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Media, strength and vulnerability

October 30, 2006

This is a quickie, because I don’t entirely know what to say.

This past Friday, a friend of $pread’s was shot and killed in Oaxaca, Mexico. His name is Brad Will, and he worked for New York Indymedia, with whom $pread shares office space, as well as our art director/photographer Erin Siegal, who was arrested this morning at a protest at the Mexican Consulate here in NYC. She had full press privileges but apparently was stripped of her badge and her camera, and we’re waiting to hear where she and the other protesters will end up.

I’m riveted to Indymedia’s updates now, feeing a little helpless but a lot in awe of the intensity and solidarity of the protesters. New media is an incredible thing.

Update Other people are saying smart and engaging things about free speech, the goings on in Oaxaca, the importance of Brad Will’s death - for starters click on the above link to Indymedia’s updates - some of the most interesting stuff is in the comments - but I just can’t get over the rapidfire response of the forces of independent media.

So the rough time line, to give you an idea of how quickly info spread today: at 9 am protesters gathered at the Mexican Consulate, by 11 am there was a post on Indymedia saying that Erin and others had been arrested, shortly after 1 we knew that they were being detained at the 13th Precinct (which by the way is not the precinct the consulate is in and has a very bad reputation for the way it manages detainees), Erin’s release was announced around 2, while 11 others were set to be moved downtown to 100 Center Street to be arraigned - though a few more were released before the group was moved downtown. Erin was making calls and sending texts as she was being brought over to the 13th precinct and this info made its way to the Indymedia update page, but then her phone was shut off for a few hours. Pictures of the protest by Fred Askew were posted here around 1.30, including this one of Erin being arrested:

Not to mention that just days after he was shot, Brad Will’s last video dispatch made its way to the internet, including his ground level footage of the disturbances, all the way through the moment he gets shot, is carried to safety and drops the camera. An incredible media artifact.

Indymedia is, of course, set up to provide this kind of coverage, but its nonetheless really incredible how quickly and sharply all this information was disseminated, and how intense and seemingly unfiltered the experience of this media is. Its visceral - the crack of the gun shots, the sound Brad makes when he’s shot, the dizzy swirl as he’s carried out of the direct line of fire.

And its immediate - the images and information provided early this afternoon came fast and clear, certainly made internet hangers-on feel present and involved (feeling is important here). Its participatory media at its finest, but its also easy to participate in just the media (as, admittedly, I’m doing) and not the real live events. But as armchair as it seems, media makes it all real: the unrest in Oaxaca has come furiously into the light over the last few days.

Posted by Dacia at October 30, 2006 12:23 PM

Comments

Posted by: Mikey Mongol at October 31, 2006 02:43 AM

Posted by: erin at November 2, 2006 12:34 AM

Posted by: Arthur at November 30, 2006 04:13 AM

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