On Aug. 24, a day before Lovers’ Day, or the Qixi Festival, a picture was posted on the Taichung Police Department’s Facebook page showing an officer in sunglasses slapping a civilian for calling it “Lovers’ Day” and declaring that it is the birthday of the “Weaving Maid” (七娘媽).
The picture sparked controversy and even complaints from a city councilor and it was removed, although the text remains.
Global media have been paying attention to police violence in Hong Kong over the past year. The social media editor at the department must be aware of this.
That the editor of a social media account for law enforcement would post such an image over such a trivial issue — the post’s intention seemed to be to ask people to avoid public displays of affection — when so much attention is on police violence is insensitive.
It contained no information about laws and regulations, and was not an attempt to enhance public relations. It was purely about using Lovers’ Day to attract clicks, which was completely unnecessary.
When a professional social media editor pushes buttons to increase traffic, there should be a good reason for it. The goal should be to increase the exposure of an advertisement or a brand, or to promote an idea. It should not solely be about what makes the editor feel good.
As their salaraies are paid through taxes, they should be more sensitive to the public interest and social responsibility, pay more attention to issues such as gender, religion, ethnicity and culture. They should have enough common sense to know what they cannot say, so even if they do not do any good, at least they will do no harm.
The image was adapted from a well-known Batman Internet meme. In the picture, Batman slaps Robin, who is telling Batman not to be blinded by hatred. In 2008, a US netizen turned the picture into Robin asking Batman what his parents had given him for Christmas, and Batman slapping him saying: “My parents are dead.”
The reason a meme goes viral can be attributed to decontextualization — creating humor by inserting text in an irrelevant context. Decontextualization does not mean removing all context: The storyline is removed, but the fundamentals remain.
For example, the Batman meme works when the original text is replaced by a new plot from a different context that preserves the sequential relationship between the image and the text, as well as Batman’s righteous image.
The original story was that Batman made a mistake due to misconceptions and paranoia while he was blinded by hatred. Over the years and around the world, Robin has been slapped innumerable times, but no one has noticed that he was right.
In the past few years, social media editors in Taiwan’s public sector have made significant progress, making their social media presence almost as popular and topical as that of brand-name companies. In particular during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, they contributed a lot of transparent and instant communication of government policies.
Just as even Batman sometimes makes mistakes, public sector social media editors sometimes do too, even to the extent that the president has had to come forward to clean up the mess.
When a social media editor makes a mistake, the best damage control is to not stubbornly deny that something is wrong, but to quickly admit to the mistake and apologize before higher authorities get involved.
Chang Yueh-han is an adjunct assistant professor in Shih Hsin University’s department of journalism.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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