If In Doubt,Don't Get It Out - The Military and Social Media

The Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS PRINCE OF WALES has been in the news following video footage emerging showing a flood in one of the ships accommodation spaces. This footage, shot on a member of the Ships Company’s phones shows water pouring into a space, while commentary is heard around it.

The footage has aroused a variety of reactions, from surprise at the perceived lack of action being taken, through to concern that a brand new warship is ‘leaking’. It is an interesting story and one worthy of further thought.

From the outset it is important to be clear that all ships leak. The average modern warship is filled with miles of pipework carrying all manner of liquids around on a constant basis. The system is regularly put under pressure, and used around the clock to help keep a ship ready for operations.

HMS PRINCE OF WALES0 Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Much like towns routinely experience burst pipes, it is a reality that ships too will experience leaks as pipes burst or liquid escapes. This is something that has occurred to every warship ever built and is a reality of being a navy. Whether you like it or not, leaks happen.

To that extent, the fact that the ship experienced a leak is not particularly interesting or unusual for seasoned naval observers. It is very much part of life onboard for navies of all nations. But, to the untrained eye it doubtless appears terrifying and could raise real questions about the safety of ships.

The issue is whether, by filming this incident it became something that went from ‘routine part of life in a blue suit’ to ‘worthy of media coverage’ simply because a snapshot in time of 11 seconds of footage showed a problem.

In previous years reports of floods would have been of no interest, no matter how dramatic because there was unlikely to have been any evidence, and a photo which emerged months after the event is rarely going to capture the immediacy and drama of the situation.

While leaks like this are a sadly regular part of life, they rarely pose a threat to the security of the ship, and are usually quickly dealt with. But, how do you convince and reassure taxpayers that their incredibly expensive new ships are not jinxed when you see footage like this on social media?

This is perhaps the deeper challenge – how does a modern military communicate about what it does, and reassure the public that its safe to operate in an age when phones can easily capture footage of things that, to an outsider, look profoundly risky?

This goes to a deeper question around how the armed forces balance their relationship between access to information, and their members abilities to create stories via phones that can quickly take over and control some of the news cycle?

Part of the challenge is generational. Modern recruits have grown up with phones almost organically attached to them, and for many, the act of recording or capturing footage is almost second nature. This need to capture and to share is ingrained, and at times perhaps reflects a lack of caution around thinking ‘should I really be taking a picture of this right now’?

The problem then becomes one of control – the moment an image or video clip is shared, control is lost of it. This makes it much harder to control a narrative when there is footage bouncing around on the internet which can, with little difficulty quickly be found either online or via a variety of websites or whatsapp groups.

This in turn is a boon for media organisations wanting to report something sensational or interesting.  Bad news generates clicks, and clicks generate revenue. When you have a steady drip of videos coming out, all of which capture minor incidents but which seem dramatic, it is a fantastic way to get a story that interests people.

How do you address this and explain that the problems seen are not necessarily actually that big a deal? There is rarely much interest, or need for a ‘nothing to see here’ press release, and its much harder to explain ‘leaks are an inevitable fact of life onboard a major warship and are quickly dealt with’ than it is to cover a story with video footage of a flood. People are inherently drawn to bad news and want to worry, and trying to communicate capability is difficult because it is so hard to reassure people that ‘all is well’.

The challenge for MOD is that tiny stories like this stick around and become part of the narrative of the ships life. Looking at some of the media coverage of this incident, it was notable that many recounted what appeared to be a tale of woe of leaks here, floods there, COVID issues and other challenges which implied that all was not quite right with the aircraft carrier programme.

All of this is true – there have been leaks and floods onboard, but that is the reality of life on a ship. It is likely that every single ship in the Royal Navy has probably had a flood at least once during its active life, and probably more than that. The difference is how much more easy it is to both capture footage of it happening and to find out in the first place in a timely manner.

The existence of Whatsapp groups bouncing stories around means that journalists know of developments practically in real time – you only have to look at the way some stories emerge as ‘breaking news’ as they happen to realise that the ability to communicate has changed forever. In turn its much harder to be on the front foot – by the time you’ve worked out what is being reported, confirmed what is going on, got some releasable information and a quote and a sense of context to offset initial reports, and the incident may well be a few hours old, creating an information gap that can be exploited.

It’s a fascinating challenge – how do you fill the gap quickly with accurate information to offer as a counter point, and how can you be sufficiently timely? Its all very well saying ‘MOD should be quicker to confirm what is happening’, but imagine if in the rush to provide something, details were missed or misleading or incorrect information was given to the press – the danger of loss of trust is significant and could have longer term repercussions. How do you keep it timely and accurate?

Another challenge is in trying to set things in context. The footage of the flood was about 11 seconds long, offered without context or understanding of what was going on. Yet this didn’t stop a legion of people on twitter making unhelpful comments about what the person SHOULD have been doing – its very easy with the benefit of hindsight and rewindable footage to think about it, but you don’t have much context to go on.

Yes water was pouring in, and its easy to say ‘grab this, make these isolations, do this, do that’ but without knowing what was happening around, what actions had already been taken and what the person in question had been detailed off to do, such criticism is pointless. Unless you know exactly what the bigger picture was, how can you effectively offer such views?

There is a training challenge too – how do you stop people from instinctively reaching for their phones and taking film footage and pictures, and then sharing them? Its easy to say ‘ban phones’ but its much harder to police. The combination of people being used to using them, coupled with the way they have become second nature to reach for to capture an event makes this difficult to achieve.

The new reality of media coverage is that the armed forces will almost certainly continue to generate stories like this because of the widespread prevalence of mobile phones and the willingness of people to share imagery. All it takes is one ‘forward’ and before you know it a new Corps legend is born.

With sites like Fill Your Boots becoming the unofficial home of military banter, embarrassing stories and some very effective work at calling out wrongs, the military has become a self-generating news production machine.

In some ways in the medium term this could be incredibly positive – if used effectively, sites like FYB can help draw attention to pointless bull, inappropriate activity and help make soldiers lives better. This in turn forces people to think about how they react and behave – if one of the key judgement tests alongside the ‘does this pass the Daily Mail test’ becomes ‘How would this read on Fill Your Boots’ then it may perhaps help moderate some of the more challenging behaviours seen out there.

But, managing this has to be done in an environment of properly educating military personnel at all levels about the risks of social media and where it can go wrong. How many careers could be ruined if activities that would previously be deemed as ‘harmless hijinks’ suddenly pass the threshold of publication test and end up in the paper?

You only have to look at recent reports of soldiers having a clearly rather messy night out at RAF Scampton to see what can happen when a good night out becomes a horrible morning after. The reports of naked soldiers on a Red Arrows jet were, despite the very tenuous efforts to link it to disrespecting a nearby memorial of which they were clearly unaware, fairly classic military drunken silliness – no damage was done (except perhaps to male egos given how small the blurred roundels covering naked bits were).

This sort of incident, without pictures has been replicated countless times across military establishments. Its as much about bonding with your oppos as it is about having fun. Yet by choosing to film this and take and distribute pictures, the individuals found themselves in the eyes of the media as they clearly constituted a good story – had they not taken photos, it is impossible to imagine any interest ever being shown because there was no proof.

Looking ahead there appears to be an interesting set of problems for the armed forces – they are their own worst enemy when it comes to individuals generating negative PR and recording it. How do you take back control of a narrative campaign when editors, faced with the choice of either a story about a squaddy doing something extremely silly, or a routine press release focusing on a very dry subject like a new accommodation block opening, are naturally going to choose the former?

Perhaps its time to embrace it a little and accept that some (not all) of these stories are in their own way actually rather good for the armed forces? While the military may not be too keen on actively promoting drunkness (despite significant alcoholic use being at the centre of military life for many people), stories like the naked soldiers remind us that soldiers will always be soldiers – warts and all.

This sense of belonging and shared camaraderie may well appeal to some people, particularly those in the target recruiting audience, and could well do as much for recruitment as any manner of targeted recruiting campaign. It also reassures older and bolder types that the Army will always be the Army.

It is perhaps ironic that it has never been easier to communicate about what we do and get the message out. In an age when anyone can film something and help set the news agenda, even in a small way, it makes press offices feel smaller and less relevant than ever – why wait for a press release when a quick trawl of a Facebook page like Fill Your Boots gives you  a raft of stories that your readers want to hear about?

Set against this, the challenge of communicating about good news, or even reassurance becomes ever harder. The Royal Navy has got two exceptionally capable new aircraft carriers in service, yet the stories will, for now, focus as much on tiny isolated incidents as they do the wider strategic narrative about what they can do for Britain, because its easier to understand when something has gone wrong – and far more interesting to learn about too.

This cycle will not be broken, and the day will not come when MOD press releases about a new ‘digital sensor to shooting system allows allied nations to share tactical information’  (yes, that was a real title!) are covered in preference over naked drunken soldiers having fun, or ships temporarily leaking. Understanding this is important, but so is educating on good social media use – its easy to understand why MOD can, at times, be so reticent to endorse social media when you see some of the images that emerge.

Hopefully things won’t go to the extent that the Russians have gone to of baring their troops from having phones, but looking forward, there are likely to be difficult conversations around how to balance off the need to have phones for retention purposes, versus the need to switch off and stay silent.

Maybe the time has come for a new version of ‘loose links sink ships’ to remind people not to talk or film – perhaps ‘if in doubt, don’t get it out’?