Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst is now remembered for his communication with noted illustrator and artist Frederick Remington, who had been sent to Cuba in early 1897 to cover the insurrection. After arriving, Remington wrote “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return.”
Hearst infamously replied, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
One can only imagine what Hearst, who is still remembered for his sensational “Yellow Journalism” of the era, would have thought of social media. This would certainly be the case on Friday after a Ukrainian missile was employed to successfully strike the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Countering The New Media
Using traditional media, the Russian Ministry of Defense tried to downplay the attack—claiming that one sailor was missing while the “historic” headquarters building was damaged.
“The Russian Defense Ministry reported earlier that the Kiev regime had carried out a missile strike on Sevastopol this afternoon, damaging the historic Black Sea Fleet headquarters building. According to the ministry, Russia’s air defenses shot down five missiles,” Russian state media outlet Tass reported.
Reports from social media are vastly different, and it isn’t taking the likes of Frederick Remington, Frank Cappa or Lee Miller to be on the ground snapping the photos. In fact, still images and videos quickly circulated on social media that showed the headquarters building burning, with much of its façade destroyed.
It was clearly much more than minor damage.
Russia’s official word clearly differed from what posts on social media presented.
“Social media is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a child’s birthday or the destruction of a military headquarters in a city. If it happens and someone has a smartphone, it will end up on social media,” suggested technology industry analyst and social media pundit Roger Entner of Recon Analytics.
However, not everything presented on social media will, or should, be believed
“The Internet is a perfect medium for lies that cannot be disproven because their proliferation effectively drowns the truth,” explained Dr. Matthew J. Schmidt, associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven.
Glory To Urine?
For the same reason, this is why many believed the posts that claimed a video screen near Times Square in New York City proclaimed “Glory to Urine”—rather than the correct “Glory to Ukraine. Even after being debunk, the doctored images continued to circulate on social media.
No such message was ever displayed on the billboard at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. The background to create the video was not even recent, yet we live in a world where sensational stories are believed—much as they were in the days of Hearst.
Thus social media can just as easily be employed to disseminate misinformation as it is used to spread the truth.
And Moscow Will Stick To Its Story
It is also highly likely that many in Russia won’t see the videos of the destruction of the Black Sea Fleet’s HQ—and will therefore buy the official line from the Kremlin.
“What this says is that it’s important to stick to the party line and always say, even in the face of video evidence that the attack hasn’t been as successful as claimed, because that is not verifiable given the attack was in Russian-controlled territory. As Goebbels put it, lies are only useful when they cannot be disapproved,” added Schmidt.
That is also why Russia’s official statement noted the missiles its air-defenses shot down, not the damage the building took in the attack.
“Always remember, it is not the West that is the target audience for this, it’s the Russian population,” Schmidt continued. “The Kremlin’s response is designed simply to muddy the waters. It posits a conjecture that the attack wasn’t successful, and that can’t be verified by the target audience. That’s all it has to do to blunt the truth.”
Clearly, Russia sees that it must control the narrative. It already has the war, and the Kremlin really does not want the photos that go with it.
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