How should we cover ambiguous videos that go viral?

We’ve all seen it – the explosive viral video showing a young white male in a bright red Make America Great Again cap staring directly into the face of a Native American elder. Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old who served in the marine corps reserve, stoically beats his drum and sings, as a group of white youths appeared to relentlessly taunt him and smirk in his face at the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington last week.

The original one-minute video has now gained international attention, with many seeing it as a 21st-century example of racism and white supremacy in America. It’s reminiscent of the aggressive white women screaming at Elizabeth Eckford, one of the first black students to attend class at an all-white school; or images of a woman and her child outside the “coloured entrance” at the movie theatre.

However, as is often the case with viral stories, the narrative of what actually happened that day has become divisive and debated. Since gaining international attention, Nick Sandmann, the boy at the centre of the uproar, has issued a statement saying he was provoked by the African American Israelite Brotherhood, and has also refused to apologise for his actions on national television.

He’s got no shortage of backers either. President Donald Trump jumped on the bandwagon, saying that he and his fellow students from Covington Catholic were “smeared by the media”.

This dichotomy of opinion is often a running theme in much of the viral content and news that we cover on indy100, and one that we have to navigate with sensitivity and accuracy while also responding in a swift and prompt manner. How do we distinguish fact from fiction? Where are the boundaries between opinion and reality?

This was illustrated by two other viral videos that we’ve covered on indy100 over the past few months. Back in November, the White House was accused of issuing a “doctored” video of the journalist Jim Acosta (who shortly afterwards had his White House permit revoked), apparently touching a female intern aggressively, and inappropriately.

After much investigation, including some excellent analysis by The Independent’s own video team, we were able to get to the bottom of the viral story, to see that yes, the footage had been doctored, and therefore the White House was guilty of what it so often accuses others of – distributing fake news.

Another instance was during an explosive prime minister’s questions session in December, when Jeremy Corbyn was accused of calling Theresa May a “stupid woman”. Again, on indy100, we had to be very careful with how we covered this viral moment, as it wasn’t directly apparent whether he really had said it, or not.

What these instances tell us is that we shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon, but that we should believe our eyes when we see something that screams of injustice and also stands as an epithet for our times. In indy100‘s view, the video of the Maga boys harassing the elderly Nathan Phillips is just that.

Yours,

Lowenna Waters

Senior reporter, indy100