Going through shots from the riots and protests in December I came across this one take on the first day when demonstrators attacked a police station in Ano Poli after their march had been repeatedly tear gassed outside the ministry of Macedonia and Thrace in Thessaloniki.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query griots. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query griots. Sort by date Show all posts
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Griots - Greek riots and protests
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Greek protesters occupy National Theatre, Athens
Just minutes after the curtains went up, demonstrators seized the stage of the National Theatre, Athens and read out a prepared statement demanding the immediate release of all those arrested in the recent events following the killing of Greek teenager, Alexis Grigoropulos by police two weeks ago. The protesters also called upon the audience to join them in the streets shouting", Turn off your cell phones, turn on your conscience."
The performance of Roberto Succo by Bernard -Marie Koltes was cancelled in a gesture of solidarity by actors and theatre staff with the young protesters.
In addition a massive protest concert was held yesterday outside the Athens univesity campus where thousands watched 64 groups and singers perform until early hours of Saturday morning.
Tags: protests | World | Occupation | athens | demo | sit-in | 13. Greece | griots | greek riots | national theatre | alexis grigoropoulos
Monday, December 15, 2008
More protests planned for tomorrow and on Thursday in Greece
Tomorrow and on Thursday mass demonstrations have been planned by high school students in Thessaloniki and other Greek cities. This looks like it is set to run and run.
For more info on what is happening check out these links;
- On the Greek Riots
- Indymedia Athens: front
- Indymedia Athens: local news
- Indymedia Athens: newswire
- twitter: #griots
- Infoshop News
- All “Greece” posts on this blog
- Blogs on WordPress with posts tagged: Greece, Greek riots, Athens, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, Kostas Karamanlis
- Updated videos on the Greek riots from OA
- ¡Amor y Resistencia!
- Teacher Dude’s Grill & BBQ (no, seriously)
- 1D4TW on twitter
Saturday, December 20, 2008
And they say bloggers are sloppy!!!!!
Foreign coverage of the events in Greece has been a mixed bag. There have been some very good articles on the causes of the protests, for example the Guardian wrote in depth about the situation (click here) and the BBC's Malcolm Brabant gives a very accurate account of the underlying causes (click here) .
On the other hand I have come across a lot of "remote - control" journalism. The kind where the person has done little more than Google the subject for an hour or so or chatted to some guy in a bar. You know the classic foreign correspondent tactic when abroad and disconnected from the culture. I think this article in the Economist definitely falls into the second category. Sweeping generalisations, lack of context and a blind acceptance of other media sources make for pretty sloppy work.
So, instead I recommend Twitter (#griots hash) which has been a very good source of information and links written by those actually involved or on the scene. Most of it is in Greek but you can translate the page into English by clicking on the button on the right hand side. Also Technorati and Google's blog search can often prove very valuable.
Greek riot police fight to defend Christmas tree
Two weeks on and the anti - government protests sparked off by the killing of 15 year Alexis Grigoropoulos at the hands of a police officer in the Exarchia district of Athens continue unabated. Today riot police went into action to defend the city"s Christmas tree in Syntagma against protesters who pelted officers with rubbish (see pictures here). The previous tree was burnt during rioting last week.
In addition to mass street protests in the capital, 800 high schools and 240 university departments remain under occupation. TV and radio stations, theatres, town halls and other government offices have also been occupied over the last week by young Greeks angry at the death of the teen and the New Democracy government's economic and political record.
Protesters also threw yoghurt and biscuits today at Vasileios Papageorgopoulos, mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece's second city as he greeted shoppers in the central Aristotelos Square.
Tags: Greece | World | athens | griots | greek riots | syntagma sqaure | christmas tree riot
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Greek riots 2008 - Using social media to tell a different story
Yesterday I gave a talk, along with Asteris Masouras on social media and activism for students of the school of journalism at the Aristotelion university of Thessaloniki. The presentation was part of the course, Blogs and the New Media: legal matters and ethics organised by professor Elsa Delagianni. It was a nerve wrecking experience speaking in front of an audience in Greek and I'm sure that I garbled my grammar on more than one occasion. Still, both my and Asteris's presentations on the uses of blogs, Twitter, Delicious and the like were well received.
As promised here is the slide show presentation I used along with a brief summary of my talk in English and a list of the sites mentioned. I will also post the video of the event as soon as it becomes available.
Greek riots 2008 - Using social media to tell a different story
The presentation is divided into three sections:
Finding out what was happening
The internet provided me with invaluable tools to find out about events during the riots and protests that followed the death of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on 6th December 2008. The killing of the teenager by a police officer sparked off a wave of violent responses that last nearly a month.
By using Twitter, blogs, Indymedia Athens, Technorati and Google's Blog Search I was able to find information on what was happening both here in Thessaloniki and across the country. In the beginning these were virtually the only sources of reliable information available as the mainstream media were at a loss to explain what was happening and limited their coverage to long distance shots of burning streets and interviews with self - proclaimed experts who had no direct connection with the events happening in Athens and other cities.
Getting your story out
For most December I went out onto the streets to cover the marches, demonstrations and riots that were taking place daily in Thessaloniki and then going home to publish the pictures I had taken and write article to explain the story behind the images. I used participatory journalism sites sites such as CNN's Ireport, Nowpublic and Guardian weekly to submit stories and also wrote on my blog, put photos on Flickr and added video to Youtube.
As a result within days I was giving interviews to CNN, BBC, Sky news as well as French and Egyptian news outlets. The paradox was that foreign media services half a world away were better informed about what was happening here than their Greek counterparts who literally were just a kilometre or two away from what was happening.
The difference being that reporters in Paris, London and New York had taken advantage of the opportunities that social media sites such as Twitter and blogs offer in getting out a story and decided to interview those directly involved. By contrast Greek TV stations limited themselves to endless footage of burning cars and "analysis" by politicians who were at a loss to understand what was going on and just used that opportunity to peddle their own conspiracy theories. I don't think I saw an interview with anyone under 40 till nearly two weeks after the riots had kicked off.
A personal impressions of what happened
At one point I wrote in my blog that I felt like I had lived six months worth of experiences in six days. The more I look back at my blog entries from that period the more I believe that. December proved to be one of the pivotal moments in my life, a period of intense excitement, mixed in with large does of fear and exhaustion. The routine of going out and photographing, the often violent protests, researching and writing articles as well as trying to fit in my day job as a teacher meant that by the day Christmas came I was on the verge of burning out.
On the other hand I felt I had embarked on a hyper intensive journalism course in which months of tuition were compressed into a matter of days. In addition the huge gulf between what I witnessed and what the mainstream media reported confirmed many of the suspicions I had felt before about the role of TV in creating a consensus about how stories are defined.
I felt that I was in a position to explain the background to what was happening to a non - Greek audience. That what we were seeing was not simply a bunch of hooligans out to cause mayhem just for the hell of it. I wanted to bring to light wider set of causes such as police brutality, political scandals, unemployment and lack of faith in the present system which were fuelling the protests.
For more on using social media in general and the influence it had on the Greek riots check out these links:
A beginner's guide to citizen journalism
Social media - How to get started
Social media and the Greek uprising
As promised here is the slide show presentation I used along with a brief summary of my talk in English and a list of the sites mentioned. I will also post the video of the event as soon as it becomes available.
Griots Presentation
View more OpenOffice presentations from teacherdude.
Greek riots 2008 - Using social media to tell a different story
The presentation is divided into three sections:
Finding out what was happening
The internet provided me with invaluable tools to find out about events during the riots and protests that followed the death of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on 6th December 2008. The killing of the teenager by a police officer sparked off a wave of violent responses that last nearly a month.
By using Twitter, blogs, Indymedia Athens, Technorati and Google's Blog Search I was able to find information on what was happening both here in Thessaloniki and across the country. In the beginning these were virtually the only sources of reliable information available as the mainstream media were at a loss to explain what was happening and limited their coverage to long distance shots of burning streets and interviews with self - proclaimed experts who had no direct connection with the events happening in Athens and other cities.
Getting your story out
For most December I went out onto the streets to cover the marches, demonstrations and riots that were taking place daily in Thessaloniki and then going home to publish the pictures I had taken and write article to explain the story behind the images. I used participatory journalism sites sites such as CNN's Ireport, Nowpublic and Guardian weekly to submit stories and also wrote on my blog, put photos on Flickr and added video to Youtube.
As a result within days I was giving interviews to CNN, BBC, Sky news as well as French and Egyptian news outlets. The paradox was that foreign media services half a world away were better informed about what was happening here than their Greek counterparts who literally were just a kilometre or two away from what was happening.
The difference being that reporters in Paris, London and New York had taken advantage of the opportunities that social media sites such as Twitter and blogs offer in getting out a story and decided to interview those directly involved. By contrast Greek TV stations limited themselves to endless footage of burning cars and "analysis" by politicians who were at a loss to understand what was going on and just used that opportunity to peddle their own conspiracy theories. I don't think I saw an interview with anyone under 40 till nearly two weeks after the riots had kicked off.
A personal impressions of what happened
At one point I wrote in my blog that I felt like I had lived six months worth of experiences in six days. The more I look back at my blog entries from that period the more I believe that. December proved to be one of the pivotal moments in my life, a period of intense excitement, mixed in with large does of fear and exhaustion. The routine of going out and photographing, the often violent protests, researching and writing articles as well as trying to fit in my day job as a teacher meant that by the day Christmas came I was on the verge of burning out.
On the other hand I felt I had embarked on a hyper intensive journalism course in which months of tuition were compressed into a matter of days. In addition the huge gulf between what I witnessed and what the mainstream media reported confirmed many of the suspicions I had felt before about the role of TV in creating a consensus about how stories are defined.
I felt that I was in a position to explain the background to what was happening to a non - Greek audience. That what we were seeing was not simply a bunch of hooligans out to cause mayhem just for the hell of it. I wanted to bring to light wider set of causes such as police brutality, political scandals, unemployment and lack of faith in the present system which were fuelling the protests.
For more on using social media in general and the influence it had on the Greek riots check out these links:
A beginner's guide to citizen journalism
Social media - How to get started
Social media and the Greek uprising
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