Activists take media coverage into their own hands
By David Hanson
Edited by Cheryl Matheson
Amid a swarm of television trucks, photographers and reporters covering a political rally he organized, 22-year-old Brady Quirk-Garvan was taking media coverage into his own hands.
Tapping away furiously on his iPhone on a windy, overcast April day in Columbia's Finlay Park, the young political activist was busy updating his feed on Twitter, a social networking Web site also used by news organizations to deliver content.
The April 7 rally, dubbed Sanfordville, consisted of people from around South Carolina setting up tents, holding signs and protesting Republican Gov. Mark Sanford's, threatened refusal of $700 million in federal stimulus money targeted for schools and public safety.
Twenty-eight times during the nearly 10-hour rally, Quirk-Garvan updated his feed without leaving Finlay Park or touching a computer.
It's indicative of the larger emergence of citizen journalism. Using blogs, social networking sites like Twitter and cell phones equipped with video cameras, anyone can be a journalist.
Augie Grant, an associate professor in USC's journalism school, said citizen journalism has become another source of information for users and the line has been blurred between it and traditional media.
During the rally, Tim Kelly of Chapin and Jennifer Read, a fundraising consultant from Hilton Head Island, posted photos and videos on the progressive political blog Indigo Journal. The site was recently ranked the third-most influential political blog in the state by BlogNetNews.com, a national blog network. The site gets around 15,000 page views each month, Kelly said.
After running their own successful blogs, Kelly and Read started Indigo Journal in October 2008 as an alternative to conservative political blogs. Kelly said Indigo Journal now gets around 15,000 page views each month.
Quirk-Garvan, a 2008 College of Charleston graduate, said he organized the all-day event by inviting people he knew who were affected by Sanford's decision.
"I called a few people I knew around town and it grew from there," he said.
He then contacted Kelly and Read and with the help of Indigo Journal took his rallying cry online.
"Bring your tent and lawn chair and join the fight for SC's economy," Quirk-Garvan wrote on Sanfordville's Twitter profile.
About 50 people came. Traditional media took notice.
"Five media outlets have stopped by," Quirk-Garvan "tweeted," the term used for updating his Twitter feed, less than an hour after the rally started.
Participants were excited to see organizers providing their own media coverage.
"It's just another way to get our voice heard," said Austin Jackson, a Columbia native and USC student. "Hopefully, Sanford will take notice and do something."
By late afternoon, more television crews and newspaper reporters had gathered. Quirk-Garvan continued tweeting. He used his iPhone to photograph S.C. political figures who stopped by, including former Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges and state Sens. Vincent Sheheen, D- Kershaw and C. Bradley Hutto D- Orangeburg.
Quirk-Garvan said he chose to cover the rally himself, despite the presence of mainstream media, to reach a wide audience quickly.
"And we wanted to control the message so the mainstream media couldn't put their spin on it," he said.
Kelly also posted photos on Indigo Journal and videos on sharing sites Zannel and YouTube from his cell phone. Read set up an open thread on Indigo Journal so people could comment or share links related to the rally.
Grant said citizen journalism might not be as unbiased a news source as traditional media, but it still has an audience.
"Is it real journalism? I say no," Grant said. "But is it influential? Yes."
Quirk-Garvan continued tweeting after the rally ended. He posted links to stories from news outlets and thanked the local political blogs for their coverage.
Indigo Journal also, posted news excerpts and added commentary.
The next day, Quirk-Garvan made sure to thank Kelly and Read for their work in a fitting way.
By tweeting.
