Video Actvism

Video activism has become a channel for protesters and members of political groups to be able to film evidence supporting their views and expose it to the world with the use of portable video recording devices and common upload websites such as you tube. With portable video recording devices becoming a cheaper modern day piece of equipment and being used as a feature in many of today’s gadgets such as phones it seems common for people to use them to film and expose what they regard as wrong doing and illegal. Green peace, animal protection to cruelty groups, amnesty international, whale protection organizations are all groups that have been known to use video activism in some sense as an attempt to get a cross a message to a wider audience. Animal cruelty groups in particular have been known to go undercover at animal testing facilities and record the events and the testing going on inside, with quit disturbing footage it is clear that the view is intended to shock and anger its viewers into feeling the same way as the group about the issue or just to open their eyes about things they may choose to turn away from. Green peace and amnesty international take a more professional approach to video activism by commissioning specialist films and organizing film festivals that specialize in political short films.



Video activism has also been used to keep the police force in line, a force that through history has been known to act racist, use their power unfairly and commit police brutality finds themselves defenseless against video evidence one of the most popular and early cases of video activism would be the famous case of Rodney King. During the G20 summit that took place in London during 2009 video activism was taken into effect by one protester who mange to capture on tape the killing of one bystander by a policeman during an act of police brutality. This incident has changed the way police react in riot situations and the video evidence will assure the police force won’t make the same mistake again, proving in this case video activism to be beneficial.



I believe that video activism allows people to portray their views to a mass audience through film or video evidence, an audience which may usually turn away to a particular social or political issue will find themselves taking in the contents of a film, in some sense the footage can’t lie (unless it was set up which in turn would usually not have any real reaction from media or an audience) for instance at the G20 summit police may have faced the situation with a chance to explain their actions however the use of video activism did not give them a leg to stand on. Video activism in theory is propaganda with the intentions of the film being made to make an audience feel a certain way however I think film is one of the strongest tools for political and social groups to use to view their opinions and get across a message.

“A video camera has become one of those objects you pack for a protest.”
~Tish Stringer, Video Activist