FREE SHAKER AAMER PROTEST

Alice, Naomi & Grace

Background

•Shaker Aamer Protest•Wednesday 29th October 2014 • We chose this event as we all agreed that it was interesting and we couldn’t make the other events.

Pre Protest Research• http://

www.stopwar.org.uk/events/london-save-shaker-aamer-parliament-square-vigils-2

• https://twitter.com/saveshaker

• http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/6-horrifying-facts-every-american-should-know-about-guantanamo-bay-and-ongoing

• http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/

• https://www.lush.co.uk/article/soapbox-save-shaker-aamer

Planning Ahead

• We made a Whatsapp group for communication

• Set up a Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and Bambuser

• Organised who brought what equipment • Set a time and place to meet • Looked up route and nearest Starbucks • Practiced embedding on Tumblr

On the Day

• We arrived one hour before the protest was due to start

• We found a Wifi spot (Starbucks) • We set up live blogging and checked it worked

• We decided we’d all go to the protest • We introduced ourselves and helped the protestors set up

Roles & Tasks

• Alice- Bambuser • Naomi- Audioboom • Grace-Vine • We all took photos and we all interviewed

• We all Tweeted

Tools • Vine• Instagram• Bambuser• Audioboom• One camera • Twitter• One Laptop (mac).

Protestors • Protestors where easy to identify as most where

wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods

• Ray Silk was the Secretary of the Save Shaker Aamer campaign – http://bambuser.com/v/5036777

• He gave us a lot of information, including other contacts such as Noel Hamel.

• Other Protesters gave their information as:

- Shaun Brown, 49, full time campaigner.

- Val, retired, a ‘recycled teenager’

- Catriona, part-time admin assistant

- John Lloyd, protester for 1 year.

• We filmed as much as possible: interviews, chants and surroundings

http://audioboom.com/free_shakeraamerProtesters introducing themelves.

John Lloyd, no age or profession given, campaigning for 1

year.

‘Judy’, 76. Retired.

Val, retired, “recycled teenager”.

Catriona, part time admin assistant,

no age given.

Alice• Instagram• bambuser• twitter• youtube video• thinglink• Text: Pages, poem• Interviews

Naomi

• Twitter – I live tweeted throughout the protest.

• Audioboom - I was solely responsible for recording audio.

• Thinglink• Instagram• Text: About Shaker, About us, Noel Hamel interview, ‘Five things you can do’ page.

Grace• Interviews• Vine• Instagram• Other photos• Bambuser• Youtube• Twitter• Text- about me bio

Traffic• Every social media

posted was automatically tweeted.

• We also used twitter to promote out website

What worked well?• Our organisation meant that we got to the event an hour

earlier and could speak to the protesters and help them set up. This meant they knew our names and were happier to talk to us.

• The protesters were very happy to talk to us• We collectively compiled a lot of varied content!• The website is very visual, which is important online.

What didn’t work well? • We had a lot of trouble making the layout of tumblr how we

wanted it and made another two websites within 48 hours of the deadline.

• Grace and Alice’s phones ran out of storage, Naomi’s ran out of battery towards the end of the protest.

• We have a very biased presentation. However, because Shaker’s case is an issue of human rights, it would be extremely difficult to find someone to disagree that his imprisonment is wrong.

Nevertheless, we could have improved this by producing more about the history of 9/11, which was the motive for Shaker’s capture.

What have we learned?• We learnt that it is very beneficial to arrive at an event

early• That we should make sure we have enough storage on

our phones• We should find out as much information about the person

we are interviewing as possible.• We should practice ways to get good quality audio in

noisy surroundings.• To film normally as well as use bambuser, because it is

much easier to edit.

What skills do we need to improve on• Capturing better quality audio on a phone in noisy

surroundings• How to report from an angle, and use this as a clear

theme for the website• Being objective in reporting, despite the very emotive

topic.