The riots in Athens began after a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer. This sparked protests among Greek youth about issues like education and the government's economic problems. The protests grew increasingly violent as protesters set fires and threw rocks at police. News of the protests spread rapidly through social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs as young people organized through text messages and social networks. This showed how new forms of online media can spread news faster than traditional television and radio.

1. Riots in Athens
by Elena G. Simon

2. How it all began…
• One of the most poignant current events in Europe recently
was the uproar caused in Athens, Greece when a 15 year old
Athenian boy was sot by a police officer.
• This ignited not only the hearts of teenagers all over
Greece, but Athens itself was on fire in December or 2008
• Soon, the issue became not just one involving the death of
the 15 year old AlexandrosGrigoropoulos, but that of the
Greek government and its lack of concern for the future
generation.

3. Issues
• These issues revolved around the well-being
of students as well as the education facilities
like the public universities.
• The protests also expressed the frustration
with the government and its mounting
economic worries.

4. The riots increased in violence and fervor as the days went on…

6. • “In the riots, several hundred protestors set
up burning barricades and attacked police
with rocks and flares. Riot police fired teargas
and chased the youths through parts of the
Greek capital. The protestors chanted
‘murderers out’ and used lazer pointers to
target police officers for attack” – Jenny
Princival

10. Social Media
• How did the news spread so fast
without any means of traditional
reporting?
• How did the throng of protestors
increase at such a rapid pace?

14. The Answer
• “The spontaneous protests and riots
were organized largely by young
people who text-messaged and
phoned each other, and who used
social networks such as
Facebook, Myspace and Twitter”

15. • The growing throng of rioters was fascinating
to the mass media because the charge behind
them was not already predisposed to them
through biased news casts.
• Each protestor reacted on their own feelings
in response to the death of Alexandros and
the issues pertaining to the Greek
government.

16. • “We need to think about the future of our
trade in an era where new travels faster
(among society) than TV or radio. People
turned out on the streets before radio and TV
can air stories” – PavlosTsimas, well-known
Greek columnist and TV commentator

17. • Bloggers everywhere would be happy to know
that they had out-sourced hundreds of new
reporters on a soon-to-be global story
• Twitter and other blog sites have proven some
credibility for news reporting after seeing this
stunning example in Greece
• This is empowering for the protestors because
they were fully making a stand on their own solid
beliefs and not what one network or news site or
radio program told them to believe