Counting Crowds

This month has seen some dramatic developments in Egypt, with widespread protests, Morsi deposed from power – and more recently – outbreaks of violence across the country.

In the early days of the events, a nationwide protest was organised on the 30th of June to call for Morsi’s resignation. Huge numbers of people turned to the streets, with reports that up to 30 million people were involved – leading to the media claiming this was the largest protest in history.

Motivated by this headline, BBC Radio 4′s More or Less looked to investigate these numbers, and find out a bit more about how big crowd numbers are calculated. I was interviewed for a section on the show which you can find on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01c2m3k/More_or_Less_Egypt_Biggest_Protest_in_History/  or download the podcast from the More or Less website:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless

In addition, we filmed a short explanation of how to count crowds for the BBC website: : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-23314873 and Ruth Alexander wrote a BBC magazine piece to accompany the work: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23312656