Tuesday, January 15, 2008
What is a Protest?
According to the dictionary a protest is “an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid.” Acknowledging this definition, a protest can happen anytime someone discontented with the circumstances around him or her takes the initiative to stand up for what they believe in, to try to make a difference. A protest can start with one person or can consist of thousands, generally the effectiveness comes with numbers but one person can make a difference. For example, the monk that lit himself on fire during the Vietnam War sacrificed his own life to gain attention to his protest. With the help of the mass media his actions were seen worldwide. Most people could not acquire the amount of attention that he did, but it is possible. However, I believe most effective protests have large numbers of supporters. A protest is only as effective as the attention it gains. Numbers seem to be more effective because they garner more attention and can physically have more power. For example, the writers strike in Hollywood would not be effective if just a couple of writers joined, but with mass numbers, they have put many shows at a standstill, caused many people to loose there jobs, caused networks to loose dedicated watchers, and have even postponed major awards shows. Numbers give a protest the means to gain public attention, which leads to attaining more power, which in turn helps generate results. Attention garnered and results are what make a protest successful.
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3 comments:
Hi, this is woantyngsu. I agree with your concept of protesting, and I believe that a greater number of people that protest probably gains greater attention. I also agree with your comment that even one person can protest, and I liked the way that you explained your concept by leaving examples of protests of people in history.
I have two questions to push this conversation farther: what exactly happens when a protest garners a lot of attention? In other words, why does public attention give something more power? Also, how does one go about gaining attention from large numbers of people?
WHen a protest garners a lot of attention there more people are aware of the cause that you support. Whether they agree, disagree or are indifferent towards it; you can be sure that they are aware. To use the writers strike as a futher example, because of the media I am aware of whats going on; now although it doesn't really affect me at all I do know more about both sides of the story. I am indifferent towards the strike but I believe many writers around the world can connect with these writers and because of the media can do what ever the see necessary to further the strike. The public gives something more power because there is more knowledge about the subject that leads to action. To gain the attention of large numbers of people you can do many things. I believe doing something outrageous like the monk who lit himself on fire is a great example. Also, just getting your name out to the public through newspapers, the news, books, speeches etc. can help too. You must be very active in your cause to get people involved. First you must find people who feel the same way as you do, and then as a group you can protest and gain attention of the media and our society.
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