“Who needs to watch “House of Cards”? The annual USF student government election controversy once again provides more devious entertainment, rule breaking, plotting, cheating and deceit than even Hollywood can script.
I’m very proud of both candidates!!!”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website in response to the article “Student body president elect still unclear,” 17 March 2014.
In a digital era where anyone who wants to publish their information can do so easily and for virtually nothing, a rising question that often appears is whether or not all the information presented to the public is accurate or not.
Sometimes, however, it may not be whether or not the information itself is true or not, but how we disseminate the information and whether our perception of it is accurate.
In “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society,” author Farhad Manjoo explores this topic and explains a number of concepts that can be noticed in today’s media world because of how the audience perceives its news. One of these concepts is selective perception, which is the a term to describe when although the audience in question is viewing the exact same news story from the exact same source, members of that audience will still perceive it in different ways, and selectively choose which parts of it to believe and remember.
This concept can be viewed even in news on our very own university’s campus. Throughout the semester, USF’s student newspaper The Oracle published a series of stories about Student Government’s spring elections for next year’s presidency and senate positions.
This year, the campaigning became a little heated between two candidates, Jean Cocco and Brandi Arnold. A series of grievances were filed against each candidate, and Cocco had so many filed against him that he was temporarily disqualified from the election, although he won the popular vote in both the first round of voting, and in a run-off round. Cocco later appealed the grievances and was allowed to remain in the race, winning the spot of presidential-elect for the next school year.
Things didn’t stop there, however. The Election Rules Committee also appealed the decision to the Dean for Students, who sided with the decision that Cocco won the election. There was also tension within Student Government itself, with some controversy in the judicial branch and senate, which is still continuing to this day.
As the story progressed, everyone seemed to have their own opinion about what was true and what wasn’t as far as the grievances are concerned. While viewpoints and opinions may have been determined by student’s preference for a presidential candidate, the predetermined views reflected in the comments on social media and The Oracle’s website on the controversy, as students would either support the infractions imposed upon the candidates, or argue that they were a waste of time, as what happened numerous times concerning grievances made against Cocco’s campaign.
“Between the supposed errors on the grievences and the minorness of the infractions I find it absurd to dq Cocco. OMG a link is on the YouTube page and not the video. Oh geez, somebody is wearing a shirt in a printing lab. A long time friend and politician supports someone… oh foreshame. These elections are unamerican. What a sham. And to schedual the hearings when there is a Senate meeting knowing full well he is a senator…. Sounds like a planned mugging to me. There are many questionable things going on here. American values are being sat on here.”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website in response to campaign controversy, 6 March 2014.
“All these grievances are dumb.
1. Who cares if the voting link is not on the picture or video? It is tedious to do this, and does the campaign get an unfair advantage by NOT putting the voting link?
2. A person is allowed to wear whatever he/she wants if going to the lab for personal things. You can’t penalize people for wearing a shirt while going to the computer lab for academic work.
3. Bringing a celebrity to campus: If the celebrity wants to endorse someone, he should be allowed to do so. So Charlie Christ comes on campus, and you expect the candidate to tell the former Governor of Florida that he can’t say certain things because it will get the candidate disqualified?
If the above are considered violations according to the rules, then the rules are flawed. Change the rules.
The purpose of having rules is to maintain a clean campaign and to prevent abuse. None of the above acts implied foul play.”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website, 7 March 2014
There was also a series of comments made against the publication itself, with many users commenting on the fact that The Oracle quoted candidate Cocco in a story about the university adding Chick-Fil-A sauce to its menu after many requests from students. Many users perceived the quote from Cocco as a nod from the publication in favor of his campaign:
“Passive campaigning”… Look no further than this “newspaper” and its Editor in Chiefs silly article on Chick fil A sauce. Cocco just “by chance” is the first interviewee/random student asked about the lack of this condiment and is support. Cocco is a loser that I’m sure will not go away for the rest of this year and I’m sure the “editor in Chief” will be very negative towards the winner of this race.”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website, 20 March 2014
“I just love the puff piece the EDITOR of this newsrag wrote about the lack of ” chick Fill a” sauce on Campus. The story started with an interview of a student who just happens to be cocco.. What a scam.”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website, 10 March 2014
“I found it interesting that the EDITOR IN CHIEF of this “newspaper” found a way to slip a mention of this candidates name while “reporting” on the lack of Chick -fil-a sauce.”
— Comment made on The Oracle’s website, 10 March 2014
These comments show that students are suspicious of the publication for presenting a bias, but it also demonstrates another concept that Manjoo outlines in True Enough: Hostile Media Phenomenon. This concept is the belief that two people on opposing side of a controversy can watch the same news story, and that both people will come away feeling misrepresented in the story.
Those who commented on the story about the Chick-Fil-A sauce believed that the publication held a bias that was against their views and therefore was hostile towards their beliefs, but there were also commenters who believed that the petition for Chick-Fil-A sauce was just a fluff piece and a waste of time, so no matter what end of the spectrum someone stood on, people were going to view The Oracle as hostile toward their beliefs.
While the controversial election has come to a close this semester, the discussion on what should have happened and what did actually happen will still be a popular topic among students, especially those involved with Student Government and the media. Because of the coverage of this election, next year’s race will be just as closely looked at, and it will be interesting to see how Manjoo’s concepts can be applied to future elections.
Driven By Daydreams 