shadows-streets-book

26 Chapter 1While the mass marches were largely organized through broadcast media,especially Spanish-language talk radio, text messages and social networkingsites (SNS) were the key media platforms for the student walkouts thatswept Los Angeles and some other cities during the same time period. 23 Asthe anti-Sensenbrenner mobilizations provided fuel for the fires of the(mostly Anglo, middle-class) blogosphere, walkout organizers enthusiasticallyturned to MySpace and YouTube to circulate information, report ontheir own actions, and urge others to join the movement. At the same time,text messaging (also called SMS, or short messaging service) was used as atool for real-time tactical communication. Student organizers I interviewedmade it clear that both text messaging and MySpace played important butnot decisive roles in the walkouts. 24 Pre-existing networks of students organizedthe walkouts for weeks beforehand by preparing flyers, meeting withstudent organizations, doing the legwork, and spreading the word. Somesaid that text messages and posts to MySpace served not to “ organize ” thewalkouts but to provide real-time confirmation that actions were reallytaking place. For example, one student activist told me about checking herMySpace page during a break between classes. She said that it was when shesaw a photograph posted to her wall from a walkout at another school thatshe realized her own school ’ s walkout was “ really going to happen. ” 25 Thatgave her the courage to gather a group of students, whom she already knewthrough face-to-face organizing, and convince them that it was time to takeaction. 26 Another high school student activist explained:It was organized, there was flyers, there was also people on the Internet, on chat linesand MySpace, people were sending flyers also. So that ’ s also one of the ways that itwas organized. The thing is that students just wanted their voice to be heard. Sincethey can ’ t vote, they ’ re at least trying to affect the vote of others, by saying theiropinion towards H.R. 4437 affecting their schools and their parents or their family. 27This student activist, like many of those I worked with and interviewed,emphasized the pervasive and cross-platform nature of movementmedia practices during the spring of 2006. Staff at community-basedorganizations repeatedly described radio as the most important mediaplatform for mobilizing the immigrant worker base. By contrast, studentactivists often mentioned SNS (specifically MySpace, the most popularSNS at the time) as a key communication tool during the walkouts.A few also mentioned email (especially mailing lists) and blogs, butmost emphasized that organizing took place through a combination of