Puerto Ricans rallied to protest against massive layoffs (Primera Hora/Andre Kang)

It was a tremendous site, thousands of Puerto Ricans rallied in front of the Plaza de las Americas to protest a decision that would further worsen the already unstable Puerto Rican economy. Earlier last week, the Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno, proposed budget cuts that would eliminate 13,000 jobs in an attempt to alleviate a $3.2 billion budget gap. Of course, the people are frustrated enough with the lack of jobs as it is. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate exceeds 15 percent. Some analysts expect the layoffs to increase that rate to at least 17 percent. So yesterday a rally was staged to send a message to the government, “enough is enough, no more job cuts!”

However, where was the news media that should be covering this? This is the frustration that really got to me. Here we have the citizens of Puerto Rico who are fighting to keep their jobs in an economy that has yet to recover from the recession yet their messages were barely broadcasted on television. To be honest, I got better news coverage from my followers on Twitter than from television or major news sites. I have been reading up to date news from those who are living in Puerto Rico via Twitter. They provided links to news updates, minute by minute activities and picture uploads. In Facebook, I was also kept in the loop of what’s going on as well, Lisa Castro who is on the Facebook fanpage Being Latino offered great news snippets, videos and pics to keep members such as myself updated. What’s great about the coverage on Twitter and Facebook is that you can communicate in real time with those who are covering the protest as well as those that are following it. Once again, social media has proven to be an exceptional media tool to aggregate and disseminate information and communicate with others in real time.

If you want more information about the protest that occurred in Puerto Rico, check out Primera Hora, they posted up to the minute updates, video clips and pictures.

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