Philly is in its first municipal strike in the social media age. Does that affect how events are unfolding?

For Philadelphians, the ongoing city worker strike has become an attack on all five senses, especially smell. But for people outside the region, news of the strike is seemingly everywhere and nowhere.

On the one hand, Philly’s first municipal strike in the social media era has been amplified by influencers on TikTok and Instagram, and union members have broadcast their stories to viewers across the country. Young influencers in particular have focused on the plight of the striking city employees, with some trumpeting the work stoppage as the potential dawn of a new era in politics.

On the other hand, consumers of traditional media outlets with national audiences might not even know it’s happening. Unlike the city’s last municipal strike in 1986, which saw numerous stories from the New York Times and others, there has been scant national coverage of this year’s ordeal outside of the Associated Press.

“In the traditional press, I am surprised by the level of silence,” said Rutgers University labor historian Francis Ryan, who has written a book on the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33. The ‘86 strike, he said, “was a national story.”

Ryan said one reason for the dearth of coverage may be that fewer publications employ reporters focused on labor than they did in the past. Another reason is likely that the everyday cacophonies bellowing from President Donald Trump’s White House have consumed the attention of American households and newsrooms alike.

But is the nature of the media coverage affecting how events are unfolding in Philadelphia?

Ryan said the advent of social media has helped to build support for organized labor in recent years, and he suspects it’s boosting the striking workers in DC 33.

“Over the past five years or so since the pandemic, social media has really laid out just how much income inequality there is in this country and everyone knows it,” Ryan said. “The members of DC 33 — they’re telling their hardship stories. ... [They’re] sometimes two jobs and still can’t provide enough money to put food on the table and pay rent, let alone a mortgage, and it’s also happening at a moment when you have SEPTA collapsing."

As for the lack of coverage from traditional media outlets outside Philadelphia, Ryan said it’s likely a good thing for Parker, who has so far been spared from images of trash piling up on the streets of her city dominating the pages of national newspapers.

“Wilson Goode had a lot of pressure in terms of how it was covered in the press,” he said of Philadelphia’s mayor during the 1986 strike. “It doesn’t necessarily gain [Parker] a lot of credibility around the country when there is a breakdown of basic services.”

For the first six days of this year’s strike, most coverage has been local and social, with national media attention scattershot.

The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board excoriated DC 33 as “Exhibit A” for why “public unions are often at odds with the public interest.” Good Morning America ran an informative segment Sunday morning. And Rolling Stone picked up the news that LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan, who were scheduled to coheadline the city’s July Fourth concert, canceled their appearances to support the strike. (Naturally, they made their announcements on X and Instagram, respectively.)

The musical artists’ boycott may soon attract more coverage, Ryan said. And national interest will likely increase the longer the strike lasts, he said.

Social media users, including those in Philly and posting from afar, didn’t need to see whether the work stoppage would stick. Popular TikTok posts have varied from on-the-ground reporting of particularly large heaps of garbage to apolitical humor on living in a city on strike to breathless takedowns of the Parker administration.

So far, a vast majority of the social media commentary on the strike has been left-leaning. User @incogkn33growth, who has almost 20,000 followers, framed the strike as the start of a much larger political project.

“What’s happening in Philly can happen in your city,” he said after giving an overview of the strike. “The revolution is starting. Are you going to be a part of it? Eyes on Philadelphia. Eyes on Philadelphia.”

James Ray, whose account @jamesgetspolitical has more than 450,000 followers, has racked up thousands of likes and hundreds of comments for a post criticizing court orders the city secured to limit picketing and require some DC 33 members to return to work in essential areas like the 911 call center.

“Think really deeply about what Mayor Cherelle Parker’s real priorities are if that is the length she is willing to go to [hurt] the people who are doing the work that keeps this city running,” Ray said.

Alex Gourevitch, a labor historian at Brown University who is writing a book on the political theory of strikes, said social media can be a useful tool for striking workers.

”You do always have to convince the public of why they should tolerate the inconvenience, so part of that is making your story relatable," he said. “It’s a cheap source of messaging.”

But, he said, the impact of social media can be unpredictable, and it can encourage a more combative dynamic.

“If the unions are really ready for something more populist and militant than just to do their negotiating,” he said, “then social media really is an opportunity because it’s a way of taking your fight to the public.”