Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: What are the pictures BP America doesn't want you to see?

Published on Monday, May 31, 2010
Last updated on 12:55AM, Tuesday, June 1, 2010
First photo--and one of the only photos of a large section of the Gulf, published by BP America on their flickr account, May 27

First photo--and one of the only photos of a large section of the Gulf, published by BP America on their flickr account, May 27

In the past week, BP America, the oil giant responsible for the oil leak taking over the Gulf of Mexica, has established social media accounts, clearly as part of their tactic to do crisis management of the spill. It's easy when you review their accounts to see that BP's intent in using social media is not to communicate more directly with concerned citizens, but to find new ways to manage the story to their advantage. 

For example, on BP America's new flickr account (started on May 27, 2010) there are pages and pages of photos, but not a single one that shows the full impact of the oil spill.  Instead, page after page shows deployment efforts, ships, workers and restoration efforts--but no shots of the overall destruction and pollution. The first shot of the series is published above. Pretty calm, huh?

BP does have a set of photos of cleanup as part of its flickr set. These photos (see slideshow below) carry the legend:

"These images are the copyright of BP p.l.c. and are made available in good faith. You may reproduce the images on the understanding that (i) any reproduction of these images will include the following acknowledgement adjacent to the image(s) used - '© BP p.l.c.' and (ii) these images will not be used in connection with any purpose that is prejudicial to BP, its officers or employees or any other third party."

It is useful to compare the BP America photos to those published on flickr by Greenpeace USA. Posted between May 12 and May 27, this photo set contains photos of oil on Lousiana beaches--and on sea creatures-that the BP America set is largely missing.

Spin or what?

Compare these images taken by BP America and Greenpeace USA Volunteers of the Gulf Oil Spill and the clean-up efforts at Port Fourchon, LA and decide if any spin is happening:

About Susan Mernit
Susan Mernit is the founder of Oakland Local. She is also a circuit rider for The Community Information Challenge, a program of The John S and James L Knight Foundation, and a consultant to non-profit and community organizations. Susan lives in North Oakland, near the Santa Fe school, with her partner, her housemate, a rescue dog named Cazzie, and a yard full of ants. She is an aspiring gardener, a long-time blogger & entrepreneur, and a recovering journalist who's found home in Oakland.
Mark Loundy commented at Tue, 1 Jun at 9:10am

Susan, This was an interesting piece, but I wonder what your thinking was in posting it on a local news site? Isn't reporting national/international news the sort of "NYT Wannabeism" that is killing metro and local newspapers? Of course Oakland and Bay Area readers are interested in the Gulf spill, but they have numerous sources for that. Not so many for Oaklandcentric stories. Mark Loundy Twitter: MarkLoundy

Susan Mernit commented at Tue, 1 Jun at 9:25am

Mark, I agree, there is no purely local angle and I pondered that. But I also didn't believe that typical reporters would see how BP America's use of social media actually seemed to be a form of spin control and positioning, rather than a chance to authentically engage with concerned citizens, so I didn't want to waste that observation and the documentation that led to that assumption. Ergo, this story.

Second reason is that OL works and publishes so many stories about environmental justice because so many regional groups are headquartered here, so I am very aware of what's being done around the world from following folks who are at Movement Generation, Bay Localize, etc.  But yes, this story is atypical--thanks for commenting.

Lane Hartwell commented at Tue, 1 Jun at 11:45am

I agree with Mark here. Unless you want to seek out an Oakland resident who is working there and do a story from that angle, the oil spill is not relevant to Oakland. 

And does OL have sections for Op/Ed pieces? Because this certainly belongs in that category.

 

Susan Mernit commented at Tue, 1 Jun at 11:54am

Thanks for your 2 cents Lane, This story is part of my daily editor's note, tagged as daily brief. One of the great things about doing a non-profit site where you are a volunteer editor is that you can veer off occasionally and cover things you find important even if they're not 100% on focus. As I told Mark, I don't think this little story would have been picked up by the mainstream.

ByronC commented at Sun, 13 Jun at 10:31pm

Nowadays not quite a few individuals have heard on the Lakeview Gusher of 1910. This is the worst oil spill on record for our country, actually happening a century ago, and consisted of the 378 million gallon oil leak. The BP oil spill is estimated to have spilt as much as 122 million gallons of oil so far. The issue is that nobody actually knows how a great deal oil has or has not spilled, or when they will really stop the flowing oil. It really is just worth noting that the BP oil spill is in fact not the worst in history so far. On the other hand they will require a pretty big cash advance to get the mess cleaned up.