Francisco De Jesus

Occupy Wall Street: Support Begins to Decline

Occupy Wall Street is moving its cause across campuses throughout the country, as organizers hope to garner support from college students for the better treatment of the 99%.  However, students are not jumping on the bandwagon that quickly.

For instance, many students from St. Peter’s College are not joining protests because of the recent outbreaks of violence between both protesters and law enforcement.  The most recent breakout occurring at UC Davis, where a group of students were violently pepper sprayed in what appeared to be a peaceful protest.

With this, only 45% percent of people, according to Public Policy Polling, now oppose OWS, with many believing that people are joining because it’s a passing fad, and not being aware of the struggles ahead, whereas 33% still support it, believing that people should still protest as is their right according to the first amendment of the constitution.  Whatever the case, these signs may be showing the beginning of waning support for the OWS movement.  

Recently, the Occupy Wall Street movement have recently began to take to college campuses, perhaps in hopes of gaining support from young students who believe in better treatment of low-income individuals, the 99%.  However, the latest rally at the University of California did not show that whatsoever.  Instead, it showed the cruelty police officers are taking towards men and women in what is supposed to be a non-violent civil protest.  In a video taken by a protestor’s cell phone, a police officer is shown pepper spraying protestors who refused to remove themselves from where they were sitting.  While some law enforcement officials have refer to this action as “a fairly standard police procedure” many are finding the officer’s actions to be both chilling and appalling.  As for me, in terms of siding with either the actions of the police or the reactions of the protestors, I’ll stick with the latter than the former.  Maybe I can understand if the protesters were to become violent, which would force officers to protect the students at the campus by detaining them, but for an officer to have to severely blind several people, who did nothing more than sit in one place, not hurting anyone in the process, and to be assaulted the way they were, I’m not surprised over the fact that UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi is forming a task force to investigate the actions of the police.  Currently, I’m in the process of working on a news segment that investigates Occupy Wall Street slowly coming into campus grounds, and with all do respect to the cause these young men and women are attempting, if these protests means that potential students will be harmed, then I sincerely hope that none of this ever reaches the small community of St. Peter’s College, the school I currently attend, or any other college or university for that matter, because if it does, we may see a lot more videos than just this one from California.

In my Video Journalism Class, students we’re assigned to make a How-to Guide, giving advice to viewers on a variety of different subjects.  Some students did guides such as managing a budget, making a cake, applying make-up, or even mixing a martini.  For me, I wanted to create a film that not only pertains to my interests, but something that would interest the audience.  Through this, I not only show off my personality, but also get viewers interested within the first few seconds and wanting more without them thinking, “Is this guy crazy?”  Then, like tons of bricks, it hit me; I could make a How-to Guide on Comic-Con!  I mean, what’s better for people to be intrigued by than a bunch of people dressing up like their favorite cartoon characters and acting like complete maniacs?   So, after filming tons of footage, constant editing, and back and forth critiques my inspiration has come to fruition.  Now, I show you six simple steps that will make one’s trip at Comic-Con, or any convention in general, a hell of a lot easier in terms of money, food, and preparation.  Don’t take my word for it; see it for yourself.  Here is my How-to Guide, entitled “New York Comic-Con; A Survival Guide for Nerds.”

Below are links to my classmates’ How-To Guides.  Take a look!

Quiana Porter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kf9nUFplVEU#!

Phylecia Palmer

http://vimeo.com/32020537

Dylan Smith

http://vimeo.com/31932749

Myrvancia Estimable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OemXr6_ZIeY

Chelci Bidos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=maXgDo29-6w

Corey Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxvgNZmbRLw&feature=player_embedded

Harley Cabrera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GUxC8-q7hiI

Natalie Chavez

Eric Soimes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9curkgjpKyI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fneed2watch.tumblr.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

Dale Tyus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uODSDcwiZ_I&feature=player_embedded

So our Video Journalism class were assigned to find a video from an accredited news site and critique it in terms of editing; what we thought was good, and what we believed could of been done better.  For me, I found a video from CNN’s website.  In a segment from American Morning, it involved the former secretary of state to the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice.  Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, she, then-president George W. Bush, and a number of other members of the Bush administration thought that they had been poisoned during a trip to Shanghai.  Former vice-president Dick Cheney had explained to them that White House security detected high levels of poison that could of possibly killed them.  Fortunately, tests received 24 hours later revealed that Bush, Rice, and the rest of the administration were negative for anything hazardous in their bodies.

In regards to the filming perspective of the segment, I believed that they did an good job.  They showed a balance of interviews, photography and filming.  What impressed me the most was the fact that the footage they used was during Bush’s trip to Shanghai, establishing viewers the location in which the panic had began.  As far as anything that could of been different, I would of like to see photos of them actually finding out that they were potentially poisoned in order to visually see their actual emotional response.  Also, when the newswoman talked about how the testing proved that they were clean, the editors could of shown an actual lab doing test as potential B-roll.  At the same time, however, it is understandable that the editors did not do this because it would break continuity with the rest of the footage.