Following the Flow of Information in the Digital ERA
- allilapps
- Jan 21, 2021
- 16 min read
Updated: Nov 5, 2024
One of the most useful research tactics I learned at GWU in a course on social media was tracking the flow of information from the real world to the digital world-- to process and understand the concept of the political information cycle and media hybridity. Social media has opened new doors for communication and shifted the gatekeeper structure for news in the digital era. I enjoyed learning this tactic so much, because it taught me how to diligently consume news and evaluate sources extensively before making a judgement on an issue.
Political institutions and news networks both work with nuanced issues daily, balancing short term and long term goals while they do it.
The news cycle operates 24 hours a day. The internet allows information to flow freely at a user's convenience. Processing this information is all about access, and the user's content preference. Although we have autonomy with the use of our phones, our historical preferences and decisions are recorded as data points and processed by big companies in order to influence our day to day decisions. Marketing. Sales. Merchandise. Consumerism. We can choose to engage or disengage, but the phone gives individuals access to information like never before.
Each day new people get access to a phone for the first time. The circle expands exponentially as our communities and resources grow. More diversity with access to technology, can lead to more diverse processing of information, more diverse innovation in society, and more diverse communities. However, it can lead to the opposite as well. More fighting, more controversy, more scandal. It is our choice how we consume media and the power we let it have over our lives.
Our information flows through a hybrid system as communication, facts, and feelings cross between the real world and the digital world.
For my case study in my social media course, I chose to focus on the Covington Catholic Controversy. I had followed this story in the news as it was happening in live time, and when we got the assignment, I knew this was a perfect example of information getting twisted as it travels from real protests and events to digital interpretation.
Researching this event challenged me to think deeply about both sides of a story. Who were the key actors? What were their goals? How did their paths cross? Where did the conflict first arise? What lessons can be learned? How do we prevent this polarization from effecting the spread of information again?
(Linked clip from the Courier Journal)
What happened on the National Mall on January 18, 2019 was a real world conflict that became blown out of proportion once people's interpretations of the event got skewed with misinformation spread online. Many people paid the price in different ways. News networks paid a monetary price, and the Covington boys and their families probably paid an emotional one. Nonetheless, everyone involved from the people at the event to the consumers on social media can reflect and grow from this example. It is important to always value and weigh both sides.
Introduction
On Friday January 18, 2019 two political rallies took place on the plaza of the Lincoln
Memorial. The March for Life occurred to raise awareness for the pro-life movement and antiabortion sentiments, while the Indigenous Peoples March was simultaneously raising awareness for indigenous people’s issues. The events had entirely separate goals, but just happened to be taking place on the same day at the same time. As both marches were winding down, an altercation occurred between a group of high school boys attending the March for Life on a field trip with their school, Covington Catholic High School, Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, and four Black Hebrew Israelites. As initial reporting on the event commenced, the high schoolers were depicted as problematic, racist Trump supporters. However, as the political information cycle progressed and new information surfaced, a drastically different frame developed.
The political information cycle of the Covington Catholic controversy was emblematic of many new emerging media practices. The flow of information was uniquely driven my private citizens contributing over social media. Because of this, traditional news outlets struggled to accurately piece together the story. This event testifies to the dangers of media responding quickly to information shared over social media without having the full picture and accurately screening sources in a rush to push out coverage to keep up with the new 24-hour news cycle.
Phase One: The Viral Clip
The political information cycle began when Kaya Taitano, a Guam resident and student at the University of District of Columbia uploaded a one-minute clip to Instagram at 7:33 PM following the marches on Friday, January 18 (Murphy, & Mezzofiore, 2019). Taitano was attending the Indigenous People’s March to honor her five godchildren when she filmed the clip showing an altercation between the Covington Catholic boys and Nathan Phillips. The video she captured shows 16-year-old student Nick Sandmann, standing up to Nathan Phillips, a Native American elder, as Phillips beats his drum in Sandmann’s face. The other Covington students in the background clap, cheer, and shout surrounding the two key figures. Sandmann, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, appears to have a smirk on his face, seemingly mocking Phillips. Taitano uploaded the video to Instagram with the caption “The amount of disrespect....TO THIS DAY. #SMH #ipmdc19 #ipmdc #indigenousunited #indigenouspeoplesmarch #indigenouspeoplesmarch2019”
(Murphy, & Mezzofiore, 2019). This jumpstarted the frame vilifying the Covington Catholic boys. Taitano’s Instagram video received 179,000 views
(Murphy, & Mezzofiore, 2019).
Although Taitano’s original post garnered a large audience, the clip went viral when it
was reposted on Twitter by a separate user four hours later at 11:13 PM on Friday night. The Instagram clip was reshared by a user called “@2020 fight” with the caption "This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March." This version of the video was viewed over 2.5 million times within a few days and retweeted 14,400 times. The operator of the @2020Fight appeared to be a California schoolteacher and liberal advocate named Talia (O’Sullivan, 2019). Her caption framed the conflict as rooted in racism.
Major mainstream networks picked up on the story based on the viral clip and used the
caption’s frame to construct their articles. Networks publishing the first breaking stories
criticizing the Covington boys included CNN, The Washington Post, and NBC. Later iterations of the story were produced by ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, The Hill, and the Cincinnati Inquirer (Wulfsohn, 2020). The key witness for this initial flood of stories was Nathan Phillips, the Native American featured in the viral video. The frame he shared with the media supplemented the frame of the first social media posts. He gave an interview on the mall immediately following the encounter that was posted to Taitano’s Instagram in a separate video. He claimed that the teens swarmed him, surrounding him in a mob as they were in the process of attacking four black individuals (Smith, 2019). He also asserted the teens were acting in a violent and menacing way, chanting “Build the Wall,” and taunting Phillips and other minorities in the crowd (Cleveland, 2020). Coverage based on his account solidified the transmission of the frame that the boys were behaving in a racist manner across major new networks causing the public to denounce Covington Catholic High School. It is important to note that Phillips became the first key witness for major news networks to interview because the original social media post painted him as a victim and hero, while it vilified the high schoolers.
Phase Two: A Critical Response to Covington Catholic
After the frame accusing the Covington Catholic boys of being racially insensitive spread like wildfire through mainstream media, key local actors from Covington, Kentucky responded. The high school and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington issued a joint statement Saturday afternoon that read: "We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C. We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person." The statement also threatened expulsion for the boys (Mayhem & Knight, 2019). A petition was started on Change.org by Matthew Lehman, a 1995 Covington graduate on Saturday afternoon that quickly reached 15,000 signatures. He called for removal of the school’s principal Robert Rowe because he fostered an environment that allowed these disrespectful events to happen.
Similarly, he wanted to school to reevalaute its use of funding to send students to March for Life, and rather give it to students in need (Santiago, 2019). Covington Mayor Joe Meyer released an op-ed Saturday night stating the confrontation did not match the city's core values and beliefs. He asserted Covington as a welcoming and diverse city, not one of bigotry, discrimination, and hatred (Meyer, 2019). March for Life also released a statement categorizing the boys’ behavior as “reprehensible.”
Notable political and non-political actors also weighed in on the conflict on Saturday via social media. At 11:31 AM House Representative Deb Haaland, (D-N.M,) the first Native American woman elected to congress wrote, "The students' display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking” (Gstalter, 2019). Vulture writer Erik Abriss tweeted “I just want these people to die. Simple as that. Every single one of them. And their parents” at 11:45 AM (Levine, 2019). Actress Alyssa Milano posted “This is Trump’s America. And it brought me to tears. What are we teaching our young people? Why is this ok? How is this ok? Please help me understand. Because right now I feel like my heart is living outside of my body” at 12:31 PM. Actor Chris Evans also weighed in on the conflict at 5:51 PM tweeting that the actions were appalling and shameful (Associated Press, 2019) Alison Grimes, the Secretary of State of Kentucky posted to Facebook that the events of the “horrific scenes” did not match Kentucky values. She, however, put the blame on the parents, not the kids (Martinez, 2019). As this unusual number of diverse and prominent actors felt the need to weigh in on this event, it further amplified the story’s reach.
Covington Catholic students tried to share their side of the story on Saturday, but this
hardly broke through in media coverage. Their testimonies stayed largely confined to local news stories (WKRC, 2019). Instead, the frames consistently criticized the boys and attributed their actions to racism.
Phase Three: A Longer Video Emerges and the Frame Shifts
On Sunday morning, a longer video of the event lasting almost two hours was uploaded to YouTube. The video was filmed by a member of the Black Hebrew Israelites, another group present on the mall during the original event on Friday afternoon. In the video, the Black Hebrew Israelites shout abusive phrases at the Catholic group including “You believe in a f***** child molester.” “The purge is coming.” “Christ is coming back to kick your cracker asses” (Smith, 2019). The video provides essential context to the original clip that went viral painting a fuller picture of interaction between Sandmann and Phillips. The Black Hebrew Israelites were shouting profanity for nearly an hour at both Native Americans and the high schoolers. This video gives an identity to the four black men Phillips claimed the boys were trying to attack, but there is no evidence of an attack orchestrated by the boys in the video (Smith, 2019). Based on this clip, it appears as if the Covington boys were provoked by the hateful comments of the Black Hebrew Israelites. As the political information cycle progressed, Phillips became a problematic witness after the video’s release. One of his original claims that drove media coverage was that he heard the students chanting “build the wall” and “go back to the reservation,” taunting the Native Americans (Ortiz, 2019). However, there is no audible chanting of these phrases in the entire 2-hour video. The boys were doing some of their school chants, which chaperones gave them permission to do (Wartman, 2019). Phillips had also claimed that the group of boys swarmed him, but the video shows that Phillips approached the crowd and inserted himself into the middle. After the video release, he clarified in an interview with the Detroit Free Press that he did approach the crowd himself after he sensed the white students and black men were “coming to a boiling point” (Mervosh & Rueb, 2019). Countless sources also originally miscredited. Phillips as a Vietnam war veteran according to his own accounts, but he was never deployed to Vietnam. (Warikoo, 2019). It also came to light that Phillips has accused college students from Eastern Michigan University of being racially insensitive in 2015, but investigation into the incident revealed no wrongdoing on the part of the students (Howley, 2019). As all of this new information emerged, it tremendously decreased the validity of the original frame vilifying the Covington boys because most of these stories were rooted in Phillips account, and he now appeared an unreliable witness. The new video proved that that Phillips had twisted parts of the story to work in his favor.
On Sunday night, Sandmann broke his silence and issued a statement at 7:10 PM with an aim to reveal his side of the story and correct misinformation. Sandmann provided that he felt by remaining motionless and calm as Phillips drummed in his face, he was acting maturely by not engaging with the protestor. He claims his smile at Phillips, which was misinterpreted by the media as a mocking smile, was simply to show that he would not become angry or intimidated as Phillips tried to provoke him. Sandmann acquired a Louisville-based RunSwitch Public Relations to help with his crisis management and the release of this statement (Wartman, 2019).
In light of all the new information that emerged today, mainstream news channels began revising their original stories and changing old headlines. On Monday afternoon, Twitter suspended the @2020fight account, the account that posted the initial viral clip of Sandmann and Phillips, because it was suspected on suspicious activity. CNN business discovered that it did not belong to a California schoolteacher, but rather a blogger based out of Brazil named Nah Cardoza. The account’s high posting frequency of about 200 times a day indicated inauthentic behavior (O’Sullivan, 2019). The type of activity follows the patterns of the Russian bot accounts during the 2016 presidential campaign by which accounts appropriate content that fits their political framework and frame it in misleading ways to spread misinformation. This development weakened the frame portraying Phillips and the Native Americans as victims of racial mistreatment, while strengthening the newer developing frame that the real victims were actually Sandmann and the Covington students.
Phase 4: Battle Between New Frames
After the full video was released bringing a new angle to the original story, commentary on the events continued over social media with some actors accepting the original frame, while others began to support the Covington Catholic boys. Most notably President Trump weighed in on the controversy of Tuesday the 22nd at 7:32 AM in support of the Covington boys. His tweet stated, “Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!” However, many notable characters still viewed the incident as one of racial insensitivity. Jim Carrey tweeted a piece of art labeling the Covington students “baby snakes” on the 22nd at 2 PM (Henderson, 2019). Kathy Griffin also tweeted but shortly deleted an image of Covington basketball players making a 3-pointer sign with the caption “throwing up the new Nazi sign” (Ernst, 2019). In light of the continuing social media storm, Covington Catholic Principal Robert Rowe made the decision to close the schools on Tuesday because students were receiving death threats over video (Barillas, 2019). Nathan Phillips’ interviews had dominated the media prior to the release of the full video. Therefore, on January 23, NBC's Savannah Guthrie interviewed Sandmann on The Today Show, giving him a chance to share his side of the story through a national news platform for the first time. Guthrie was criticized by the right and the left for different reasons, despite this being the first and only time Sandmann had a chance to stand up for himself on a national scale aside from releasing his statement. The left criticized Guthrie for giving him a national platform via the Today Show, while the right criticized her for asking if he should apologize to Nathan Phillips (Concha, 2019). Sandmann’s interview did little to clear his name, and the media continued to struggle to make sense of this polarizing story with different networks siding with Phillips and others siding with Sandmann.
Ultimately, the mainstream media never reached a consensus on the correct frame to
present to the public regarding the story. Rather, the development of competing frames testified to the intense polarization that exists through the country. On January 23, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the floor to give a speech in defense of Covington Catholic’s students and parents. He stated, “When the rush for headlines takes precedence over the facts, mistakes are made and our rights as Americans are put at risk. This trend is particularly troubling when young people are involved" (CNS News Staff, 2019). On this day, the House Intelligence Committee also asked Twitter why the video took off so fast. (Conger and Frenkel, 2019). Twitter was unable to provide them with any valuable insight.
After the full video emerged revealing a more candid picture of the events that took place on the mall, some of the key actors rescinded their statements criticizing the boys. On January 25, 2019, The Rev. Roger J. Foys said in a letter that the leadership of the Diocese of Covington apologized for their initial statement saying they "should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely." He specifically apologized to Sandmann and his family (Vera, 2019). The March for Life also issued an apology for its original statement. Similarly, some of the key actors faced consequences for their social media comments regarding the event. Erik Abriss was relived from his job at the Vulture for his volatile tweet wishing death upon the Covington boys and their families (Levine, 2019). Although most major news sources took to correcting and republishing stories that reflected Sandmann’s side of the story, one news site, The National Review, extended a personal apology to the Covington students (Levine, 2019). CNN defended its coverage, and The Washington Post issued and editor’s note correcting information, but no apology. Now, many of the major networks now face lawsuits from Sandmann for defamation including CNN, the Washington Post, and NBC. CNN has already settled with Sandmann, and as the cases with NBC and the Post are pending, Sandmann’s lawyers are considering bringing new defendants into the lawsuit including the Cincinnati Enquirer (Cleveland, 2020).
Connection to Media Hybridity
The political information cycle that unraveled following the events at the Lincoln
memorial on January 18 was emblematic of many key points in Chadwick’s theory of media hybridity. Chadwick emphasizes that media hybridity relates to the ongoing struggles between older and new media logics, emphasizing how they blend, overlap, and evolve. Old norms exist, but new ones are constantly emerging (Chadwick, 2017, p. 12). This dialectic was clear in this case study because social media, one of the newest forms of spreading information was at the center of each evolution in the story. There is “cross-platform iteration and recursion” which allows for timely intervention by online citizen activists (Chadwick, 2017, p. 75). This was observed as an average citizen, one of the Black Hebrew Israelites, with a more complete video of the events at the Lincoln decided to post the video to YouTube to provide clarity on the events
after seeing the first misleading video. Chadwick also discusses that with network power, individuals constantly adapt their norms and practices to join networks that will provide them with advantages of varying kinds (2017, p. 21). This was clearly evident as different actors used the competing frames to further their individual political objectives. For example, Rep Deb Haaland used the original frame of the story to promote her liberal objectives as the first Native American elected to Congress, while Trump used the second alternate frame to argue for the fake news agenda.
Chadwick argues the political information cycle ultimately has more “complex
assemblages,” involving “greater numbers and a more diverse range of actors and interactions” (2017, p.74). This was clear in this case study as the story was driven by local actors, and also met with an overwhelming national response causing political and non-political actors to respond to the event over social media. Because of the complexity created by new media logics, traditional news organizations struggled to make sense of the story, ultimately leading to defamation lawsuits. The case study of the Covington Catholic controversy testifies to the dangers of navigating new media logics in the fast-paced news cycle while maintaining accurate
reporting.
VIDEO LINK
To see the full video lasting 1 hour and 46 minutes
It is up to you how to judge the events you see based on the evidence you are given. Observe, analyze, process..... and lastly judge.
References
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Barillas, M. (2019, January 22). Covington Catholic high school closes for ‘safety’ after students
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Concha, J. (2019, January 23). NBC’s Guthrie slammed by left, right over interview with
Covington student Sandmann. The Hill.
Conger K., & S. Frenkel. (2019, January 23). Who posted viral video of Covington students and protester? Congress wants to know. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/technology/covington-video-protester-congress.html
Chadwick, A. (2017). The hybrid media system: Politics and power, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cleveland, M. (2020, January 9). CNN settles Covington Catholic Defamation Case, but other big media still in the crosshairs. The Federalist. https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/09/cnnsettles-covington-catholic-defamation-case-but-other-big-media-still-in-the-crosshairs/
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With…Hatred from People Who…Had No Idea What Had Taken Place.’ CNSNews.Com.
Ernst, D. (2019, January 22). Kathy Griffin deletes ‘Nazi sign’ smear from stream of Covington Catholic tweets. Washington Times.
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Martinez, G. (2019, January 19). Kentucky teens wearing ‘MAGA’ hats taunt indigenous
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Mayhem C. & C. Knight. (2019, January 25). On the streets and among politicians, the CovCathcontroversy continutes. The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Smith, K. (2019, January 20). Nathan Phillips lied. The media bought it. National Review.
Vera, Amir. (2019, January 25). Kentucky Catholic diocese apologizes for condemning students in viral video with Native American elder. CNN.
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Wartman, S. (2019, January 20). Covington Catholic student from incident at the Indigenous Peoples March issues statement with his side of the story. The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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