Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics
Open accessAbstract
This book examines the shape, composition, and practices of the United States political media landscape. It explores the roots of the current epistemic crisis in political communication with a focus on the remarkable 2016 U.S. president election culminating in the victory of Donald Trump and the first year of his presidency. The authors present a detailed map of the American political media landscape based on the analysis of millions of stories and social media posts, revealing a highly polarized and asymmetric media ecosystem. Detailed case studies track the emergence and propagation of disinformation in the American public sphere that took advantage of structural weaknesses in the media institutions across the political spectrum. This book describes how the conservative faction led by Steve Bannon and funded by Robert Mercer was able to inject opposition research into the mainstream media agenda that left an unsubstantiated but indelible stain of corruption on the Clinton campaign. The authors also document how Fox News deflects negative coverage of President Trump and has promoted a series of exaggerated and fabricated counter narratives to defend the president against the damaging news coming out of the Mueller investigation. Based on an analysis of the actors that sought to influence political public discourse, this book argues that the current problems of media and democracy are not the result of Russian interference, behavioral microtargeting and algorithms on social media, political clickbait, hackers, sockpuppets, or trolls, but of asymmetric media structures decades in the making. The crisis is political, not technological.
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Communication scholars have adopted decades-old theories of propaganda and mass communication to understand disinformation and media manipulation online.
“In response, communication scholars have adopted decades-old theories of propaganda and mass communication to understand disinformation and media manipulation online (154, 159, 160).”
From Stewardship of global collective behavior (2021) · cites this paper as [154]
Some business models may be fundamentally incompatible with a healthy society.
“This raises the possibility that some business models may be fundamentally incompatible with a healthy society (154).”
From Stewardship of global collective behavior (2021) · cites this paper as [154]
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“This paper focuses on the aspect of disinformation because it is strategically used to influence audiences and is likely to be harmful to democracy (Benkler et al. 2018; Marwick and Lewis 2017).”
BackgroundSocial Media, Echo Chambers, and Political Polarization
Barberá, P. (2020) · Social Media and Democracy · doi:10.1017/9781108890960.004 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
“These are thus good reasons to expect that social media interactions may lead to polarization among the minority of partisan individuals who are most active in discussions about politics on social media (Barberá and Rivero 2015 ; Shore et al. 2016 ; Benkler et al. 2018 ).”
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“…has circulated through media since the early days of mass communication, scholars and pundits have argued that recent years mark ‘the rise of the misinformation society’ (Pickard, 2016, p. 119) and the era of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘post truth’ (Benkler et al., 2018; Madrigal, 2017).”
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“Television is a gateway to misinformation from elites, most notably from politicians (Benkler et al., 2018; Tsfati et al., 2020).”
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Bak-Coleman, J. B., Alfano, M., Barfuss, W., Bergstrom, C. T., Centeno, M. A., Couzin, I. D., Donges, J. F., Galesic, M., Gersick, A. S., Jacquet, J., et al. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2025764118 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
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Guess, A. M., & Lyons, B. A. (2020) · Social Media and Democracy · doi:10.1017/9781108890960.003 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
“In linewith thisfinding, Benkler et al. (2018) reveal highly asymmetric patterns in the online media ecosystem.”
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“Digital media and especially social media enable people to produce and rapidly spread incorrect information through decentralized and distributed networks (Benkler et al., 2018).”
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Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right‐Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies
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“Aside from misinformation, dis-information and fake news, other terms include (computational) propaganda, malinformation, alternative facts, and rumors (Benkler et al., 2018; Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019; Tandoc et al., 2018; Wardle, 2018).”
BackgroundInfluentialBlack Trolls Matter: Racial and Ideological Asymmetries in Social Media Disinformation
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“Overall, these findings dovetail with prior research that has detected ideological asymmetry in the production of disinformation content (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; Badawy et al., 2018; Benkler et al., 2018; DiResta et al., 2018; Howard et al., 2018).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialThe consequences of online partisan media
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“Although Benkler et al. (2018) argue that online disinformation is comparatively less impactful on societal outcomes than major media organizations, they also confirm the general pattern identified by Marwick and Lewis (2017), emphasizing how trading up the chain for pieces of disinformation — from…”
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Algorithmic governance: A modes of governance approach
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“Several recent studies have used the term “hyperpartisan” (Benkler et al. 2018; Guess et al. 2019; Pennycook and Rand 2019), without providing a clear definition though.”
BackgroundSocial Media and Trust in Scientific Expertise: Debating the Covid-19 Pandemic in The Netherlands
van Dijck, J., & Alinejad, D. (2020) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/2056305120981057 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
“…question whether social media fuel institutional distrust or whether institutional distrust weaponizes social media has been at the core of scholars’ concerns about fake news and disinformation years before the Covid-19 outbreak (Benkler et al., 2018; Bradshaw & Howard, 2018; Lazer et al., 2018).”
BackgroundJungherr, A., Rivero, G., & Gayo-Avello, D. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108297820 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
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Hantrais, L., Allin, P. V., Kritikos, M., Sogomonjan, M., Anand, P. B., Livingstone, S., Williams, M., & Innes, M. (2020) · Contemporary Social Science · doi:10.1080/21582041.2020.1833234 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
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“…lists of entities across aggregated groups of actors does not fit well an environment in which we find a lot of variance in the relationship between different actors of the same type—such as “new” or “old” media—as we currently do in the contemporary media system (Benkler et al. 2018).”
Background“I Am a Tariff Man”: The Power of Populist Foreign Policy Rhetoric under President Trump
Boucher, J.-C., & Thies, C. G. (2019) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1086/702229 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
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“These epistemic concerns receive a number of labels: “disinformation order” (Bennett and Livingston, 2018), “epistemic crisis” (Benkler et al., 2018), “disrupted public spheres” (Bennett and Pfetsch, 2018), and, especially in public commentary, “post-truth politics” (Suiter, 2016; Waisbord, 2018).”
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Tenove, C. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161220918740 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
“However, subsequent analysis has shown that domestic political candidates, journalists, and citizens played major roles in promoting disinformation, and often did so to advance partisan interests (Benkler et al. 2018; Watts and Rothschild 2017).”
BackgroundPopulism, globalisation and social media
Flew, T., & Iosifidis, P. (2019) · International Communication Gazette · doi:10.1177/1748048519880721 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
“Benkler et al. (2018) identified the extent of this in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, observing the wider risks to democracy and pluralism from not only the rapid online circulation of such disinformation by motivated political actors, but also the prospect of ‘echo chambers’ where citizens…”
BackgroundMadison's Constitution Under Stress: A Developmental Analysis of Political Polarization
Pierson, P., & Schickler, E. (2020) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-033629 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
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“…successful campaigns are waged by domestic purveyors of disinformation and, indeed, depend heavily for their success on networks of communication that include traditional media organizations, such as tabloid newspapers (Chadwick et al. 2018), radio stations, and cable news (Benkler et al. 2018).”
BackgroundReducing opinion polarization: Effects of exposure to similar people with differing political views
Balietti, S., Getoor, L. C., Goldstein, D. G., & Watts, D. J. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2112552118 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
(Why) Is Misinformation a Problem?
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“…is designed to show how beliefs in misinformed claims impact the evaluation of and support for particular policies (e.g., Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; Benkler et al., 2018; Dan et al., 2021; Flynn et al., 2021; Fowler & Margolis, 2013; Garrett et al., 2013; Greifeneder et al., 2020; Levi, 2018;…”
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“Several researchers have warned about the danger of alt-right and far-right platforms building a media ecosystem outside the mainstream, which is highly interlinked internally and stands far apart from other media in terms of technical and ideological connections (Benkler et al., 2018).”
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“With the recent rise of large-scale information campaigns and infiltration through digital media platforms, scholars are nonetheless increasingly arguing for the continued relevance of propaganda theory (Benkler et al., 2018; Farkas & Neumayer, 2018; Woolley & Howard, 2019).”
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Contemporary Social Movements in a Hybrid Media Environment
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“The United States might, therefore, point toward a potential future for the other countries’ news ecologies, where the digital right-wing is densely interconnected and, thereby, fosters a more insular alternative right-wing news ecology (Benkler et al. 2018).”
BackgroundVisual misinformation on Facebook
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BackgroundPolarized information ecosystems can reorganize social networks via information cascades
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“Empirical research has consistently demonstrated that ‘the right-wing media ecosystem differs categorically from the rest of the media environment : : : [in] how much more susceptible it has been to disinformation, lies, and half-truths’ (Benkler et al. 2018: 13).”
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“Over the past years, especially Facebook, in the light of the widespread circulation of misinformation and propaganda, has struggled with its role in public communication (Benkler et al. 2018; Frenkel et al. 2018).”
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“The far-right media ecosystem can be characterised by a propa-ganda feedback loop, where actors police each other regarding ideological content rather than the truthfulness of the news (Benkler, Farris, and Roberts 2018).”
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“Combined with a highly polarized media landscape (Benkler et al. 2018), scientific evidence may quickly become controversial.”
BackgroundInternet users engage more with phatic posts than with health misinformation on Facebook
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“These trends include the rise of authoritarian populism (Norris & Inglehart, 2019), increased political polarization, and growing efforts of domestic and foreign actors to strategically influence public opinion (Benkler et al., 2018).”
BackgroundInfluentialDe-platforming disinformation: conspiracy theories and their control
Innes, H., & Innes, M. (2021) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2021.1994631 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
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The weaponization of language: Discourses of rising right-wing authoritarianism
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“In an information-based world, Science and Technology Studies (STS) take up the politics of disordered information through analyses of internet technology and networks (Benkler et al., 2018; Marshall et al., 2015; Mohammed, 2012).”
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“Starting Hofstadter (1965), many scholars have argued that conservative-leaning conspiracy theories are historically more salient and longstanding than liberal-learning ones (e.g., Barreto et al., 2011; Benkler et al., 2018; Iyengar et al., 2008; Nam et al., 2013; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”
BackgroundThe disinformation landscape and the lockdown of social platforms
Walker, S., Mercea, D., & Bastos, M. (2019) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2019.1648536 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“The e ff ectiveness of dis/misinformation campaigns has in part (Benkler et al., 2018) been attributed to the manner in which they have been able to take advantage of the biases (Comor, 2001; Innis, 1982) intrinsic to social media platforms, particularly the attention economy and the social media…”
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“Social media architectures (i.e. algorithmic filtering) and automated accounts that manipulate social media publics (Benkler et al., 2018; Bucher, 2018; Woolley and Howard, 2019) may also create polarisation and like-minded communities that promote ethnocentrism and essen-tialised rather than…”
BackgroundAmplifying influence through coordinated behaviour in social networks
Weber, D., & Neumann, F. (2021) · Social Network Analysis and Mining · doi:10.1007/s13278-021-00815-2 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“…cyclical reporting (i.e. social media feeding stories and narratives to traditional news media, which then sparks more social media activity), social media users can unknowingly become “unwitting agents” as “sincere activists” of concerted operations (Benkler et al. 2018; Starbird and Wilson 2020).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialMedia Cloud: Massive Open Source Collection of Global News on the Open Web
Roberts, H., Bhargava, R., Valiukas, L., Jen, D., Malik, M. M., Bishop, C. S., Ndulue, E. B., Dave, A., Clark, J., Etling, B., et al. (2021) · Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · doi:10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18127 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Self-citationHmielowski, J. D., Hutchens, M. J., & Beam, M. A. (2020) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1763525 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Video on demand: what deepfakes do and how they harm
Harris, K. R. (2021) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-021-03379-y · Cited by 68 · see citing works
The sharing of disinformation in cross-national comparison: analyzing patterns of resilience
Humprecht, E., Esser, F., van Aelst, P., Staender, A., & Morosoli, S. (2021) · Information, Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2021.2006744 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
“Fifth, it has been pointed out that the U.S. stands out from the countries under study because of its political system, its strong societal and political polarization and its high number of social media users, among others reasons (Benkler et al., 2018).”
BackgroundSanford, M., Painter, J., Yasseri, T., & Lorimer, J. (2021) · Climatic Change · doi:10.1007/s10584-021-03182-1 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Altay, S., Nielsen, R., & Fletcher, R. (2023) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/19401612221148981 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
“And some individual news media, such as Fox News, loom large in the asymmetric media structures other scholars have argued drive “ networked propaganda ” in the United States (Benkler et al. 2018).”
BackgroundNeutral bots probe political bias on social media
Chen, W., Pacheco, D. F., Yang, K.-C., & Menczer, F. (2021) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., & Kaiser, J. (2022) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/00027642221118264 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
“Research to date has foregrounded changes in news ecosystems (e.g., Benkler et al., 2018), automation in the spread of disinformation (e.g., Howard, 2020), the attitudinal and cognitive mechanisms that enable rumors to spread and hamper attempts at correction (e.g., Berinsky, 2017), and the ways in…”
Neutral bots probe political bias on social media
Chen, W., Pacheco, D. F., Yang, K.-C., & Menczer, F. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25738-6 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Echoes of covid misinformation
Levy, N. L. (2021) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2021.2009452 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“While there are systematic differences in how broad a range of sources different groups rely on (Benkler et al., 2018), social media seems to broaden that range, not shrink it (Acerbi, 2019).”
BackgroundDiMaggio, A. R. (2022) · Critical Sociology · doi:10.1177/08969205211073669 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“In other words, ideological polarization is highly asymmetrical (Benkler et al., 2018; DiMaggio, 2019; Grossmann and Hopkins, 2016; Hacker and Pierson, 2005; Moskowitz et al., 2019).”
BackgroundKaiser, J., Rauchfleisch, A., & Bourassa, N. (2019) · Digital Journalism · doi:10.1080/21670811.2019.1682629 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Coordination patterns reveal online political astroturfing across the world
Schoch, D., Keller, F. B., Stier, S., & Yang, J. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-08404-9 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
- Authors
- Benkler, Y., Faris, R., & Roberts, H.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York
- Published
- 2018-10-18
- OpenAlex
- W4213327489
- Cited by
- 1,504
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 269 · 2025: 260 · 2024: 206 · 2023: 198 · 2022: 165 · 2021: 173 · 2020: 172 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 116.61
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BiblioBoard Library Catalog (Open Research Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Directory of Open access Books (OAPEN Foundation) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Keywords
- 2016 US presidential election, Donald Trump, disinformation, media polarization, conservative media, Steve Bannon, Fox News, Mueller investigation, counter-narratives, media and democracy, public sphere
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