The Battle in Seattle

1) The authors see that the most significant aspect of the events in the "Battle in Seattle" is the fact that it took a violent protest for it to be covered in the media. There were other cases in which nonviolent protestors were met with violence from the police, yet these were not covered by the media. 

2) The data used to make their argument was that media coverage skyrocketed for stories covering violent protests with dramatic images. On NBC, images showing the violence as a juxtaposition of the corruption of the WTO further fueled the protestors. After analyzing television coverage on November 30th, which was the first day of the protests, there seems to be a role of violence in social protest. Combined coverage times on the major news networks increased by 26% from Monday and the events in Seattle became the lead story. After the violent protests, the WTO became a heavily covered media story because of its large implications regarding violence in general. 

3) Our group thinks this data and evidence is effective because it shows that without violent protest, media coverage is virtually nonexistent because there is nothing attention-grabbing for the media to sell. If someone is violently protesting something, the audience knows they care about this issue. By putting violent images in connection with controversial issues with the WTO, the issues became more dramatic in the minds of the audience. 

4) The main takeaway is that violence is essentially effective in creating a media response and the public screen is what sends the message. Media is the most effective way to get your protest heard and gain a larger audience. The public sphere was adequate for nonviolent protest, but because media will not cover anything that is not attention-grabbing, the protest will only be successful if it is gaining screen time on the news that is dramatic. 

5) We agree with these conclusions because based on the author's evidence, their point is clear. There needs to be violence to get the message out, even if the violence detracts from the actual message.