Mass Murder and the Social Construction of Terrorism
On January 8, 2011 a person walked up to a group gathered to talk with their member of congress. He opened fire, killed six and wounded 12.
On July 20, 2012 a person walked into a movie house filled for the premiere of a blockbuster movie. He opened fire, killed 12 and wounded 58.
In the first hours that is what is known. There is little information about the person who did the shooting. There is no information about the motives that led to the action.
The first reactions are attempts to make sense of what had happened. Terrorism, a dominant topoi of the twenty-first century, becomes one possibility in the sense making. Among the earliest Twitter messages it was voiced.
standardoftruth | 7/20/2012 | 3:42 | At least 20 dead in Colorado terrorist attack #ramadan #terrorism #armyoursel
Sekhmetnakt | 7/20/2012 | 3:44 | #Rush demands destruction of The Dark Knight Rises, then events of tonight occur. Coincidence? Yea RIGHT! #GOP #terrorism
LazySlob1 | 7/20/2012 | 3:46 | So gunmen put teargas in a cinema and murdered the people fleeing in Denver, Colorado. That's terrorism, right?
At 3:42 in the morning (CDT) standardoftruth characterized it as "Colorado terrorist attack" Two minutes later Sekhmetnakt referred to what Rush Limbaugh said should be done to the movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and labeled it #GOP #terrorism. Two minutes after Sekhmetnakt LazySlob1 did the quick summary: gunman, teargas, cinema, murdered the people fleeing, Denver. "That's terrorism, right?"
That began an argument that lasted for several days.
Data
In both 2011 and 2012 I was collecting the streams of Twitter messages containing the word terrorism. The program accesses the Twitter search API every five minutes requesting messages containing the search term. It adds the messages found to the file it is compiling. Since Twitter will respond to a search with only 1,500 messages some messages will be lost if the number of messages being posted to Twitter are more than 1,500 in five minutes. There are streams of messages that are being posted much faster than 1,500 every five minutes. Twitter messages about the State of the Union of 2012 peaked at close to 15,000 a minute. (Schroeder, 1/25/2012) But that was not the case for these searches in 2011 and 2012.
Streams containing terrorism are not the only messages about each of the events. In an earlier analysis we looked at streams containing Giffords, Palin, and blood libel as well as terrorism. (Boynton and Richardson, 2012) But the focus of this report is on the arguments being made about terrorism.
Impact of the events on communication on Twitter
One way to note the impact the assaults had on communication about politics on Twitter is to look at the way the two candidates of 2012 were discussed. While the standard pattern has been for attention to center on the presidential race after Labor Day, communication about the campaign was in full swing by July 20. The number of messages mentioning the candidates had reached 300 to 400 thousand a day. The contrast between July 19 and July 20 is presented in the table.
Obama2012 |
barackobama |
Obama |
Total Obama |
MittRomney |
Romney |
Total Romney |
|
| July 19 | 7991 |
34774 |
213,520 |
256,285 |
21037 |
150,000 |
171,037 |
| July 20 | 3608 |
25612 |
180,866 |
210,086 |
9685 |
75,258 |
84,943 |
| July 20 as percentage July 19 | 45.1 |
73.6 |
84.7 |
81.9 |
46.0 |
50.1 |
49.7 |
Both candidates suspended campaign events for the day. Twitter messages mentioning Romney were down by half. The president was more frequently mentioned in messages about the assault. So there was less of a dropoff in messages mentioning Obama. However, the most telling is the number of messages including Obama2012, which was the 'official' hashtag of the campaign. That hashtag was used in only 45% as many messages on the twentieth as on the nineteenth.
Attention had shifted.
One shift was to messages about terrorism.
|
These are the messages per day containing terrorism for four days before and the day of the assault. The last days are January 8, 2011 and July 20, 2012. In both 2011 and 2012 there was a large spike on the day of the assaults. The spike was more substantial in 2012 as it went from 5,138 the day before to 45,121, than in 2011 when it went from 2,776 to 13,912. One reason for the difference is the timing of the assault. In 2012 the assault occurred the night before so the messaging continued all day. In 2011 the assault was at noon. So the spike occurred in half as much time. Plus the number of all messages posted to Twitter had doubled between 2011 and 2012.
Retweeting as social construction
Twitter is broadcast communication. One writes a message that is 140 characters or less and posts it to Twitter where it is, by default, available to anyone who may come across it. People using Twitter to communicate were not satisfied with broadcast and they invented conventions that helped it become interaction. Retweeting is such a convention; it was the invention of the users and only well after it had become firmly established as a standard form of communication did Twitter, the corporation, make it a part of the 'package.'
A retweet is an attributed quotation. The form is
[name of person retweeting] RT @[name of person being quoted] message of the person being quoted
It identifies the message, the person who originally wrote the message, and the person who is sending it along. The person sending the message along is sending it to people who follow that person.
In general, retweeting is expressive communication. I read this. It says just how I feel, and it says it better than I can. So I send it along to you. (Boynton, 11/04/2011)
Retweeting is about we and how we understand/feel about the subject of the communication. When we become many then the we construction becomes social construction.
Retweeting is a small part of Twitter communication. In 2010 it was only six percent of Twitter messages. ( Evans, 9/30/2010) But in the two streams containing terrorism 70.8% of the messages in 2011 were retweets and 70.1% were retweets in 2012. This is 'we' at a very high proportion of the messages; high enough to become social construction.
It is social construction happening in public.
The social construction of terrorism
The first move was terrorism. It was terrorism in the first three Twitter messages at 3:42 am. But what were the marks of terrorism? What was it that made it terrorism?
In the first hour there were just over 100 Twitter messages about the shooting.
It was terrorism because it was violence creating terror
It was terrorism because of the number of casualties
It was terrorism because of the planning that went into it and the diversity of weapons employed
It was terrorism because we have a name for it -- domestic terrorism and it could be compared to Columbine and Virginia Tech
It was terrorism because it was politically inspired
Rush Limbaugh fills the bill. He called for the destruction of the movie on political grounds. The shooter must have been inspired and Rush Limbaugh has American blood on his hands.
And understanding the event as terrorism was reinforced by the report of a local TV station.
Thirty minutes after the first tweets there was a report that the local CBS station called it domestic terrorism. That was at 3:12 am MDT
That interpretation began to be called into question after the first hour.
He was a lone gunman with no connection to terrorist organizations
That produced the push back
Mental illness became the alternative interpretation
By 9:30 am the interpretation was settled. The White House and the FBI agreed
The authoritative word was: not terrorism. It is terrorism only if there is a shadowy organization commissioning the act.
The response to the authoritative word was overwhelming. The ten most retweeted messages were:
Number |
Twitter Message |
7571 |
If James Holmes was Arab-American, it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so it's "mental illness". #truth |
2420 |
If James Holmes was Arab-American, it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so its "mental illness". |
1869 |
If James Holmes was Arab it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so it's "mental illness" ... Smh |
1793 |
If James Holmes were Arab-American it'd be "Terrorism". If he was Black it'd be "thugs & Rap Music". But he's White so it's "mental illness" |
847 |
Were James Holmes Arab-American it'd be "Terrorism". Were he Black it'd be "Ni**ers & Rap Music". But he's White so it's mental illness. |
809 |
When will Americans cease to define terrorism by the perpetrator's faith—James Holmes is a terrorist not merely a "shooter" |
781 |
If James Holmes was Arab-American, it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so its "mental illness". |
723 |
If James Holmes was Arab it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so it's "mental illness" ... Smh |
589 |
A guy randomly killing people just because he wanted to and had the guns to do it is much more terrifying than terrorism. #TooEasyToGetGuns |
562 |
If James Holmes were from the Middle East, it'd be terrorism. If he were black, it'd be rap music, but he's white, so it's "mental illness" |
For eight of the first ten it was the same message with very slight variations. Articulate the stereotypes to reject them: Arab-American equals terrorist; black equals thug, and white equals illness. That single message, in the top ten, was retweeted 23,566 times. And it did not stop with the top ten retweeted messages. The rejection of the standard construction of terrorism is in almost all of the retweeted messages.
This was a massive rejection of the official construction and the articulation of another construction. Mass murder is the very definition of terrorism.
What about 2010?
There were fewer messages connecting the shooting in Arizona to terrorism than in 2012, as already noted. But they had a clearer source to reject. Within minutes the 'official' construction was challenged.
genehack | 1/8/2011 | 12:40:00 | For the record, even though it won't be described as such in the media, the Giffords assassination is domestic terrorism.
The media is the bearer of the official construction, and CNN stepped forward to do the deed.
PDotMarti | 1/8/2011 | 13:38:00 | CNN saying it's not terrorism if it's someone from the US? that's complete bullshit
Within the hour CNN declared: it is not terrorism. The response to that declaration was almost unanimous.
Number |
Message |
1798 |
CNN "nothing to indicate this terrorism." NEWS FLASH! Political murders are terrorists even if they're white #p2 #giffords |
|
790 |
When CNN says, "There's nothing to indicate this is terrorism," they mean "There's nothing to indicate killer is Muslim" |
789 |
Thank God violence and murder designed to incite fear and affect political change will never be called terrorism if you're white. |
309 |
Why aren't acts of terrorism carried out by Americans called "acts of terrorism?" |
287 |
Regardless of who murdered Rep. Gifford, this is what actual terrorism looks like. These are the people who truly hate our freedoms. |
201 |
RT @DanteAtkins Gabrielle Giffords was not "shot". She was assassinated in an act of domestic terrorism #PALIN |
131 |
Someone tell the idiots in the media that terrorism isn't limited to shit being blown up. #facepalm #p2 |
123 |
Gabrielle Giffords was not "shot". She was assassinated in an act of domestic terrorism. |
90 |
RT @barryeisler When CNN says "There's nothng 2indicate this is terrorism" they mean "Theres nothng 2indicate killer Muslim" |
83 |
RT @barryeisler When CNN says, "There's nothing to indicate this is terrorism," they mean "There's nothing to indicate killer is Muslim." |
The official construction is that terrorism is about political organizations, which in this decade elides into muslim. Attempting to assassinate a member of congress is certainly a political act. But there was no organization. Hence it was not terrorism.
The construction advanced in the retweeted Twitter messages is that terrorism is about actions designed to create terror. Terrorism is about terror. There is a name that sets this terrorism off from other terrorisms -- domestic terrorism. And domestic terrorism in the United States does not depend on a person being a Muslim. Domestic terrorism depends on the act. The act that is "violence and murder designed to incite fear" is domestic terrorism.
This construction is not limited to the top 10.
These messages also make the point that terrorism is the act and the intimidation that follows the act.
The audience for the constructions
The FBI announces, the White House announces, and the mainstream broadcast media distribute the announcements to their 'followers.' These were incidents of great interest to the American public. The official construction of terrorism was communicated widely in the days after the assaults.
What about the refusal to buy into the official construction? What was the reach of this communication? I did not count in these cases, but I have assembled two months of data on number of followers in 106 different studies. In only four of the 106 studies does the average number of followers fall below1,000, and in those four cases the averages are between 900 and 1,000. There were 45,000 messages about the assault as terrorism in 2012. Add three zeroes and you get 45,000,000. There were almost 14,000 in 2011. Add three zeroes and you get 14,000,000. Those are conservative estimates, and they are big numbers. They rival the reach of mainline broadcast media. They do not have the authority of officialdom. But they do have the reach.
Social construction
Social construction is about a framework of understanding and action. It is everywhere. It is our interaction with other people. It is our entertainment. It is the way we learn about political events. And it is in some retweeting.
The rejection of the official construction of terrorism is a case in which the alter construction is present on the surface of the communication. Terrorism is about terror. It is about people being terrorized. That is the construction of people posting messages to Twitter about the two assaults.
References
Boynton, G. R. (11/04/2011) Retweeting in big numbers
Evans, Mark (9/30/2010) An Exploration of Retweets and Replies, sysomos Blog
Schroeder, Stan (1/20/2010) Obama's State of the Union Address Sees 760,000 Tweets [Infographic], Mashable
© G. R. Boynton, July 24, 2012