Next Time at the G-20

One thing you notice right away when you get anywhere near things like the G-20 is how like starving fish the "media" are- if you stand at a slight distance from a gathering or assembled crowd you can just watch the cameras and humans carrying notebooks flock from thing to thing -- the black bloc floats down the hill with their flags and drama and the press corp rush over to surround them, billy raises his voice two decibels and cameras appear like magic, some people over by the fountain hit the ground, because someone has arrived with a box of donuts and laid them down-- and 22 cameras are fixed on the backs of their heads before they can even reach for jelly or plain.

It sort of makes me sick but I'm not sure why, is it because I think we could really use those bodies in a more participatory way, is it because they are there reporting on essentially nothing? Is it because we all becoming voyuers? I admit it occurred to me at the G-20 to whip out a notebook and start taking notes girl in white face paint wearing sticker that reads, these tears are real-- three smiling students are using a detached bumper as a sort of performace tool walking around as if they are a car, or as if it will protect them from the police, there are at least a dozen young male camera teams with very fancy equipment clearly on loan from the media studies departments, great age range here but almost completely white-- I didn't know what else to do! It was a kind of restlessness or anxiety- I wanted a reason to be there because it wasn't clear what I was supposed to be doing. Is the presence of my body enough of a reason? I know the value of reporting a scene like that, in this case there were commercial crews there but often there are not and the story just doesn't get told without the "citizen journalists".

But what is a citizen journalist and how involved can citizen journalists be? I mean whats to stop a citizen journalist from shouting now and then, jumping in a drum circle, participating? Are they supposed to stand just outside and observe like professional journalists? I'm on the fence here but I do wish that some of those people would put down their cameras and get involved-- say to themselves, you know what there are enough cameras here, I am going to be a participant today, that is a service I can provide too.

The truth is most people don't go to rallies or parades, public "protest" barely exists in this country so its good that people show up in any capacity, or is it?
What if at the next g-20 meeting we organize silent invisible actions only, send no one to the city where its held. May the vaccuum  unnerve them.