In a Morning Media Menu interview this morning, literary blogger Edward Champion shared stories from the Occupy Wall Street eviction last week and offered resources for writers, journalists and readers looking to follow the evolving story.
Champion also talked about how coverage of the controversial University of California, Davis pepper spray incident spread online–including his phone call to the officer videotaped spraying students.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “Being there in a physical capacity is very important. If you are in a city where an Occupy movement is happening, the best thing to do is simply go down there … The #OWS hashtag is always dependable, that’s always a good place to find stories. If you’re trying to corroborate something on YouTube if you have a name, that’s helpful. If you have a verb: pepper spray, occupy, these are helpful things to look for.”
He concluded: ” You figure and filter by who is reliable. You check someone’s Twitter feed and see if they are posting real information (as opposed to flummery). Generally if they are replying and having a Twitter conversation with people from Mother Jones, Alternet, Democracy Now, you can generally suss out who are the people trying to be helpful in their reporting rather than just polluting the stream.”