Drowning Out Peaceful Protests
How the reporting of violence might drown out peaceful protests
The 6th of July 2017 was my first trip to Hamburg, Germany. Arriving on a Friday night, looking forward to a weekend in the city, my partner and I quickly realised that our weekend would not be as touristy as we would have liked. It turns out that the G20 Summit of 2017 was being held that same weekend. It is a time when the heads of the states and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union gather to discuss international financial stability. With such events, there were protests and not all are peaceful. We were not allowed to go beyond the train station to our accommodation because the police had blocked the major streets. We were told that anarchists were congregating. I felt anxious imagining unrest and I expected chaos during that weekend. However, while there were indeed some riots in some parts of the city, on Saturday, we witnessed many other organised groups airing out grievances in a nonviolent way. We are only told of the violent side but not of the organised side.
With news of ongoing protests in the United States, I am reminded of that weekend. There are inevitably some events that the news (or lack of news) will block from our view. We will hear of rioting, looting, and burning cars and buildings that we may tend to forget that there are also organised protests happening. They are just not as frequently shown in front of the cameras.
At present, the incentives for peaceful protesters are diluted by incentives of the press, which craves a fast-paced, high-drama cycle to promote sales. Society would be well-served by aligning these incentives, for example, by realising that in a democracy, the news is an essential infrastructure that may fare better outside the marketplace.
How will our collective memory handle prolonged violent protests? As the days go by, it gets harder and harder to distinguish those whose aim is to make themselves heard from those whose primary aim is to promote anarchy or gather loot. With blasts of news of violence, peaceful protests might get drowned out.