Media Bits and Bytes – Your All Good News Edition (we love you)

Social media made it happen; Federal workers encrypt; New online resources; Techies hit the bricks on Pi Day; CNN on the barricades; Daily Show-ization of cable news

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From Protests to 'Pussy Hats,' Trump Resistance Brews Online

By Barbara Ortutay
February 13, 2017
Albany Times-Union

In 1969, activists planned massive marches around the U.S. to protest the war in Vietnam. The protests, called the Moratorium, drew millions of people around the world. But "it took months, a lot of effort, a national office of the organization to get it off the ground," says Christopher Huff, a Beacon College professor focused on social movements of the 1960s. "The women's march was achieved at a much larger scale at a fraction of the time."
This immediacy is both an asset and a disadvantage. While online networks help people rally quickly around a cause, Huff says, they don't necessarily help people grasp the "long-term effort" required to sustain a movement.

Federal Workers Turn to Encryption to Thwart Trump

By Andrew Restuccia, Marianne LeVine and Nahal Toosi
February 2, 2017
Politico

Federal employees worried that President Donald Trump will gut their agencies are creating new email addresses, signing up for encrypted messaging apps and looking for other, protected ways to push back against the new administration’s agenda.
Whether inside the Environmental Protection Agency, within the Foreign Service, on the edges of the Labor Department or beyond, employees are using new technology as well as more old-fashioned approaches — such as private face-to-face meetings — to organize letters, talk strategy, or contact media outlets and other groups to express their dissent.
The goal is to get their message across while not violating any rules covering workplace communications, which can be monitored by the government and could potentially get them fired.
 

How Online Resources are Fueling the Trump Resistance

by Selena Larson  
February 10, 2017
CNN

Resources like the Indivisible Guide, 5 Calls, and Swing Left have sprung up since Trump's election to promote civic engagement with simple, step-by-step instructions on what people can try to do to actually affect change.
It's not the first time we've seen technology play a role in getting people politically motivated. President Barack Obama leveraged tech outreach in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. Tea Party activists hosted workshops at the 2012 Republican National Convention to teach supporters how to use social media tools as it became clear they were essential for political activism.

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Tech Workers to Protest Trump on Pi Day

By Jessica Guynn
February 6, 2017
USA TODAY

More than 1,200 Silicon Valley technology workers in the Bay Area are planning to walk off the job on March 14, turning a special day for math geeks into a protest against President Trump.
Among those taking part in the Pi day protest put on by Tech Stands Up To Trump are employees from Facebook, Apple and Google. Similar anti-Trump rallies are being organized in Los Angeles and Austin, pointing to growing grassroots activism among the rank-and-file in the tech industry.

PR Flacks May Be the Media’s Secret Weapon Against Trump

By David Uberti
February 9, 2017
Columbia Journalism Review

Look past CNN’s posse of pundits for a moment, and its Real News™ branding carries weight. Nevertheless, the font of centrist journalism has become a favorite punching bag for the Trump administration and its right-wing media machine, a universal stand-in for the “crooked media.” And an onslaught this week pushed the network’s PR shop into the fray, drawing new attention to the role media brand enforcers might play in the press’s high-profile rhetorical battle with the Brander-in-Chief.
 

Cable News is Channeling The Daily Show to Cover the Trump Era

By Caroline Framke
February 7, 2017
Vox

Historically, the main difference between cable news and The Daily Show has been that the latter lives on Comedy Central, and accordingly, all its stories are delivered by comedians who are allowed — and encouraged — to lace the facts with an undercurrent of, “Can you believe this shit?” For so long, The Daily Show was essentially cable news’s unrestrained id, free to openly mock and gawk at whatever it finds ridiculous.
But now we’re seeing more and more of that approach on cable, and it’s easy to understand why: The prospect — and then reality — of President Donald Trump essentially put the 24-hour new cycle on an aggressive round of steroids. Trump’s willingness to dodge and warp the truth, antagonize the press, and laugh in the face of accepted norms has significantly changed the game. So maybe it’s fitting that cable news has started mimicking The Daily Show rather than the other way around.