Reawakening American Democracy on the 15th Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
Thursday, Oct. 8 | 10am
James J. Whalen Center, Room 3302
Join us October 8th for a conversation about one of the most significant movements around class inequality in the 21st century. Event is free and open to students, faculty, staff and the public.
To mark the 15th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College is hosting a panel discussion examining the media legacy of the Occupy movement: both how it was covered in the American press, and how the movement’s own media creators (via novel use of print journalism, film and social media) helped reshape public perceptions around “the 99% versus the 1%,” elevating concerns about wealth inequality, corporate greed, and the role of money in politics into mainstream national discourse. Specifically, we want to highlight the way the concept of inequality — which Occupy first introduced into the country’s media narrative in 2011 — has transformed into one of today’s most consequential economic and political slogans: affordability.
Michael Levitin is Professor and Chair of Journalism at Diablo Valley College in Northern CA. He has a graduate degree from Columbia Journalism School and spent a decade writing for outlets including Newsweek, Time, and Financial Times. He veered sharply into independent media when he became a co-founding editor of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, the flagship newspaper of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, and co-founded Occupy.com, a progressive news site that remains active today. In 2021, on the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, he published Generation Occupy: Reawakening American Democracy, that looked at the movement’s lasting political and cultural impacts on the country (reviewed by Todd Gitlin in the New York Times).
Chris Faraone is an award-winning journalist (AAN, NENPA), a former Boston Phoenix Staff Writer and Editor of DigBoston, and former adjunct professor of communications at Salem State University. He has more than a decade of media experience, has published four books on his own imprint, and has written features for publications ranging from The American Prospect to BuzzFeed. He co-founded the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism––a grassroots media institute that has seeded similar independent incubators in other states––and has also co-written books with legendary hip-hop acts including Cypress Hill and Raekwon.
Individuals with disabilities requiring on-site accommodation for PCIM events should reach out to Marcy Sutherland at msutherland1@ithaca.edu.