Occupy Wall Street as Told By The Internet

#OWS and #occupywallstreet have been some of the hottest leading trends on Twitter these past couple of months. As both support and resentment towards the movement builds, so does the presence and size of “Occupy Wall Street”. What’s been the true story of the movement, and can the internet give us a definitive answer?

Let’s take a look.

We know the movement was started by a Canadian based organization, called Adbusters. A single tweet from the organization, on July 4th, was the official beginning of the movement. From there, it continued to grow and keeps expanding further.

The worldwide movement has had a large assortment of problems when trying to assemble in various cities. In the United States, Occupy Oakland and Occupy Seattle have been the biggest hotbeds of controversy. The Occupy Oakland demonstration lead to violence, due to occupiers not leaving when given notification by law enforcement. With the carnage being captured on video:

While most of the coverage of the movement has had negative connotations attached to it, either for the protestors themselves or the reaction by lawmakers and authorities; there remains a looming question. What does Occupy Wall Street truly represent?

The Daily Show asked this very question in the only way it knows how, with humor.

There have been more serious responses to the most important question, “Occupy Wall Street, What Do They Want?“. According to the post, there are very clear cut changes the movement wants to see come into fruition. All involve changes directly relating to corporations of course, but there are mentions of free speech and decreasing the USA’s militaristic attitude.

The avenues in which the protests are being represented show the power a single phone or blog can have. For instance, if you want an up close view of what’s happened at the latest Occupy NYC event, here’s a live recorded stream:

The message of Occupy Wall Street has taken to artistic forms as well. The coolest I’ve seen is from MK12, who created this video as a trailer for the 2011 Zero Film Festival. Allowing a game of Pong to explain the message being relayed by the movement.

Conan O’ Brien’s long time running guest, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog dropped in on the Occupy movement to poke some fun at both the protestors and Wall St. itself.

Jesse Comart of Mashable, asks what is possibly the most important question of all. Can Occupy Wall Street keep the momentum going, and see their principles shift into direct actions which can facilitate change? Making direct comparisons to the Tea Party, and how their movement was able to directly influence Washington politics.

The story of Occupy Wall Street will keep continuing, either towards a definitive end with us simply looking back at this small portion of time when a movement started by a simple tweet erupted into something much larger. Or, the OWS influence will grow and be able to facilitate the change they’re rallying for.

What has been your take away from the movement up to this point? What have been some of the interesting ways you’ve noticed OWS being represented both online and off?