Facilitation and Mic Check as viewed in the media

[fongaboo]

Today at General Assembly I brought up my observations as to how the public perceives and the media portrays Facilitation and Mic Check.

For instance, the Drudge Report ran a headline linking to a standard General Assembly session that stated that the Occupiers were participating in a 'strange ritual':

www.drudgereportarchives.com/dsp/search.htm?searchFor=strange+ritual

As someone very new to General Assembly, I can tell you the first time I observed Mic Check on live streams in the early days of of OWS that I didn't quite get it... and it kind of struck some childhood nerves in this recovering Catholic's body.

It was not until I finally visited Zuccotti Park, marched on the Brooklyn Bridge, and now participated in OA's GA that I realized what a unique process it really was.

I just worry that if an open-minded person like myself subconsciously took pause when Mic Check was presented in a mediated form, then other folks might write us off as a bunch of Jonsetown-style nuts.

I think when dealing with the media and presenting the message, perhaps we can use that opportunity to also educate the public about our methods as well. Maybe we can get one of the news outlets to do a story specifically on facilitation?

I have a strange hunch that this is what folks think of us when they see videos of Facilitation/Mic Check taking place:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBcHbxym6IQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=390s

[benbrucato]

"The public," and "the media" both need to be explicated for this discussion to be very productive. Do "the public" and "the media" even exist?

When you say "the media" and provide an example from the Drudge Report, my initial reaction is to consider the discussion of no interest or value. But I'm sure you have some intentions and concerns that extend into territory that I would consider very valuable, as evidenced when you wrote "I just worry that if an open-minded person like myself subconsciously took pause when Mic Check was presented in a mediated form..."

I think this needs to be interrogated with particular attention to the "mediated form." There is no way we could do anything in any way that would result in a favorable report on the Drudge Report and effectively represent our politics. Our politics and the politics represented by the Drudge Report are antithetical. Since our behaviors and activities are public, they are capable to be captured and re-presented by a subject that is favorable, hostile and anywhere in between. Once our behaviors are out there, they are no longer under our control, and they can be mediated and manipulated in many ways, and possibly to our detriment.

The tendency depicted in the Monty Python bit you referenced is a bigger issue, that deals with psychology, discourse, social institutions, culture, and on and on. It references a problem that creeps into almost everything we do -- we lack the practice of autonomy -- but the process of the occupations and the general assemblies is the way that is combated.