Communication Breakdown at Occupy LA

Listen to the full audio story

Download the MP3

With Occupy LA, the press conference has yet to be mastered.

Simple things like When and Where? Occupy's still grappling with how to get that information out there.

There were two scheduled today. The big one moved a mile from its original spot half an hour before it was supposed to start. The other? Nixed, last minute.

I showed up early to get the prime spot. But when I got there? No one there.

So, I went to the Outreach Leader, Evan Kashinsky. He hadn't heard a thing about any press conference.

So we went to the Media Coordinator, Lisa Clapier. She was more lost than the both of us.

The tent is full of computers, phones, random flyers; how could no one know there was a press conference today?

I found the event eventually and things from there were smooth: the news crews were there. The speakers were passionate.

How such a huge movement (and this movement is huge) could run on such little communication?

It turns out, my frustration was typical for an outsider. This is just the way things work at Occupy LA.

"It's about growing organically."

That's the Media Coordinator Lisa Clapier.

"While there are contractions, it's about being solution- finders instead of problem-finders".

She's an optimist that the process will evolve.

She argues that empires aren't built in a week; constitutions aren't written in a day; Occupy's message...

"Our message is something new. And we haven't decided on that exactly yet because there hasn't been ever been a movement that's bridged these gaps between different ideologies like we're doing."

That's Evan Cashinsky, an Outreach leader. He likes the craziness, too. But with today's situation, he was hesitant to welcome the Immigrant Group onto Occupy's turf.

With anyone seemingly jumping to speak, and the press all a-frenzy over it, the messages get muddled really easily.

"Sometimes it's contentious and sometimes it's messy, but it's the truth, it's the reality of the world."

It'll be interesting, then, to see if month-old Occupy LA will be anything like what it born as, a loud group of happy campers, un-jaded by sluggish progress and the onset of a cold Fall.