After violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, media coverage differed on what aspect of the event to cover.
Using analyses from Cortico and the Laboratory for Social Machines at the MIT Media Lab, we looked at what partisan Twitter users shared during and after the events of Charlottesville. We found a clear split in the story as told through partisan sources.
Take, for example, the shared headlines following President Donald Trump’s news conference on Aug. 15 in Trump Tower.
After Trump press conference, Democrats and Republicans share different versions of the story
Headlines shared by the left | Headlines shared by the right |
---|---|
Trump Gives White Supremacists an Unequivocal Boost nytimes.com | Donald Trump Blasts Reporters at Trump Tower for One-Sided Charlottesville Reporting breitbart.com |
Trump: ‘Both sides’ to blame for Charlottesville cnn.com | Trump decries ‘alt-left’ in Charlottesville: ‘Do they have any semblance of guilt?’ foxnews.com |
Trump again blames ‘both sides’ in Charlottesville, says some counterprotesters were ‘very, very violent’ washingtonpost.com | Left Blames Trump For Charlottesville. Here Are 5 Murders The Press Didn't Blame Obama For dailywire.com |
On each side, one publication dominated the conversation. The New York Times and Breitbart, represented 32 percent and 26 percent, respectively, of the top links shared by each camp.
Other stories broke through both sides, such as Vice’s viral documentary on the events in Charlottesville.
The data targets Twitter users with clear political allegiances — specifically, politically active users that exclusively followed either a Republican or Democratic 2016 presidential candidate. The top stories shared by both camps each day from Saturday, Aug. 12, through Wednesday, Aug. 16, show the political lines drawn between core supporters of Trump and the administration’s staunchest detractors.
Outside major media headlines, core Republicans were more likely to share videos, while Democrats were more likely to share petitions.
For example, Republicans widely shared a video conversation between Faith Goldy, reporting for Canadian hard-line conservative outlet, Rebel Media, and nationalist podcaster, Stefan Molyneux. In the video, Goldy describes violence by counter-protesters, “I saw some [Black Lives Matter] folks and just young black men throwing rocks at former veterans.” To date, the video has more than 330,000 views.
Democrats shared petitions targeting Steve Bannon and asking the Justice Department to file terrorism charges against the driver of the vehicle that killed Heather Heyer.
Despite the split narratives between Trump’s core supporters and Democrats, the effect on the voting base has been less conflicted. The latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows the administration bungled the response in the eyes of many Republican voters, where support for the president fell 8 points last week.