<ul class="summary-list"><li>Will Cosme started <keyword id="10260863" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pop-crave">Pop Crave</keyword> in 2015, which became one of the most popular independent <keyword id="6354530" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="music">music</keyword> and <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword> news accounts on Twitter.</li><li>In its five years of existence, Pop Crave has regularly outpaced legacy publications like Rolling Stone in being the first to publish music and entertainment news. </li><li>As a largely anonymous organization, with unpaid staff and a history of mysterious sourcing, music journalists argue that Pop Crave is a step behind when it comes to editorial standards. The company vehemently disagrees.</li><li>Pop Crave recently gained attention for being one of the first news sources (along with Insider) to call the 2020 US presidential election. </li></ul><p>In summer 2015, Will Cosme, a <keyword id="58267" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Journalism">journalism</keyword> school drop-out, spent his lunch breaks at Home Depot in Miami the way he spent nearly every moment of spare time since working there — brainstorming business plans. A pop <keyword id="24504" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="culture">culture</keyword> obsessed digital native, Cosme, then 22, had been engaged in digital fandom for the better half of his young life. As an intensely plugged in fan of R&amp;B stars like Frank Ocean and Tinashe, Cosme spent his adolescence embedded in a participatory culture, where he and fans like him constantly strived to keep their chosen artists in the cultural conversation by initiating trending campaigns on Twitter. For Cosme, rechanneling the fervor and labor of fandom into something potentially monetizable was the golden-egg idea that shifted him out of retail and into the pop culture industry.</p><p>"Pop Crave," he typed into his document of potential names for his business venture, one night after work. That same week he created a Twitter account with an Andy Warhol inspired cartoon Marilyn Monroe as an icon, and a slogan: <a href="https://twitter.com/PopCrave">Pop Crave</a>, "Your Go-to Source for Pop Culture News, Chart Updates, Music Releases &amp; More!"</p><p>Ever since its launch five years ago, Pop Crave has quickly become an ambient and ubiquitous presence on Twitter, and currently boasts over 598,500 followers. It frequently beats legacy publications like Billboard and Rolling Stone in being the first to disseminate music news, as well as circulate niche data others have missed. Pop Crave has become a leading entertainment news source on Twitter. </p><h2><strong>Pop Crave prioritizes speed</strong></h2><p>Pop Crave's popularity on Twitter, specifically, should come as no surprise. In its lifespan, the 240-limit microblogging </p><div type="image" title="will cosme" height="986" width="741" msid="79181460" hostid="261"></div>site has become a digital network for real-time news, both affecting its production and consumption. While, traditionally, the journalists have acted as a filter for sourcing and verifying information, Twitter has encouraged a quest for speed among journalists, something that Pop Crave has taken expert advantage of. While Pop Crave deems itself a legitimate journalistic news source, others have been skeptical.<p>Now that Pop Crave is growing exponentially, the brand represents a quandary in entertainment news, as it threatens to break the rigid boundaries of professional journalism. </p><p>This isn't something Cosme would have considered when he set to work on Pop Crave during that summer five years ago, alongside friend Harry Johnson. Each day, while still working his shift as a store assistant, Cosme would spend an average of ten hours "relentlessly posting content," and scouring through celebrities' social media pages, trying to find untapped data he could give meaning to. For the first three years, Cosme wasn't making a profit. He took many bathroom breaks at his store assistant job so he could keep writing news updates throughout the day. His friends and family couldn't fathom it, they told Cosme he was wasting his time.<strong> </strong></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Pop Crave  (@PopCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1326560599531261956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2020</a></blockquote><p>"What kept me going was my pure love and passion for pop culture and pop music. I wanted to create something out of nothing so bad," he says. Cosme found a gap he was determined to fill. "I'd come across thousands of accounts dedicated to different things, but there weren't any independent news accounts at the time." He had a clear vision in mind — a platform for pop culture enthusiasts that would roll out daily news, chart updates, throwbacks, music anniversaries, and fun facts. </p><p>The followers and audience came almost instantly.</p><p>"Twitter was the perfect tool for us because it allows us to crank out news as quickly as we do and it taught us how to get directly to the point in so many characters, which is what fans love," he says. "They get the whole story in a nutshell. I think we were able to create such a presence because we're consistent, there's no 'off' button for Pop Crave." </p><h2><strong>In 2018, Cosme began rercruiting writers for volunteer work</strong></h2><p>As Pop Crave gained more influence and momentum, Johnson and Cosme enlisted their mutual friend Jericho Capio to join the team, but "80% of the work" still fell on Cosme. In 2018, he began recruiting writers — most commonly journalism graduates fresh out of school —  for volunteer work. His team of eight, he says, have "backgrounds from across the board."</p><p>They all work individually and remotely, and communicate and distribute workload via Whatsapp, and more recently through Zoom, though Cosme is soon looking to purchase an office. Within the next two years, he hopes to be able to pay his staff a full-time wage, but for now, Will says that anyone working for Pop Crave will be "happy to build their portfolio and learn about entertainment media." People who do work for Pop Crave are also rewarded with college credit and 'perks' whenever they become available.</p><p>Shae Woodward, who joined Pop Crave in late 2018, says that while staff aren't paid, "it isn't about the money." For Woodward, who previously worked in business development and marketing at PeopleTV, Pop Crave is more like a "passion project," which she hopes will one day materialize into a full-time job. For now, although staff don't supposedly work on a full-time basis, Pop Crave is a "24/7 hour gig."</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style="margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHZAEZuBfbC" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">pov: you’re celeste </a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by  Shae Woodward (@shae.woodward) on Nov 9, 2020 at 4:46pm PST<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-11-10T00:46:51+00:00">Nov 9, 2020 at 4:46pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote><h2><strong>For its staff, Pop Crave is more of a passion project than a full-time job</strong></h2><p>In February 2019, around the time Cosme left his job as a store assistant in order to pursue Pop Crave full-time, Drew Howard came on board as an editor. A graduate from Grand Valley State University, Howard moved to New York for a three-month internship in New York, where he wrote about personal finance, before moving back to his home city of Michigan, where he spent his days looking for writing jobs on Indeed.com. When he was eventually hired into a virtual role for a $2,000 fee, he never saw that money.</p><p>Pop Crave seemed like a lifeline in an otherwise unavailing landscape. The account had 270,000 followers by the time Howard joined, but it's since accumulated more than double that in a little over a year. In that time, he's had the opportunity to connect with journalists from Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard, and many more, while they've used Pop Crave as a source — furthering the Twitter account's credibility. He's also witnessed an explosion of Twitter news accounts inspired by Pop Crave, leading him to believe that the future of music journalism is down the very path he's on. </p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style="margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CGNT5AKB1Wl" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank"> logging back on Insta to find things I can post on Twitter </a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by  Drew Howard (@drewhoward_pc) on Oct 11, 2020 at 8:17am PDT<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-10-11T15:17:46+00:00">Oct 11, 2020 at 8:17am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote><p>As staff newsrooms are radically downsizing, and publications are going under, Howard feels he has nowhere else to put his faith than in Pop Crave. "I don't see myself applying for jobs at a place like Billboard or Rolling Stone or Vulture in this media environment with the pandemic," he says. "The most I've ever been paid to write (outside of PopCrave, to be clear) was about $75 dollars a week. I don't want to put my trust in major (and trashy) corporations anymore, we want to start our own thing." Pop Crave stands out from these outlets, Howard believes, since its shortcomings have become its strengths. "Because most of our news is in tweet form, and not an article that requires you to click on it, we are providing more information in our captions." In other words, Pop Crave isn't clickbait, according to its staff.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/paulbridgewater">Paul Bridgewater</a>, who has a background in marketing, and is the current editor-in-chief of independent music website The Line Of Best Fit, views Pop Crave a little less generously. "Everyone who's producing content is complicit in the grey areas around clickbait," he says, "but there's a line that's often crossed." No matter how careful the journalist's phrasing, nor how neutrally presenting, entertainment news is almost always likely to elicit a reaction. "That's part of why we do it, but then you have [Pop Crave], a faceless, almost anonymous twitter account spewing out tweets as content, and doing it in a way that's meant to feel like they are some pop-obsessed website." </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Pop Crave  (@PopCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1325930457498865664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2020</a></blockquote><p>Cosme and Howard are insistent that Pop Crave is a legitimate source of music journalism. "The goal of journalism, as I was taught, is to communicate a message that's straightforward, free of bias, fact-checked and easily digestible," says Drew. "Over half a million users trust us enough to get their info on our page, so if that's not journalism, I don't know what is."</p><h2><strong>'Pop Crave has less to do with journalism than it does online fandom'</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="kpop oz ateez crowd fans" height="1499" width="3000" msid="79178459" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/noyokono">Gary Suarez</a>, who has worked as a <keyword id="278613" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Freelance">freelance</keyword> music journalist for almost two decades, writing for the New York Times, NPR, and Forbes, among others, believes Pop Crave has less to do with journalism than it does with online fandom. "It's a disruptor that has zero interest in journalism, preferring instead to appeal to the fans and stans scrolling on social," he said. "It doesn't exist as a replacement for music journalism, because that wrongly implies its followers were people who'd also, or were it to disappear, instead read music journalism."</p><p>Suarez has had Pop Crave blocked on Twitter for a while now, after noticing that it sometimes pulled content from other publications "without the professional decency of crediting or linking." Recently, however, it appears that Pop Crave has made a concerted effort to credit other sources.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Pop Crave  (@PopCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1326566166240907265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2020</a></blockquote><p>Suarez calls Pop Crave "an optimized way to convey certain bits of information to music fans on social media" that on its best day is a "link farm." </p><p>Some staff agree that Pop Crave's reporting is more aligned with internet fandom culture. "I'm not sure how to summarize exactly how we fact check," says Howard, "but a lot of it comes from a basic understanding of Stan Twitter. We're good at sniffing out what's fake and what's real just from our experience on the platform. There are also platforms like Reddit and ATRL that help us, as well as the thousands of stan accounts that are doing their own version of reporting." </p><p>But Cosme is adamant that Pop Crave fact checks just like any other major organization would. " Our credibility and reputation are important," he says.</p><p>One credibility campaign the group is embarking on is trying to get verified on Twitter. Since Pop Crave's content is so inimitable, numerous <a href="https://twitter.com/PopCrrave">parody accounts</a> have emerged on Twitter, with the same cartoon Marilyn Monroe icon. "We run into these daily, and to be honest, it's frustrating and distracting," says Will. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the website has "paused public submissions for verification. However, our teams around the world continue to work closely with trusted partners to verify select accounts." They refused to provide any details on individual accounts like Pop Crave. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Perez  (@ThePerezHilton) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1007060979555840000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2018</a></blockquote><p>Beyond the Twitter account, Pop Crave is trying to establish legitimacy elsewhere.</p><p>Recently, Cosme launched a Pop Crave website. <a href="https://popcravenews.com/">Popcravenews.com</a> publishes features, interviews, and longer-form content, with the intention to give the brand "an editorial voice" as well as something "professional-looking" that will "attract artists who want to collaborate with us." The team is also developing a podcast, which they hope will bring in a steady cash flow. </p><p>Perhaps most notably, Pop Crave gained attention for being one of the first outlets (at nearly the same time as Insider) to call the 2020 presidential election in the US for Joe Biden, via Decision Desk HQ. Howard told <a href="https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/pop-crave-gaga-daily-2020-election-results">Mel Mazine</a> that they have no plan to get into politics in the long term, but true to their style, "We only jump in when we feel something is trending so much that we can't ignore it."</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Pop Crave  (@PopCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1324711968998121474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2020</a></blockquote><p><strong>Read More:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/qanon-conspiracy-theory-after-the-trump-election-lost-defeat-plan-2020-11">What happens to QAnon after Trump leaves the White House?</a></p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/youtubers-support-biden-james-charles-tana-mongeau-nikita-dragun-2020-11">Top YouTubers flooded Twitter with pro-Biden sentiment, suggesting a history of non-partisanship may be coming to an end</a></p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/zoe-laverne-kiss-13-age-connor-joyce-how-old-fake-arrest-2020">The controversies of 19-year-old TikTok star Zoe LaVerne, who apologized for kissing her 13-year-old fan</a></p>

Inside the rise of Pop Crave, the disruptive Twitter account that was one of the first to call the election

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57fd2c518109ee58008b50e0-1600/han solo luke skywalker.jpg" alt="han solo luke skywalker" data-mce-source="Lucasfilm" /><p class="source"><span>Lucasfilm</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Guys, guys: I've got a great story for you. Just now, as I was sitting down to write this article, I picked up my seltzer can and threw it in the recycling bin. It was so easy! The trash can was far away - but the recycling was right there within arm's reach of my desk! It was the easiest decision in the world not to walk halfway across the newsroom to dump it in the trash instead.</p><p>I'm a freaking hero. Tweet me your praise.</p><p>But guess what? My coworker - lets call him Jim - sits at the other end of the newsroom. It's a long walk for him to haul his recyclables over to the bin. Much easier to just stuff them all in the trash can by his desk. And guess what? This morning, he was in the middle of a great story, and he considered just sending a can off to the landfill. He didn't of course. But he admitted thinking about it!</p><p>What a monster. For shame.</p><p>If you're reading this and are over the age of eight years old, I probably sound like a real jerk to you right about now.</p><p>But if you were younger, you might agree with me. (Though perhaps the bragging wouldn't help matters.)</p><p>A study out of Yale <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/26/0956797616665813.abstract">published September 27 in the journal Psychological Science</a> suggests children and adults have very different intuitions about what makes a person good.</p><p>Adults tend to see conflicted heroes as extra-virtuous. Do the right thing, and that's good. But overcome your inner desire to do the <em>wrong</em> thing, and that's really special.</p><p>Think of Han Solo at the end of Star Wars Episode IV - he wants to ride off into the sunset with his reward for saving Princess Leia, but shows up in the nick of time to fire a couple shots into Darth Vader's fighter and save the day.</p><p>He's far from the only hero to go through this kind of inner journey - think Frodo struggling to cast off the One Ring, Arya Stark nearly killing an innocent woman to secure her status among the Faceless, Moses begging God to choose a different messenger. There's something appealing about a character who does the right thing despite their desire not to get involved.</p><p>But, as study authors Christina Starmans and Paul Bloom show, kids are a bit more straightforward.</p><p>Given the choice in a series of experiments, kids aged 3 to 8 preferred uncomplicated heroes - eager Luke Skywalkers, not conflicted Han Solos. Eddard, not Arya. Jesus, not Moses.</p><p>Here's how the researchers reached this conclusion.</p><p>In the first experiment, children aged 3 to 5 heard stories about a boy or girl who keeps a promise to her mom to clean up her toys, even though her friends are playing outside. (The gender was selected to match the child.) In one version of the story, the kid <em>wants</em> to go outside and join her friends, but decides to clean up anyway. In another, she'd rather stay indoors anyway, so she has no problem cleaning up.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57fd34478109ee58008b5137-678/screen shot 2016-10-11 at 2.42.23 pm.png" alt="A figure from the paper with example stories. No word on why the characters look so South-Parkian.2.23 PM" data-mce-source="Psychological Science" data-mce-caption="A figure from the paper with example stories. No word on why the characters look so South-Parkian." /><p class="source"><span>Psychological <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword></span></p><p class="caption">A figure from the paper with example stories. No word on why the characters look so South-Parkian.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The kids, asked to award one of the characters a prize for good behavior, mostly picked the one who didn't go through any internal conflict. Adults recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform to complete the same experiment awarded the prize to the conflicted character.</p><p>Follow-up experiments replicated the study's original finding, and found that it also held true in 6- to 8-year-olds and in different moral scenarios. Kids were <em>also</em> more likely to predict conflicted characters will do the wrong thing in the future - while most adults think the un-conflicted hero is more likely to do the wrong thing later on.</p><p>So what does this mean?</p><p>The authors explain that there appears to be a development difference in the value systems of children and adults. Kids seem to prefer a kind of moral purity, while most adults value "willpower and self-control."</p><p>In other words, as we grow up we come to see our darker heros as having a kind of firmer moral grit.</p>     <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientifically-proven-ways-more-attractive-2016-9">5 scientifically verified ways to appear more attractive</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="p1c2MydjqUukmea8h6zbd2ZrZTq1z7ND" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'p1c2MydjqUukmea8h6zbd2ZrZTq1z7ND',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

You and your kids have very different ideas about what makes a good person

The recent <keyword id="406897" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="farmer-protests">farmer protests</keyword> in <keyword id="13126" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maharashtra">Maharashtra</keyword>, in which around 40,000 farmers and tribals staged a peaceful 180 km march from Nashik to <keyword id="6358070" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mumbai">Mumbai</keyword>, has been lauded for its execution by politicians and media outlets alike, with <em>The Hindu</em> even calling it a <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-model-protest/article23229917.ece">“model protest”</a> and the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, saying that he was “deeply humbled” before agreeing to their demands. <br /><br />What really made the farmers protests stand out and ultimately successful, was its amazing public relations machine. <br /><br />The farmers earned the sympathy of not only the citizens of Mumbai but the rest of India, as they marched at night to avoid disruptions to urban commuters and students sitting for their board exams. There were no overt theatrics or violence, unlike the farmer protests around Maharashtra between June last year which resulted in the announcement of the 34,000 crore <keyword id="56684" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="loan-waiver">loan waiver</keyword> scheme.<br /><br />The organisation sponsoring the march, All-India Kisan Sabha, an ally of the Communist Party of India, left no stone unturned when it came to social media. From the very first day of the march, they posted announcements and regular updates regarding the march’s progress on Twitter, using the hashtag #KisanLongMarch.<br />
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">1000s of farmers to march 200 kms from Nashik to Mumbai to protest against <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/antifarmer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#antifarmer</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/antipeople?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#antipeople</a> policies of BJP govts at state &amp; centre. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KisanLongMarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KisanLongMarch</a> begins. <a href="https://t.co/KeK8k90BLR">pic.twitter.com/KeK8k90BLR</a></p>&mdash; AIKS (@KisanSabha) <a href="https://twitter.com/KisanSabha/status/970959334334021632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KisanLongMarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KisanLongMarch</a> gets a warm welcome from Mumbai citizens. <a href="https://t.co/7RJ819WKTl">pic.twitter.com/7RJ819WKTl</a></p>&mdash; AIKS (@KisanSabha) <a href="https://twitter.com/KisanSabha/status/972820512190513152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<br />They even posted interviews with some of the farmers and quoted statistics about farmer suicides.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A farmer speaks about the Long March from Nashik to Mumbai <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KisanLongMarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KisanLongMarch</a> <a href="https://t.co/Xm5gsRZUaS">pic.twitter.com/Xm5gsRZUaS</a></p>&mdash; AIKS (@KisanSabha) <a href="https://twitter.com/KisanSabha/status/972776115436572677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FarmersMarchToMumbai?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FarmersMarchToMumbai</a> <a href="https://t.co/bsC1vL6v40">pic.twitter.com/bsC1vL6v40</a></p>&mdash; AIKS (@KisanSabha) <a href="https://twitter.com/KisanSabha/status/973107582767263744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<br />The march benefited from widespread media coverage. On March 12th, the Indian Express ran a <a href="http://epaper.indianexpress.com/1575825/Delhi/March-12,-2018#page/1/2">front page report</a> on the march and included interviews with 10 participating farmers on the problems they were facing. Scroll conducted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scroll.in/videos/1718003171615889/?hc_ref=ARS9e9XHfRx2R7ilvXgedCUq-Zqf43UQC40hbD4YM2G547c0iDuf5AHHY0kBTg8_68E&amp;pnref=story.unseen-section">Facebook Live conversations</a> with farmers and Mid-Day ran a front-page headline that read, “Mumbaikars Welcome Farmers With Open Arms”. In a <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/i-walked-40km-with-the-farmers-in-maharashtra-heres-what-i-learnt">piece for the Wire,</a> Ayush Dubey, a young journalist, wrote of his experience as a participant in the march, stating “this is a real protest by a sad farmer community. They are working hard for their demands”. <br /><br />All news outlets explicitly mentioned that the farmers were looking for more than just debt forgiveness. It was clear that they were also calling for the implementation of property rights and minimum support prices for their produce as well as the cancellation of river-sharing agreements. Attention was also drawn to the severity of their conditions, epitomised by their bleeding, blistered feet- a sign of dignified, non-violent desperation. <br /><br />The public didn’t need any more convincing. Images of the march at night went viral on social media on March 11th. This achieved the holy grail from a public relations standpoint- it made a protest against the government look beautiful. <br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Stunning photograph by Vijayanand Gupta of <a href="https://twitter.com/htTweets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@htTweets</a> showing about 35,000 farmers marching through the night in Bombay towards Azad Maidan. This is the kind of image that really lights up the city. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KisanLongMarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KisanLongMarch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nightmarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nightmarch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mumbai?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mumbai</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/photojournalism?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#photojournalism</a> <a href="https://t.co/cgC5uqx0Ep">pic.twitter.com/cgC5uqx0Ep</a></p>&mdash; Paroma Mukherjee (@ParomaMukherjee) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParomaMukherjee/status/973053291247685632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<br />There were also posts that highlighted the ingenuity of the farmers, making them stand out as individuals as opposed to faceless members of a crowd. The case of Lakshman Bhasre proved to be an important human interest story. Bhasre, a farmer from Nashik, had a solar panel on his head for charging phones.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
  
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Favourite photo from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KisanLongMarch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KisanLongMarch</a> this afternoon -- Farmers have no access to electricity so Lakshman Bhasre from Tryumbakeshwar Taluka has been marching for 6 days with a tiny solar panel on his head. He uses it to charge his phone and help other marchers charge theirs. <a href="https://t.co/3He32abd4z">pic.twitter.com/3He32abd4z</a></p>&mdash; Pragya Tiwari (@PragyaTiwari) <a href="https://twitter.com/PragyaTiwari/status/973126644964773888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<br />The march also received the support of prominent members of the Opposition such as Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress and Aditya Thackeray, the leader of the youth wing of the Shiv Sena.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
  
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The mammoth <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FarmersMarchToMumbai?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FarmersMarchToMumbai</a> is a stunning example of people’s power. The Congress party stands with the Farmers &amp; Tribals marching to protest against the Central &amp; State Govts. apathy. <br/><br/>I appeal to PM Modi and the CM to not stand on ego and to accept their just demands.</p>&mdash; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) <a href="https://twitter.com/OfficeOfRG/status/973101342611918848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They are farmers who need to be heard. It’s unfortunate to be insensitive to those who feed us and put ideological cages on them. I’m proud of my fellow Shiv Sainiks who are with them nursing their wounds, and voicing the farmers in the Assembly too, only seeing their need. <a href="https://t.co/6eJfhc1RTI">pic.twitter.com/6eJfhc1RTI</a></p>&mdash; Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) <a href="https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/973114549804072960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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 <br />The success of the march, especially in terms of public relations, points to why the protests by Tamil Nadu farmers in Delhi last year didn’t amount to much. <br /><br />Starting in March last year, around 150 farmers from Tamil Nadu staged a protest for 144 days outside the Jantar Mantar to ask for a loan waiver, which would be financed by the Centre’s drought relief fund. Their protests also received media coverage and sympathy from statesmen like Rahul Gandhi and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu but failed to elicit the same level of public support as the long march in Maharashtra. <br /><br />There are likely many reasons for this. First, the numbers might have been too low to justify a full-blown media frenzy. 150 farmers feels too small compared to a procession of 40,000 farmers. Secondly, given the fast pace of the 24-hours news cycle, the 144-day protest likely lost relevance to news readers and viewers well before its conclusion. The protest also lacked a groundswell of support from beginning as the farmers from Tamil Nadu weren’t on their home turf. Being stationed in the capital, which was necessary given that it was a federal rather than a state issue, might have actually worked against their favour. Lastly, unlike their counterparts in Maharashtra, their protest tactics, which included the brandishing of skulls, the consumption of faeces and stripping, might have proved too “unpalatable” to the public.<br /><br />With their well-oiled public relations machine and sponsorship by a national farmers union, the Maharashtra farmers were able to wrest public support and effectively demonstrate the importance of their cause. <br />

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