2011 was unquestionably the year of protests. From the Arab Spring to the infamous rioters across the UK the social media appears in hindsight to have rebelled every day.
In April came Bristol’s turn with the unrest against a newly built Tesco Express store in Stokes Croft. Amid fear from reports that the store was to be petrol bombed by squatters living across the screet, the police came in to and clashed with protesters. According to one blogger, “the news reports […] were mostly late to the party – they were written about 10am this morning, but those of us using Twitter were on top of the real breaking news.”
Another tweeper, @marc_in_london took to storify to tell what he described as the “balanced(ish) view of what happened last night (April 21th) in Bristol, since mainstream media decided it wasn’t worth any coverage.” At the same time @mr_hopkinson (David Hopkinson) tweeted a video with a protester saying his head injury was due to “democracy in action,” while @jennieloveday (Jennie A.) argued “Wow, amazing that Twitter is actually a better news source than the BBC. It’s all so selective and biased! #stokescroft.”
With this entire buzz generated once again on Twitter, the story did make the headlines on national newspapers including The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times. The story was also reported by the BBC who also ran a detailed piece.
However, with story angles in favour of the police as some of the protesters claimed, bloggers took once again to their individual spaces online to explain their version of events. A renowned blogger wrote:
“Dear News Networks, I am aware you are reading my blog. I have been contacted for comment by the BBC, the Guardian and SKY news. My formal comment is below in bold. When you cover last night’s riots that completely surrounded my home tonight please balance your report with the circumstances.[…]I was dismayed by the council and police reaction to a sustained peaceful protest that has existed against Tesco for over two years.”
Below is a Youtube video from the protest by bristolife.
