, and these images provide a primary source
to identify and analyze for this project. These images were from a time where racism
was a big problem, and for there to be documentation in this era of a movement shows
the importance of the Freedom Summer. This signifies how imagery and visual
representation can be used to reinforce the importance of a social movement in a time
where media, Internet and technology were not readily available.

Social movements and protests are a common form of group action; these
groupings and organizations can be very influential when seeking change. Various
campaigns, marches and protests can be used to express the groups point of view or
perspective on a matter. Often these groups are fighting against the opinion of a
higher power, usually dealing with police, political problems or human rights issues.
Governmental policy is also a common link between protests and these so called
higher powers. In recent times, the evolution of technology and globalization has
allowed various protests to have great success thanks to social media and the Internet.
Communication is often taken for granted in first-world countries, but during social
movements, communication is vital for the growth of the movement. In contrast to

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modern protests using technology and social media, protests from older time periods
used imagery and visual representation to reflect the success of these movements.
This shows the diversity of social movements and protests; they vary based on the era
and the people involved. Protests are forever evolving and the respective protestors
must adapt to these changes in order to have success with their movements in the
future.