When cameras clash: How the public interprets police and activist protest footage

In recent years, surveillance has become a standardised practice during protest policing, with drones, CCTV, body-worn cameras, and facial recognition systems increasingly being used to document demonstrations (Storbeck et al., 2025). In response, activists have adopted counter-surveillance practices in which they record police interventions targeting activists and share these videos online to expose perceived misconduct with the aim of increasing public pressure for accountability (Bock, 2016). During these interactions, activists sometimes deliberately provoke officers and try to force them in a negative frame, leaving out the broader context to strengthen their case (Keesman, 2025; Storbeck et al., 2025). On the other hand, police officers have also purposefully edited footage to present their actions as more justifiable than they really were (Smith & Watson, 2023). This dynamic between police and activists then turns into a cat-and-mouse game, with each side publicly sharing footage and prompting a response from the other.

While previous research has examined the motivations behind surveillance and counter-surveillance (Hermida & Hernández-Santaolalla, 2018; Huey et al., 2006; Ullrich & Knopp, 2018; Wilson & Serisier, 2010), far less attention has been given to how citizens who encounter these videos online interpret such footage. These interpretations are important because they may influence how citizens evaluate the protest and its actors. Understanding how these public reactions are formed is particularly relevant, because misinterpretations of protest footage and the spread of conflicting narratives online can deepen societal polarisation, which in turn may undermine societal resilience (Van Stekelenburg, 2023).

During this thesis project, the student will conduct a small online survey experiment in which participants are exposed to protest videos from both activist and police perspectives. The videos will be sourced from publicly available material on social media and should concern protest events for which dual-sided footage is available. The survey will begin with a short questionnaire measuring factors that may shape participants’ interpretations of the videos. The specific variables will be selected based on existing literature and the student’s research interests. Potential examples include emotional reactions to the protest issue, trust in the police, or political orientation. After viewing the videos, participants will respond to open-ended questions designed to capture their perceptions, interpretations, and evaluative judgments of the footage.

Surveillance, counter-surveillance, protest policing, police-activist interactions, social media.

Examples of research questions include:

1. How do citizens interpret protest footage recorded by the police compared to protest footage recorded by activists?
2. Does the order in which police and activist footage is presented influence viewers’ interpretations of the protest?
3. To what extent do pre-existing attitudes, such as trust in the police or political orientation, explain differences in viewers’ interpretations of police versus activist footage?

Research questions may be changed based on the student’s interests.

The project involves an online survey study in which participants are shown demonstration-related videos from both activist and police perspectives, sourced from social media. The survey will collect both quantitative and qualitative data.

Qualitative data will be analysed using Atlas.ti and the quantitative data will be analysed in R.

Please contact Lynn Weiher (l.weiher@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to 1 student. The student taking on this assignment can preferably understand sufficient Dutch.  

• Bock, M. A. (2016). Film The Police! Cop-Watching and its embodied narratives. Journal of Communication, 66(1), 13–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12204
• Hermida, A., & Hernández-Santaolalla, V. (2018). Twitter and video activism as tools for counter-surveillance: the case of social protests in Spain. Information Communication & Society, 21(3), 416–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2017.1284880
• Huey, L., Walby, K., & Doyle, A. (2006). Cop watching in the downtown eastside: Exploring the use of (counter)surveillance as a tool of resistance. In T. Monahan (Ed.), Surveillance and security: Technological politics and power in everyday life (1st ed., pp. 149-165). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203957257
• Keesman, L. (2025). Faciliteren én handhaven: Politie-ervaringen en de rol van interacties en beeldvorming bij demonstraties. Justitiële Verkenningen, 51(2), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.5553/jv/016758502025051002005
• Smith, P. B., & Watson, R. (2023). Mediated forensics and militant evidence: Rethinking the camera as weapon. Media, culture & Society, 45(1), 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221088954
• Storbeck, M., Jacobs, G., Schuilenburg, M., & Van Den Akker, R. (2025). Surveillance experiences of extinction rebellion activists and police: Unpacking the technologization of Dutch protest policing. Big Data & Society, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241307892
• Ullrich, P., & Knopp, P. (2018). Protesters’ reactions to video surveillance of demonstrations: Counter-Moves, security cultures, and the spiral of Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 16(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v16i2.6823
• Van Stekelenburg, J. (2023). Het nieuwe demonstreren. In T. Kansil, P. Ponsaers, R. Salet, & P. De Baets (Eds.), Nieuwe spanningen (pp. 13-43). (Cahiers Politiestudies; Vol. 67, No. 2). Gompel & Svacina.
• Wilson, D. J., & Serisier, T. (2010). Video Activism and the ambiguities of counter-surveillance. Surveillance & Society, 8(2), 166–180. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v8i2.3484