Gallaudet: Blogging Out Loud

Students at Gallaudet University have recently taken over the school’s primary academic building, surrounded the adjacent grounds with tents, and barricaded the entrances to and from the campus. The student unrest stems from the appointment of Jane K. Fernandes as president by the university’s board of trustees without including the student body in the selection process.

When I wanted to find out more about he events at Gallaudet, especially the reasons for the protest, I quickly became frustrated by the mass media’s inability to explain concepts like audism and the students’ reported complaint that Fernandes is “not deaf enough.” Reporters for major media outlets are apparently not tuned in to the deaf community but frankly, neither am I. And to further muddle the situation, the university administration has used traditional media such as press conferences and press releases, giving everything an institutional feeling that was a bit one-sided.

So, with the blind leading the blind on the subject of the deaf, my biggest question remained: why are they protesting?

Then something occurred to me: The building taken over by the students, Hall Memorial Building, probably still has electricity… and all college campuses are laden with computers… I bet they’re blogging.

I was right. but the reach of the deaf blogging community extends far beyond the grounds of Gallaudet. While students work to make their voices heard on campus, protest bloggers have launched a media war on a much larger scale by harnessing online tools to organize their troops, broadcast their message, and analyze the latest developments.

“Gallaudet” now yields thousands of hits on Technorati, with more mentions on the way, according to recent tracking data:

Posts that contain Gallaudet per day for the last 30 days.

Note: the above chart will change over time, but showed hundreds of hits at the time of initial publishing.

This trend has been overwhelmingly driven by blogs voicing opposition to the board of trustees and its presidential selection process.

A closer look at Gallaudet blogging will quickly lead to individuals like Elisa Abenchuchan, an incredibly active student(?) who is passionate not only about the protests but about covering them in depth at elisawrites.com. Her blog is more than a diary of the experience. Instead the site has become a hub of information for protesters and a window into the controversy itself. Elisa posts open letters from different sides of the story, generally with pro-protester commentary included, while the sidebar serves up links to other active blogs and sites within the deaf community. It’s an excellent example of personal passion and commitment, combined with tailored, relevant content. It’s also the most comprehensive source whatsoever for news on the Gallaudet protest.

Traffic from sites like elisawrites.com can help open a window from the hearing world into the deaf community. I followed the elisawrites.com sidebar to DeafRead: a filtered blog and news aggregator focusing purely on deaf issues and chock full of information regarding the protests. Posts range from reader submissions to news off the wire. The consolidated DeafRead.com posts can also be read via RSS subscription or bookmarked on del.icoi.us for even wider distribution.

While tools like RSS have been helpful, online video provides a unique opportunity for anyone using sign language to communicate freely and comfortably without the use of an intermediary tool such as a keyboard or TTY device. Video blogs like Signcasts.com are helping to distribute the message of the Gallaudet alumni who stand with the protesters, and to broadcast the message of the protesters themselves from within Hall Memorial Building.

A more controversial part of this entire situation is a shaky video (cameraphone?), taken without audio appropriately enough, that portrays an incident of alleged brutality by a Department of Public Safety officer when confronting protesters. Another student was filmed after the fact with face reddened and clothes disheveled, describing a tangle with the DPS. The immediacy of the footage is striking, and awareness of the incidents has made possible by the ease of filming and distribution. Video of the confrontation has shown up on countless news broadcasts.

With grassroots tools in their corner, the students and their supporters have begun to reach a broader audience in a way that clearly communicates their story to the public. The administration uses old-fashioned PR agencies and media outlets to outline their position on the matter. The divide between the demonstrating students and the administration has been exacerbated by the disparity in their respective communications tools. From the blip.tv video blog of Melissa Malzkuhn:

FSSA composed a letter requesting BoT hire a separate investigator and requested a reply with a deadline of 10pm. We did not get a reply. Thus, Noah Beckman handed in a letter to BoT informing them that we are continuing the protest. Dr. Brenda Brueggeman promised they would reply – but to this day, they have not replied DIRECTLY to FSSA. Instead we learned of their reply/decision through the Gallaudet PR release to the media. Gallaudet has been releasing ONE SIDED version to the world.

Traditional media instruments like PR firms are seen by students as spin outlets rather than legitimate mediators, fueling an already heated sense of outrage and indignation on the part of the students. Students want immediate, personal responses to questions, just as they would expect in a blogging environment. By sticking to traditional media outlets, the administration unfortunately alienates the students even further while appearing somewhat out of touch.

The administration could benefit from an adjusting its communications strategy to include more contemporary means, even if they don’t change their terms. From a broader perspective, the Gallaudet protest will not only be another milestone in deaf culture but a significant event in media history. I hope both sides can come to an agreement, especially as the situation on campus seems to be escalating.