Time Magazine Names The Protester as Person of the Year
Posted: Thursday Dec 15, 2011


Time Magazine has named The Protester as Person of the Year for 2011. During a tumultuous year that has seen worldwide occupations and revolutions promoting the ideals of democracy and freedom in places both familiar and unfamiliar with a democratic state, the protester has assumed a position of power through a collective voice, ushering in an era of change that has rocked the quiet stability of dictatorships and financial corruption. This year of protests, ignited by one man in Tunisia and seen rumbling throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the United States, and finally Russia, has transformed the face of democracy by returning power to the people and expressing the dissatisfaction of the 99% (to borrow a phrase from the Occupy Wall Street movements across the US). Technology and social media have helped to spur along these movements, themselves sparking media-based revolutions that have allowed protesters to organize more effectively and communicate with a world that followed the action right as it happened; information was spread not just by journalists or reporters, but by the protesters themselves, who tweeted and uploaded pictures and videos in order to alert the rest of the world to the unraveling of citizen compliancy in face of oppressive or corrupt measures. The Protesters began a dialogue in 2011, and hopefully the conversation keeps going throughout 2012.

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