A Presentation evaluating our first assignment to cover the Shaker Aamer Protest

1. FREE SHAKER AAMER
PROTEST
Alice, Naomi & Grace

2. Background
•Shaker Aamer Protest
•Wednesday 29th October 2014
• We chose this event as we all
agreed that it was interesting and
we couldn’t make the other events.

3. Pre Protest Research
• http://www.stopwar.org.uk/events/london-save-shaker-aamer-
parliament-square-vigils-2
• https://twitter.com/saveshaker
• http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/6-horrifying-facts-
every-american-should-know-about-guantanamo-bay-
and-ongoing
• http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/
• https://www.lush.co.uk/article/soapbox-save-shaker-aamer

4. Planning Ahead
• We made a Whatsapp group for
communication
• Set up a Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Vine,
and Bambuser
• Organised who brought what equipment
• Set a time and place to meet
• Looked up route and nearest Starbucks
• Practiced embedding on Tumblr

5. On the Day
• We arrived one hour before the protest
was due to start
• We found a Wifi spot (Starbucks)
• We set up live blogging and checked it
worked
• We decided we’d all go to the protest
• We introduced ourselves and helped the
protestors set up

6. Roles & Tasks
• Alice- Bambuser
• Naomi- Audioboom
• Grace-Vine
• We all took photos and we all
interviewed
• We all Tweeted

7. Tools
• Vine
• Instagram
• Bambuser
• Audioboom
• One camera
• Twitter
• One Laptop (mac).

8. Protestors
• Protestors where easy to identify as most where
wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods
• Ray Silk was the Secretary of the Save Shaker Aamer
campaign – http://bambuser.com/v/5036777
• He gave us a lot of information, including other
contacts such as Noel Hamel.
• Other Protesters gave their information as:
- Shaun Brown, 49, full time campaigner.
- Val, retired, a ‘recycled teenager’
- Catriona, part-time admin assistant
- John Lloyd, protester for 1 year.
• We filmed as much as possible: interviews, chants and
surroundings
http://audioboom.com/fr
ee_shakeraamer
Protesters introducing
themelves.

9. John Lloyd, no age or
profession given,
campaigning for 1
year.
‘Judy’, 76.
Retired.
Val, retired,
“recycled
teenager”.
Catriona, part time
admin assistant,
no age given.

10. Alice
• Instagram
• bambuser
• twitter
• youtube video
• thinglink
• Text: Pages, poem
• Interviews

11. Naomi
•Twitter – I live tweeted throughout the
protest.
• Audioboom - I was solely responsible for
recording audio.
• Thinglink
• Instagram
•Text: About Shaker, About us, Noel Hamel
interview, ‘Five things you can do’ page.

12. Grace
• Interviews
• Vine
• Instagram
• Other photos
• Bambuser
• Youtube
• Twitter
• Text- about me bio

13. Traffic
• Every social media
posted was
automatically tweeted.
• We also used twitter to
promote out website

14. What worked well?
• Our organisation meant that we got to the event an hour
earlier and could speak to the protesters and help them
set up. This meant they knew our names and were
happier to talk to us.
• The protesters were very happy to talk to us
• We collectively compiled a lot of varied content!
• The website is very visual, which is important online.

15. What didn’t work well?
• We had a lot of trouble making the layout of tumblr how we
wanted it and made another two websites within 48 hours of
the deadline.
• Grace and Alice’s phones ran out of storage, Naomi’s ran out of
battery towards the end of the protest.
• We have a very biased presentation. However, because
Shaker’s case is an issue of human rights, it would be
extremely difficult to find someone to disagree that his
imprisonment is wrong.
Nevertheless, we could have improved this by producing more
about the history of 9/11, which was the motive for Shaker’s
capture.

16. What have we learned?
• We learnt that it is very beneficial to arrive at an event
early
• That we should make sure we have enough storage on
our phones
• We should find out as much information about the person
we are interviewing as possible.
• We should practice ways to get good quality audio in
noisy surroundings.
• To film normally as well as use bambuser, because it is
much easier to edit.

17. What skills do we need to improve on
• Capturing better quality audio on a phone in noisy
surroundings
• How to report from an angle, and use this as a clear
theme for the website
• Being objective in reporting, despite the very emotive
topic.