Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr as platforms of alternative journalism: The social media account of the 2010 Toronto G20 protests
Abstract
This article examines the appropriation of social media as platforms of alternative journalism by the protestors of the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto Community Mobilization Network, the network that coordinated the protests, urged participants to broadcast news using Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. This particular use of social media is studied in the light of the history and theory of alternative journalism. Analyzing a set of 11,556 tweets, 222 videos, and 3,338 photos, the article assesses user participation in social media protest reporting, as well as the resulting protest accounts. The findings suggest that social media did not facilitate the crowd-sourcing of alternative reporting, except to some extent for Twitter. As with many previous alternative journalistic efforts, reporting was dominated by a relatively small number of users. In turn, the resulting account itself had a strong event-oriented focus, mirroring often-criticized mainstream protest reporting practices.
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Appendices
| Code | Key phrases |
|---|---|
| Police activity | Police state, massive police presence, cops are patrolling, undercovers, filled with riot cops, Toronto police officer, new police powers, cops with tear gas gun step in, detained by four pig, 7 activists detained, detained and arrested, illegal searches, beaten by police, cops stealing and breaking, police beating crowd, police charging, Torontanamo Bay-True confessional |
| Protestors’ issues | Indigenous, Native Land Rights, Indigenous Day of Action, queer activist, creative resistance, devastated the public sector and the social safety net, environment, queer liberation, disability rights, indigenous sovereignty, privatization of public service |
| Black bloc | Torched by agents provocateurs, police cars abandoned on street, Black bloc undercover, So who is this man?, Black bloc tactics and police infiltration, G20 police let rioters run amok |
| Condemning violence and arrests | Jail Solidarity Rally, major human rights violations, I’m angry, 1st-hand acts of police brutality, Solidarity rallies, condemns police actions, no more police state tactic, no more cops on overtime, your chief admitted he lied, who is responsible?, Public inquiry |
| Other |
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Biographies
Thomas Poell is Assistant Professor in New Media at the University of Amsterdam. In 2007 he took his PhD in History at Utrecht University. In his current research, he focuses on new media and contemporary politics. He is, among other things, publishing on social media as platforms of alternative journalism, as well as on the relationship between these media and the larger media landscape.
Erik Borra is Lecturer and PhD candidate in New Media at the University of Amsterdam, and lead developer of the Digital Methods Initiative. His research focuses on rethinking the web as a source of data for social and cultural science.
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Article first published online: December 16, 2011
Issue published: August 2012
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Published online: December 16, 2011
Issue published: August 2012
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