{"id":2317,"date":"2017-02-15T17:14:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.coldstreams.com\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2024-12-14T21:38:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T21:38:41","slug":"oroville-dam-emergency-turns-in-to-social-media-political-propaganda-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2017\/02\/15\/oroville-dam-emergency-turns-in-to-social-media-political-propaganda-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Oroville Dam emergency turns in to social media political propaganda opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just hours after a mass evacuation order was given, the emergency in Northern California turned social media into its usual outrage culture filled with political propaganda. This event has provided a real time illustration of the way that social media is collapsing in on itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and third comments in this screen capture illustrate both sides:
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Water scientist Peter Gleick says he cannot tell which is worse: “gloating comments<\/em>” on social media might be worse<\/em> than evacuating 190,000 people under threat of flooding and loss of life – and he cannot tell which is worse? (His comments reinforce his documented reputation for unethical behavior<\/a>.)
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The environmental spin:

At this point, we don’t know the cause of the Oroville Dam problems – design, construction, maintenance, operational management errors, policy maker decisions, weather, uncertainty, history of floods in the area and so on – but on social media, we know the cause with precision …. or perhaps someone doesn’t want to let a crisis go to waste when it presents an opportunity for propaganda messaging. (There were numerous tweets similar to the above.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above were posted within 1-3 hours of the evacuation order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, but less than 24 hours since the evacuation order was given, Twitter’s #OrovilleDam tag has turned into mostly political propaganda. Literally, nearly half of the tweets were politicizing the disaster:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Some begin to note that turning a real time disaster in to politicking looks awkward:
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These two appeared adjacent to one another on Twitter:
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And so on. Never let a disaster of unknown cause go to waste when there is social media propaganda to spread!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Note – I waited until after the crisis was largely resolved before publishing this post. The evacuation order was lifted yesterday afternoon.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just hours after a mass evacuation order was given, the emergency in Northern California turned social media into its usual outrage culture filled with political propaganda. This event has provided a real time illustration of the way that social media is collapsing in on itself. The first and third comments in this screen capture illustrate both sides: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Water scientist Peter Gleick says he cannot tell which is worse: “gloating comments” on social media might be worse…<\/p>\n

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