in_the_media

Viralized images of spraying incident used as satire and protest

Media Outlet: 

Philadelphia Inquirer

Campus police Lt. John Pike — who pepper-sprayed students sitting in protest at the University of California, Davis — is now more than a person or a news event. He has become a meme. Clever Web jockeys are using image-manipulation programs to import still images of Pike into great works of art, famous news photos, movie scenes and other images. Andrew Mendelson, chair of Journalism at Temple, said, "The body language he shows in spraying, transposed into these pictures, works really well as a visual representation of the shared frustrations among the Occupy community at the way they're being treated by mainstream media and the police."