New Media and the Riots in Athens

From a critique by Bri Riggio:
 
They began with the police shooting of a 15-year old student, and for many people around the world who read about the December 2008 riots transpiring in Athens, Greece, a murderous police officer on a power trip appeared to be the primary reason for the subsequent violent uprising. Yet, while the tragic death may have acted as a catalyst for revolt, the issues and implications went much deeper, and the rebellious youths who torched areas of downtown Athens were more likely protesting their corrupt government as a whole as well as the defective Greek economy.

While the riots were violent and tragic, media coverage greatly over-sensationalized the events. Reading over foreign newspaper articles covering the riots, reporters made it sound as if all of Athens was burning and that the entire country was experiencing internal unrest. In reality, the rioters consisted of young, self-declared anarchists –not your average Greek citizens –demonstrating only in a few important Athenian neighborhoods with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Shockingly, within 24 hours of the original outburst, the riots had spread from downtown Athens to other significant Greek cities such as Thessalonica and Trikala. Within days, violence erupted on the southernmost island of Crete and on the eastern island of Corfu. Eventually, even the Greek embassies in Germany and Britain were overrun by Greek ex-patriots who stormed the buildings in solidarity.

But it was not the zealous sensationalism by the mainstream media that caused these violent manifestations of Greek sympathy. As New American Media's Andrew Lam explained in an article published on Alternet.com, the traditional news media were actually slow to cover the events. About a week later, his investigation discovered that the extraneous and spontaneous riot eruptions were not so spontaneous after all. Indeed, it appeared as if the Greek youths were using so-called “new media” social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook as well as cell phone text messaging to rally and organize their destructive efforts. Perhaps these methods of communication and organization are not so strange or far-fetched from an U.S. standpoint, but for many Greeks who live in a country still heavily steeped in tradition and not entirely up-to-speed on new media, this behavior likely seemed alarming.

The media madness hardly stopped there. Footage of the riots almost immediately began springing up on YouTube, some produced by news wires such as the Associated Press, but more often videos shot by the rioters themselves. On one hand, such videos act as a way of global communication, transmitting information about an important event around the world instantaneously. But on the other, some of these YouTube pieces posted by regular citizens served as propaganda, promoting the rioters' actions and showing people firsthand the actions needed to avenge the Greek government's transgressions.

~ more... ~