In this class we looked at the similarities and differences in how Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are structured; how they burst onto the American political scene; the role of mainstream media in affecting their growth; and the challenges that come with open and networked political movements.

1. DPI-665
Politics of the Internet
Mar 19, 2012
Open/Networked Political
Movements: The Tea Party and
Occupy Wall Street
Strengths and Weaknesses
Micah L. Sifry
Audio: http://bit.ly/H3NLXH
CC-BY-NC-SA

2. Topics for discussion
• In structural terms, how are the Tea
Party and Occupy Wall Street similar?
• How do they differ?
• How has the Internet enabled these
movements?
• What are their strengths and
weaknesses?

3. Beginnings
• Pre-existing networking • Pre-existing networking
(#tcot, Freedom Works) (Wisconsin, NYABC)
• Rick Santelli CNBC • Adbusters “call to
“rant” Occupy Wall St”
• Local meetings --> local • Local rally becomes a
rallies “general assembly”
• Local coordinators start • Sept 17 occupation at
to network Zuccotti
• Fox coverage starts • First “pepper spray”
(pre-April 15) incident

4. Growth phase
• Aug 2009 town halls • Labor/community
• Sept 12 Glenn Beck march on Oct 5,
DC rally 2011 in NYC
• Movement growth • Occupations spread
peaks to hundreds of cities
• Shift to GOP primary in October
challenges in 2010 • Crackdown and
and 2012 pres dispersion by end of
primary November
• Now what??

5. Tea Party in the news
• Fox News
anticipates the
news, helping build
support for the first
April 15, 2009
rallies (Source:
Skocpol and
Williamson)

6. Tea Party in the news (cont.)
• The same was
true for July 4
and August
recess Tea
Party events
(Source:
Williamson,
Skocpol and
Coggin)

7. Occupy in the news
• Early
coverage was
self-
generated
• Police
clashes were
central

8. OWS: Twitter vs newspapers

9. Occupy vs Tea Party (news)
• Tea Party boosted
by early coverage
from Fox News

10. Occupy growth on Facebook
• Local Occupies
rapidly multiply via
Facebook
• Initial burst of
affiliation levels off

11. Viral saturation

12. Role of networking
• Tea Party Patriots • Occupy relied more
relied more on Ning heavily on Twitter,
group, weekly calls Facebook, YouTube
• Local TP Meetups • Google Groups
• #tcot • Livestreamers

13. #tcot
• As of July
2009, Top
Conservatives
on Twitter were
a vibrant
interconnected
community

14. Occupy Livestreams

15. TPP on Ning
• 92,000 active
members

16. TPP on Facebook
• 855,000 likes, but
not that many
people “talking
about” TPP as of
now.

17. Freedom Connector
• 171,000 active
participants; still
growing.
• More varied base,
includes
evangelicals, not
just TP

18. The role of e-groups
• FreedomWorks
email list goes out to
more than 1 million
members
• Relationship
between Occupy
and MoveOn not as
close

19. NYCGA Structure

20. NYCGA Working groups

21. OWS on Facebook

22. What do they have in
common?
• Anyone can start a • Confusion as to
chapter
goals
• No one leader giving
orders • “Bad apple” problem
• Loose coordination of hard to control
chapters
• Competition of tactics
• Dispersion of
information by social
media

23. How do they differ?
• Several top-down • No top-down list
hubs/lists (Freedom • Wary of ties to
Works, TPP list) Democratic groups,
• Close ties to billionaires
national GOP • Includes civil
groups, billionaires disobedience
• Mostly law-abiding

24. Core elements of a movement:
How well do they do?
• Sustained, organized public effort
making collective claims on target
audiences (“a campaign”)
• A repertoire of shared political actions
• Unity, numbers and commitment