Skip to content

Category: Creative Commons

Any Journalist Can Become A Media Troll, Even ‘Neutral’ JournalistsA citizen journalist hangs on a light pole to get a better view of a protest as he films on a smartphone.
Journalists can't endanger movements then expect to be welcomed by protesters. (Photo: Seattle Women's March 2018, Cindy Shebley / Flickr, Creative Commons license)
September 25, 2020
Kit
Leave a Comment

Any Journalist Can Become A Media Troll, Even ‘Neutral’ Journalists

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

The First Amendment doesn’t grant you the right to film people’s faces or put protesters at risk without facing social consequences.

Recently, I’ve watched protesters turn increasingly hostile against some media, especially livestreamers. Even though I’m a journalist, I find myself agreeing with protesters that streamers can put them at risk.

Any journalist, even well meaning ones, can become a media troll if they endanger movements. And right now, as we face off with ascendant fascism, the potential risks to activists are very high.

Read moreAny Journalist Can Become A Media Troll, Even ‘Neutral’ Journalists
Reminder: It’s Against The Law To Fire Austin’s Police ChiefPhoto: Austin Police guard the brick facade of APD headquarters as activists raise their fists during a Black Lives Matter protest.
It's against the law to fire Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, further proving that the police are unaccountable. (Photo: Unsplash / Charles Fair, public domain)
July 30, 2020
Kit
Leave a Comment

Reminder: It’s Against The Law To Fire Austin’s Police Chief

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, and Journalism

Did you know it’s literally against the law to fire Austin’s chief of police?

I found myself tweeting this fact over and over again, each time some new fresh horror surfaced from Austin’s police force. So I thought I should write something too.

It would be an extraordinary fact at any time, but it seems worth repeating at this moment when so many people are demanding accountability from our nation’s police. One of the key forms of accountability under capitalism, firing a bad worker, is actually off limits.

Read moreReminder: It’s Against The Law To Fire Austin’s Police Chief
Beyond The Concrete Milkshake: Tactics For Defeating Media Trolls & Grifters (Zine)Photo: A Black person with long curly hair shouts into a bullhorn at a counter-protest to a fascist event in Washington, D.C.
Noise can be a powerful tactic for shutting down media trolls. But it's not foolproof. (Photo: Protest against Unite the Right 2 in Washington, D.C. 2018, Melany Rochester, Public Domain, Unsplash)
June 22, 2020
Kit
Leave a Comment

Beyond The Concrete Milkshake: Tactics For Defeating Media Trolls & Grifters (Zine)

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Zines

A free zine by Kit O’Connell with nonviolent tactics for protecting your movement from media trolls and grifters that seek to harm activists.

During the Occupy movement, the smartphone allowed anyone to broadcast live or instantly report on protests or police action using social media. Some of these citizen journalists started to bring in donations from their viewers, usually just enough to keep them supplied with Megabus tickets to the next protest. Most of them either broadly supported the movement, or subscribed to “journalistic neutrality.”

Then, some of them figured out you can make way more money working for the dark side. So they tucked their beanie caps down a little lower and got to work making the Left look bad. A trickle of donations turned into a flood of money.

Dishonestly edit a video, and you could land a job with Infowars. Get roughed up while harassing antifascists, and you earn a 6-figure paycheck. All you have to do is give up a piece of your soul.

Read moreBeyond The Concrete Milkshake: Tactics For Defeating Media Trolls & Grifters (Zine)
Virtual Gonzo Zine Library, Spring 2020: Resistance Under A PandemicA portrait of Kit posed against a stone wall, his brown hair blowing in his face as he reads "Our Grief Is A Starting Point In The Fight Against Fascism," a zine by Cindy Milstein (part of the Virtual Gonzo Zine Library Spring Edition). He's wearing sunglasses and a colorful 70s flower print face mask covering his mouth and nose.
Kit reads "Our Grief Is A Starting Point In The Fight Against Fascism," a zine by Cindy Milstein, and part of the Virtual Gonzo Zine Library Spring Edition. (Mask by JM Stallings. Photo by Kit O'Connell, all rights reserved.)
April 20, 2020
Kit
Leave a Comment

Virtual Gonzo Zine Library, Spring 2020: Resistance Under A Pandemic

Posted in Creative Commons, and Zines

Welcome to the Virtual Gonzo Zine Library. The VGZL is a quarterly zine reading list and miniature zine distro. A few times per year, I curate some of my favorite zines — zines that I think everyone should be reading, including myself.

This is the very first edition. I tried to pick zines which felt topical to this moment of pandemic, and could help inspire, comfort, and give us new perspectives. I selected a mixture of the very practical and the theoretical, but I tried to focus on zines written in an accessible way that wasn’t overly academic.

I’m dividing this edition of the Zine Library into a main selection and bonus content. The main selection is my reading list for the quarter, while the rest are other zines I think you might find interesting.

Read moreVirtual Gonzo Zine Library, Spring 2020: Resistance Under A Pandemic
Activism & Shared Social Media: How Can We Close The ‘Occupy Hole’?An activist waves a yellow and black Occupy Wall Street flag in New York City on March 23, 2012.
An activist waves a yellow and black Occupy Wall Street flag in New York City on March 23, 2012. (Flickr / B.C. Lorio, under a CC NC ND license)
February 17, 2020
Kit
Leave a Comment

Activism & Shared Social Media: How Can We Close The ‘Occupy Hole’?

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I got quoted in an article about Micah White, the self-styled “Occupy Founder” that recently spent time hob-nobbing with the 1% at Davos. In passing, the article covered another issue: the problem of stolen shared social media accounts during the Occupy Wall Street movement.

During the national Occupy movement, it became routine to hear about camps with a stolen Facebook or Twitter account. One person would get into a disagreement with the rest of the social media working group and run off with the whole account.

When this happens with a commercial business, or a nonprofit or any undertaking that’s conventionally organized under capitalism, the owner can prove ownership of the account and get Twitter to give it back. With a leaderless movement like Occupy, you and your comrades are on your own.

Read moreActivism & Shared Social Media: How Can We Close The ‘Occupy Hole’?
Antifascist Days Of Unity Zine Collection (via Oh Shit! What Now?)Photo: A scattering of blank white pages fills the frame.
Kit curated a collection of zines for the Antifascist Days of Unity in October 2019. (Unsplash / Brandi Redd, public domain)
September 30, 2019
Kit
Leave a Comment

Antifascist Days Of Unity Zine Collection (via Oh Shit! What Now?)

Posted in Austin, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Zines

Along with his collective, Oh Shit! What Now? Kit curated a collection of zines for the Antifascist Days of Unity in October 2019.

Read moreAntifascist Days Of Unity Zine Collection (via Oh Shit! What Now?)