ABSTRACT
This chapter examines new forms of public relations for contemporary social movements as they appeared on Twitter during the eviction of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) from Zuccotti Park in 2011. The historically unconventional information transmission of Twitter formed a different public relations realm for the movement; one that did not rely on communicating information top-down but rather followed paths between the protesters and their supporters. This chapter explores these public relations paths, both theoretically and empirically. It first explores the relationship between public relations and digital technology, while it later discusses mainstream media and the purported violent image usually attributed to social movements such as OWS. The text touches on the notion of the protest paradigm and how Twitter was used as a PR tool to agitate against the negative or non-existent image the press afforded the movement with. The third part of the chapter reflects on the ways in which OWS specifically chose to shift its public relations strategy into social media storytelling, relying vastly on Twitter to advocate its existence and delegitimize police’s actions. The final section analyses the four micro-narratives that formed the big narrative of the eviction: (1) honoring the First Amendment, (2) use of force, (3) communication failure of authorities, and (4) arrests. By telling the story of the eviction through the micro-narratives presented on Twitter this chapter analyses the ways in which OWS’ eviction day can be seen as a public relations model for the ways in which contemporary social movements can spread information and gather support through Twitter.
