The people protesting closures are hacking the journalistic news value of covering what is novel or contrary over what is normalized/accepted. The effect is amplifying a view the vast majority of Americans oppose ( https://bit.ly/2T2HYiV ). Which is fine. But here’s the thing. ...

The protests have to be understood in the context of how right-wing protest and media operations work now.

The protest is the visual show that becomes the seed of more coverage. It is just the beginning. Covering it gives it a type of legitimacy if done wrong.

In this case, an overemphasis on visuals. Loud protesters, guns, screaming, tight TV and photo shots that make the crowds look greater in number to the untrained consumer.

Here is an example of visual framing I use in classes: Fox News and the famous toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue.

https://bit.ly/2zzI6zL 

The tight zoomed composition, the commentary, the sound, Fox News’ particular orientation toward the Bush war on terror …. those are all in play in how viewers decode the event.

I remember being taken in by that moment. It’s a good example of how visuals frame how we see the news. Years later, I saw this photo:

The city square wasn’t nearly as densely packed as the narrative my mind created.

Fox News has issues. I don’t think this is intentional. Tight shots and focus are how you create good TV.

So we have to be aware of how to compose visuals that reflect reality.

Being aware of subtexts in covering Opener protests is important. Frames should include up front, in headlines and chyrons, that these people are in the extreme minority of Americans. You can’t count on people watching to know the polling.

If you don’t, you create an impression of support that isn’t consistent with reality. You can’t assume people watching that clip, that coverage, know what the polling actually says.

This is how right-wing media works its magic. It takes coverage from legitimate media (“even the liberal NY Times is covering it, gosh!”) and uses that to create an air of legitimacy.

Then Fox News, OAN, right-wing sites, YouTubers, social network pages go to wok.

They’ll start by citing that coverage, then use social networks to amplify. A poorly framed visual or headline is what goes viral, not the story that buries critical context 10 paragraphs down. That headline/visual is packaged with Hannity’s nutty take, not a link to the article.

Social network scholars have been talking about this for a while. It’s how the news unwittingly is used to amplify conspiracy theory.

News instead needs to be packaged with inoculants in headlines, audio, text packages on TV and in print. Anticipate disinformation efforts.

Imagine someone watching those Michigan statehouse events and knowing up front that these people were in the extreme minority.

Then they see those visuals, people with armor and guns, yelling at and threatening public officials.

That’s context that lets users understand better.

This is hard stuff. News tends to be episodic in coverage. It’s not well suited for a world of viral conspiracy theory spread.

But as we start to see Republican support for CDC expertise receding, we can’t say it’s coming from nowhere. These folks are being force-fed paranoia.

This is how you get this. I mean, it’s kind of astounding. https://twitter.com/josh_wingrove/status/1260531354560798728

I have friends like Kilmeade on Facebook. A lot of them. They’re convinced they’re in the majority. “I don’t know anyone who ….” is pretty common.

The news industry’s main job right now is figuring out how to tell its stories in ways that break down those silos.

This isn’t normal right/left stuff. This disease doesn’t know ideology, and will not contain itself to people who are reckless.

News, social platforms, etc. - they are not well set up for this cometh. They have to pivot to a strategy that sees containing con artists as job 1.

Empathy still matters. In that data, there is some hope. Knowing someone with COVID moves the needle toward supporting social distancing.

Conservative media is the destroyer of empathy. The news can play a big role in helping us reclaim it, if we do it well.

Forgive the missing “r” in some of the words in the thread. My keyboard is wonky and I can’t take it in to get it cleaned. :)