Propaganda Pipeline: This term refers to the method by which fringe actors (such as those on the alt-right) insert their ‘messages’ into the mainstream through a series of steps-most typically starting with online platforms such as Reddit and 4chan, through especially influential figures such as Alex Jones and the Drudge Report, to the very end, mainstream news outlets.
Case Study in “Spirit Cooking: This is, basically, a fragment of the propaganda pipeline. A marginalia account of Hillary Clinton taking part in occult rituals started on Reddit and spread with the help of some people such as Mike Cernovich or Cassandra Fairbanks, then soon after reached such mainstream connections as Sean Hannity and, for example, the Washington Times.
Role of Russian Information Operations: The existence of a pipeline notwithstanding, the text claims that powerful political narratives are spawned principally by established media and political elites rather than by fringe actors. Russian actors, however, may take advantage of not-yet-covered schisms in the media ecosystem to promote certain narratives.
Effects of Russian Interference: The text recognizes the existence of Russian activity in American politics but warns it may not be as great as it seems. The first of such cases is that the efforts of Russian disinformation aim primarily at creating disunity and undermining the credibility of institutions rather than directly affecting the outcomes of elections.
Right-Wing Media Vulnerability: According to the text, the Raptor-right media ecology that creates a partisan-based narrative and shows disdain for mainstream media is more susceptible to Russian types of propaganda owing to existing vulnerabilities.
Russian Tactics:
• Social Media Manipulation: The charges claim that the Russians exploited fake accounts (bots, sockpuppets) and procured targeted political ads with the goal of spreading divided narratives, creating protests, and doing the damnedest to undermine Hillary Clinton.
• Propaganda Pipeline: Russian agents ripped before them an already-existing fissure in the media ecosystem, particularly in the right-wing fringe, to amplify the sounds of their narratives.
• Useful Idiots: Some aspects of American media knowingly or unknowingly marketed narratives that were developed in Russia.
• RT and Sputnik: These are the state-funded Russian media that collaborated in taking a big role in disseminating propaganda toward other media outlets.
Guccifer 2.0″ Controversy:
• Allegedly, this Romanian hacker claimed DNC hack but was thought to be a whistleblower from Russia.
• A group of former intel officials (VIPS) challenged the official story, claiming the DNC hack might have been done inside.
• This hoax caught on with right-wing media but was mostly debunked later.
Impact of Russian Interference:
• The text maintains that the most apparent purpose of disinformation efforts was to divide and undermine trust in democratic institutions rather than to impact elections directly.
• It will hard to place the Russian impact on the numbers, but it can well be expected to have increased any existing divisions within American society.
Facebook’s functionality:
• One of the Facebook platform features concerns featuring remarkable applications capable of micro-targeting individuals while placing ads for votes in favor of a candidate.
• This tool was well adopted by Trump’s campaign, where they targeted messages directed to particular population segments.
• There have been concerns on the usage of such abilities by the models to manipulate and mislead voters.
Cambridge Analytica:
• Data by this analytics company was collected from millions of Facebook users for purposes of creating psychographic profiles on voters.
• They claimed to have massively affected the Trump campaign, although it has not been clear how their approaches affected those who voted.
• This company faced criticism due to the nature of using privacy violation as well as dubious means.
Effectiveness of Microtargeting:
• According to scientific evidence, the effects of microtargeting on personality types are not highly effective.
• Research has evidenced that some persons would be to be swayed with personalized ads while others may be turned off completely.
Suspicion about Data-driven Campaigns:
• Privacy issues arise with manipulation and gradations in public discourse.
• The very concept of microtargeting could result in an “echo chamber” that confines people to receiving only that information which fits with their own biases and predilections.
Some Rules Needed:
• The above text states the need for new laws to cover potential harms associated with data-driven political campaigns.
• Such measures include setting minimum standards for disclosure and requirements for transparency and prohibitions on certain types of data use.
Tag: technology
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Network Propaganda: Part Three – The Unusual Suspect
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Chapter 4: STUDYING POLITICAL MEMES ON FACEBOOK
Introduction
This guide looks into how fake news websites and viral content like memes work in terms of political agenda-setting, processes, and culture. The focus is on what memes can say about political events, actors, and topical issues, particularly as illustrated by the 2016 US presidential election. Memetic activity refers to the various ways people interact with memes on the internet, such as sharing, copying, and changing them. The guide aims to find and map Facebook meme spaces, explore how users use memetic activity to interact with political events, and offer methods for examining meme content.
How can meme spaces on Facebook be traced?
Tracing Meme Spaces on Facebook The study aims to network connections around a Facebook page by tracing “likes” from the page to other pages. It would create a directed network file with nodes for pages and edges for likes with a Facebook crawler by extracting the “likes” network. A network analysis tool like Gephi is used to analyze the content and structure of the network. The configuration of the network graph can be examined quantitatively using measures like indegree, outdegree, and betweenness centrality. The study also examines the prevalence of pro-Trump memes on Facebook, showing that even politically neutral pages have connections to pages spreading pro-Trump memes and nationalism and populism.
How do memes frame political and media events?
It includes 46 pages selected from a corpus based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria: engagement counts and thematic clusters. The timeframe during which memes are sourced is three days. Images are then extracted and downloaded for each URL, with visual juxtaposition to compare meme reactions across events. The process can also be explored to compare reactions to a single event across Facebook pages. An example is a visualization showing how pro-Trump pages reference Bill Clinton’s past sexual harassment victims.
HOW MAY THE CONTENT OF MEMES BE STUDIED?
The recipe demonstrates methods for detecting content in memes and analyzing text and visual content. It uses Breitbart and God Emperor Trump, Facebook sites with pro-Trump memes, as examples. These photos display memetic characteristics like virality, user-driven remixing, imitation, and intertextuality, even if they don’t fit traditional meme formats. Breitbart is chosen for the impact that it has had in developing alt-right culture, and the page of His God Emperor Trump has over 245,000 likes. Only page administrators can post photos on Breitbart, while users can submit their products for posting in God Emperor Trump.
To create a corpus of images and associated metadata related to a particular Facebook page, utilize all pictures uploaded onto this page, or limit it to a specified period of interest.
Extract metadata using the Facebook API or data extraction tools like Netvizz. Download photos using browser extensions like Tab Save or DownThemAll! Use optical character recognition (OCR) software like Google’s Vision API to extract text from each image.
Breitbart’s Facebook page features a network of nouns and adjectives in 2016, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at the core. Examine the visual styles of memes using image analysis programs like Google Vision and CorText. Visual styles per cluster can be inspected visually, and the process can be repeated with other pages to compare styles. It is possible to identify unique visual styles in a meme repository, such as memes based on screenshots, cartoons, and comics like Pepe the Frog.
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Steps for preventing and fighting misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.
We have 2 main strategies:
First, Fact-Checking
Fact-checking has evolved from a primary job of traditional media to one shared by a variety of players, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This approach has two primary goals: validating political comments made by leaders and evaluating content published by the media. For example, several organizations in the United States regularly fact-check remarks made by political individuals such as Donald Trump, whilst non-governmental organizations (NGOs) analyze the accuracy of news stories and reports.
Fact-checking is not a new idea; it has its roots in traditional journalism, where press councils would adjudicate disagreements between the media and the public over factual accuracy. However, modern fact-checking is more structured and systematic, requiring thorough inquiry to determine the veracity of statements. This current method emphasizes contextual comprehension as well as verification, assisting the audience in comprehending how information is packaged and presented.
Fact-checkers’ work goes beyond mere verification; they hold political leaders and media outlets accountable. Their study improves the public’s understanding of factual accuracy while also shedding light on the underlying context and incentives driving information transmission. This implies that the audience has critical thinking abilities and an open mind.
second, Media literacy.
Individuals with media literacy are better able to analyze and engage with media information, which is especially important in today’s increasingly digital society. A media-literate individual understands the societal roles of various media formats and can use them wisely. This ability is not innate; it requires education and training to develop abilities like critical questioning of media messages and active participation in communication processes.
Furthermore, media literacy includes a crucial component that encourages social interaction and cross-cultural communication. UNESCO highlights that fostering media literacy improves societal cohesion in addition to individual well-being. It gives citizens the ability to gather information, process it efficiently, and eventually compile it into a knowledge base that promotes accountable community governance.
The main objective of media literacy is to create a “responsible community” in which knowledgeable individuals base their decisions on trustworthy information. This supports the notion that being involved in public life requires more than just media interpretation; it also calls for critical thinking, global citizenship, teamwork, leadership, and innovation.
Incorporating media literacy into educational systems is essential to countering disinformation with these tactics. All educational levels, from preschool to adult education, should be included in this integration to guarantee that people develop these skills throughout their lives. Emphasizing the theoretical understanding and practical skills required for handling high-quality information, media literacy can be taught as a stand-alone subject or integrated into already-existing curricula.
Reliable information is essential for citizens to participate in governance, as Angela Phillips points out. Lack of trustworthy information sources might distort public perception and participation in democratic processes. A functional democracy must thus create an atmosphere in which people may learn to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy sources.Preventing fake news via media literacy and fact-checking is a complex process that calls for cooperation from a range of stakeholders, including governments, non-governmental organizations, educators, and the general public. Media literacy enables people to critically traverse the complicated information ecosystem, while fact-checking offers a means of accountability. When combined, these tactics provide a strong foundation for advancing informed citizenry and strengthening democratic participation at a time of misinformation.
Trustify 