Custom «Occupy Wall Street» Essay Paper Sample

The Occupy Wall Street movement is one of the largest social phenomena that is now popular in the American society and media. The movement has been formed to reduce the growing economic inequality between the haves and have-nots and influence irresponsible behavior of Wall Street executives and avoid possible negative effects they have on the economy. The protests have taken place at several media companies ranging from TVs, radios, newspapers to on-line magazines. One newspaper which has been on the forefront is the New York Times. Its reporters have done an excellent job in highlighting not only the issues but the structure and means applied by demonstrators. Brisbane Arthur in his article “Who Is Occupy Wall Street?” dated November 2011 tackles the issue of what the movement represents and how the media has portrayed the issue (Brisbane, 2011). He concludes that most newspapers have either taken too long to highlight the important issues or they have brushed off the movement simply because they didn’t understand it.

Brisbane asserts that The New York Times has a responsibility to look at the issues form both a micro and macro perspective and to be fair and unbiased in their coverage. This is visible in future articles which have highlighted several aspects of the movement including police brutality and racial discrimination based on color or religion. There are other papers which have tried to be similarly unbiased and comprehensive in their coverage of the issue. Devereaux (2012), for instance, highlights the issue of police brutality as well in one of his articles “Occupy Wall Street Joins Communities in Call For NYPD Commissioner to Quit” published by the Guardian.