Towerlight Editor-in-Chief Lauren Slavin interviewing protesters during the Occupy Baltimore event in the city's Inner Harbor Tuesday. - Kaitlin Newman/ The Towerlight

When a rally draws more press than protestors, something isn’t right.

I spent my Tuesday afternoon at McKeldin Park in the Inner Harbor reporting on Occupy Baltimore: a subset of the Occupy Wall Street movement that’s spread across the United States in less than a week.

That is, I reported with every other news outlet in Maryland.

If 100 people passed through the square that day, 30 or more were members of the media.

Cameramen crouched to get the best shot of a protestor painting a sheet with the phrase “I AM THE 99%” Reporters asked college students and elderly protestors alike why they’re fed up with the corporations of the United States. Protestors helped feed the frenzy by approaching anyone with a camera or microphone to say their piece.

I realized I was giving off more of an average college vibe than a serious journalist vibe when I started being handed protest supplies and asked if I minded answering a few questions on camera, probably because I was wearing a backpack.

However, once I let reporters know we were in the same camp, it was interesting to get the mainstream perspective on covering a protest. When the square was empty with only a half hour until the protest’s official start at noon, reporters joked they should just film each other standing around. The Baltimore Sun’s equipment was no more advanced than the handheld camera I was carrying. And protestors weren’t less likely to speak with me than a professional just because I was from a college newspaper.

Because newspapers, news websites and TV broadcasts have only just picked up this story, our readers might not have the best picture of what Occupy Wall Street is or aims to do.

And honestly, most of the protestors probably don’t, either.

The first person to bring Occupy Wall Street to my attention was Tim Fadden, a Towson senior who came to The Towerlight’s office to ask if we planned on writing about the college students marching against corporate corruption.

A quick Google search brought up the group’s website and a few related news articles. The only problem was, instead of providing background on the protests and interviews with those being arrested, news outlets such as National Public Radio were defending why they weren’t sending reporters to Wall Street.

The New York Times wrote a first person story that poked fun at the protest instead of providing information. But it provided insight:

“The group was clamoring for nothing in particular to happen right away,” Gina Bellafante wrote in her Sept. 23 article. “One day, a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Sarzen, a decade or so older than many of the protesters, came to Zuccotti Park seemingly just to shake his head. ‘Look at these kids, sitting here with their Apple computers,’ he said. ‘Apple, one of the biggest monopolies in the world. It trades at $400 a share. Do they even know that?’”

Once the number of protesters began to increase and videos of girls being maced by New York police officers racked up hits online, the media decided Occupy Wall Street might be worth their time. But because the reporters at Occupy Wall Street are looking for unique visitors to their websites and hits on their YouTube videos, are they really getting the message of the movement out there?

As one reporter attending the protest put it, Occupy Wall Street is the sexy story of the week. It doesn’t matter how long protestors stand outside, how many are arrested and assaulted, and if any of their various demands are met. Something or someone will pop into relevancy and eclipse the ideas of this movement that in particular apply to Towson students: There are no jobs for college graduates, massive debt will loom over many after graduation, and there will be the same kind of violence seen in Egypt and Libya if young adults are left restless.

And you can be sure the protestors won’t be happy if they fade into the background. Class of 2011 graduate Jamya Canty, who attended Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Baltimore, got her degree in mass communication. She knows the top media outlets are funded by the same corporations that are forming a fourth branch of the government with just as much control of the citizens of the United States.

“I thought going into the field, I’m going to be the person who reports on what’s going on,” she said. “They are the people we’re really fighting against.”