shadows-streets-book

1 A Day Without an Immigrant: Social Movements andthe Media EcologyThe image in figure 1.1 depicts the streets of downtown Los Angeles onMay 1, 2006. This scene was mirrored in cities across the country as millionsof new immigrants, their families, and their allies joined the largestprotest in U.S. history. 1 They left their homes, schools, and workplaces,gathered for rallies and mass marches, and took part in an economicboycott for immigrant rights. This chapter explores the May Day 2006mobilization, known as A Day Without an Immigrant, through the lens ofthe changing media ecology. 2Our media are in the midst of rapid transformation. On the one hand,mass media companies continue to consolidate, more and more journalistsare losing their jobs to corporate downsizing, and long-form, investigativejournalism is steadily being replaced by less costly recycled press releasesand entertainment news. 3 Public broadcasters remain one of the mosttrusted information sources, but their funding is under attack. As audiencesfragment across an infinite-channel universe, the agenda-setting power ofeven the largest media outlets wanes. On the other hand, regional consolidationhas produced new channels that speak from the former peripheries.For example, Latin American media firms now reach across the UnitedStates, and Spanish-language print and broadcast media draw larger audiencesand wield more influence than ever before. 4 At the same time, widespread(though still unequal) access to personal computers, broadbandInternet, and mobile telephony, as well as the mass adoption of socialmedia, have in some ways democratized the media ecology even as theyincrease our exposure to new forms of state and corporate surveillance.Social movements, which have always struggled to make theirvoices heard across all available platforms, are taking advantage of thesechanges. The immigrant rights movement in the United States faces mostly