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Feature: Ferguson resident turns citizen journalist with livestream

Xinhua, August 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

As the civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., winds down, more and more activists are watching live video from home. And instead of doing it on traditional American TV networks, they're watching live feeds from citizen journalists.

These live feeds have a growing audience, as the Total Audience Report released by U.S.-based media analyst Nielsen in June 2015 shows that young adults aged 18-24 spend more than 10 hours a week using smartphone apps, one of the main platforms for live video.

On the day when Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was given non-indictment, Ferguson protester Derk Brown had 2,000 viewers watching his live feed as he stood in the middle of the action.

"You've got the mainstream media, and you've got the livestreamers. The livestreamers keep everybody informed on the crowd and what's going on, and what they're not doing," Brown said.

Brown was involved from the start. He was at work when he heard Michael Brown died and immediately made a Facebook page when he got home. Shortly afterwards, followers of the page grew to 51,000.

"Once I found out what happened, my thing was, I've got to get on this, I've go to be on this from now on," said the livestreamer.

As a member of the Ferguson community, Brown dedicated a large portion of his life to monitoring police activity during the protests.

"I was down here every single day. If I got off work, I'm down here, if I go to work, after I'm down here," he said.

As the months tick by, more and more Ferguson city and police officials are replaced by new faces, but Brown finds no relief.

"It's been the same, they're saying they want change, but it's been the same," he said.

The protests have begun to dwindle, and what initially started as a crowd of 800 people on Sunday night has shrunk to 200 on Tuesday night.

But the movement is no longer isolated to Ferguson. Organizations dedicated to reforming the criminal justice system are popping up all over the United States.

"We've got to keep it going. We can't stop, it rose up in Ferguson. It hasn't happened in centuries, and years and years and years, and Ferguson woke everything up," Brown told Xinhua. Endi