Summary: The First Occupy Movement

The first Occupy movement began in the Wall Street financial district on September 17th 2011. The following three weeks saw protesters occupy areas in 951 cities throughout 82 countries (Deluca et al., 2012). While the first Occupy camp was set up in Zuccotti Park (Occupy Wall Street), the idea of using social media to catalyze public protest arose earlier that year with the Arab Spring movement (Brownlee, 2013). In the Middle East, the oppressed citizenry took to the streets to protest a lack of democracy, political corruption, and general government mismanagement. The causes of the Occupy movement were of course very different, for they centered on a global problem, as opposed to a regional problem, focusing on the unequal distribution

Middle-aged males, who had been in blue-collar positions, felt the effects of the crisis and subsequent recession the hardest (Calhoun, 2013). Many were left jobless, increasing their biographical availability to protest. With free time and ample reason to be frustrated, the costs for these individuals to become involved and protest decreased. Remarkably, this demographic only accounted for 15 % of the protesters (Calhoun, 2013). A significant portion of working people (many of whom were white, educated workers) supported the Occupy movement by joining the protests after their day’s work. Through the power of the internet, it was possible for these protesters to pick a location, meet up at the right time, and organize their lives so they could actively support the

In the case of Occupy, there was no formal organization to try to lower the costs of joining the movement; and without a fixed goal it was hard to see a tangible benefit the protesters would receive. Yet people flooded public spaces to protest. The internet showed everything that was happening; viral videos showed masses of students being pepper sprayed. However, the costs of joining the movement stayed the same (Deluca et al., 2012). Rather than examining the costs the movement, focused on the preferences in society (McCarthy and Zald, 2003), as the growing case of income inequality had caused people to seek change.

Occupy used the internet to coordinate events and connect the movements globally. Hashtags such as “#Occupy” filled Twitter and slogans like “we are the 99%” were started on Tumblr’s blog page (Deluca et al., 2012). People who saw the movement on internet websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Internet Relay Chat, and Meetup were able to organize themselves without a group or an official leader. This meant movements could start anywhere since higher-up leadership and direction was not