Blog Post 9

Since evasion is usually the first overarching strategy to which institutions usually resort, it is probably the most common. It is the first instinct in any situation to pretend like something undesired is not happening, so for institutions, they will not acknowledge the social movement for as long as possible out of fear that recognizing the legitimacy of the movement will jeopardize the legitimacy of their institution. Institutions the media and invisibility within institutions in order to evade social movements.

Most media outlets are corporate or operating under government license, so there is a minuscule need by media to cover a social movement when it is still small. The book summarizes well when it says that, "most movements need the media, the media seldom need the social movement." Lots of biased attention goes towards interviews of corporate political analysts and things that may be considered unimportant (Local zoo gets new elephant, Justin Bieber charged with DUI).

Within institutions, there is the power to deliberately ignore the social movement and activists. Social movements may be denied certain permits and recognition, which takes away the legitimacy of the movement in the eyes of the public. Institutional leaders avoid and choose not to talk to members of social movements in interviews and conferences, and often send them to lower committees and conferences that can delay the movement within the institution.

Recently, many protests have erupted in Venezuela and Ukraine that are due to citizen anger with corrupt governments. There are problems in these countries that are entirely difficult to fix, and people die every day from the poverty and corruption, as well as the current protests. It is estimated that anywhere from 60-100 people have died only from the protests in each respective country. American news outlets have given a decent amount of coverage to both country's situations in the beginning of these riots and protests, but after a few days, there was a Malaysian plane that went down in the Indian ocean that is still missing. Newspapers, news specials like 60 Minutes, local broadcasts, and even non-news related media have covered the Malaysian plane crash from every angle possible. The crash has people in the US eagerly waiting for new information, which means that the media chose to cover this mysterious event over the protests and corruption in Ukraine and Venezuela. This is a situation where institutions have chosen to evade the movements in Ukraine and Venezuela by using the media to cover something else that can be framed as more important, and more interesting.