It’s time to change the way the media reports on protests. Please read before going out on 1/7 in #hongkong. http://nie.mn/2YvVKOh  via @NiemanLab

Centering protest coverage around the impact on traffic, local businesses, property is one way the protest-as-nuisance story gets told. I'll add others: the insistent focus on clashes with police. Headlines focus exclusively on violence. Don’t say where violence is coming from.

“By saying police and protesters ‘clash,’ you don’t give an accurate description of what instigated what,” she said. I have to say, it took months to sort through stories of witnesses in Mong Kok LNY 2016. What triggered what is not always apparent to one reporter on deadline.

Sometimes, coverage fails to highlight the goals of the protests. Agreed. Recently a young hongkonger said she didn't understand what BLM wanted -- other than police not to kill people. The coverage didn't describe demands.

News organizations should watch for tendency to cover only the extreme protests. Agreed. HK protesters knew that the intl media would stay as long as the protests were fiery, big. It took a while for intl outlets to cover the work of parents, Yellow Ecn Circle etc

A point not made is that intl news outlets frame/simplify overseas conflicts in terms that foreign readers can understand. Thus, protests get framed as American/British ones would.

My final thought: protests are about people—their voices, histories, families, fears. I usually conduct just 3 or 4 long interviews on protest days. That’s how you get past the tired quotes like “this may be our last time,“ etc. and you get to the stories.