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Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics
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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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“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]
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“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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Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election
Grinberg, N., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Swire-Thompson, B., & Lazer, D. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aau2706 · Cited by 1,803
News media trust and its impact on media use: toward a framework for future research
Strömbäck, J., Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H. G., Damstra, A., Lindgren, E., Vliegenthart, R., & Lindholm, T. (2020) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2020.1755338 · Cited by 740
Disinformation as Political Communication
Freelon, D., & Wells, C. (2020) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1723755 · Cited by 708
“Fake News” Is Not Simply False Information: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online Content
Molina, M. D., Sundar, S. S., Le, T., & Lee, D. (2021) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/0002764219878224 · Cited by 485
“For example, according to the authors, “Russian and right-wing political actors have been particularly effective at using document dumps, particularly hacked emails, to lure journalists into over-report-ing” (Benkler et al., 2018, p. 358).”
BackgroundAmerican Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective
Gidron, N., Adams, J., & Horne, W. (2020) · doi:10.1017/9781108914123 · Cited by 481
Resilience to Online Disinformation: A Framework for Cross-National Comparative Research
Humprecht, E., Esser, F., & Aelst, P. V. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161219900126 · Cited by 599
“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
“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 ).”
Disinformation as a Threat to Deliberative Democracy
McKay, S., & Tenove, C. (2021) · Political Research Quarterly · doi:10.1177/1065912920938143 · Cited by 378
Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H. G., Strömbäck, J., Vliegenthart, R., Damstra, A., & Lindgren, E. (2020) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2020.1759443 · Cited by 362
“…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).”
BackgroundInfluentialAsymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook
González-Bailón, S., Lazer, D., Barberá, P., Zhang, M., Allcott, H., Brown, T., Crespo-Tenorio, A., Freelon, D., Gentzkow, M., Guess, A. M., et al. (2023) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.ade7138 · Cited by 315
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Facts and Where to Find Them: Empirical Research on Internet Platforms and Content Moderation
Keller, D., & Leerssen, P. (2020) · Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) · doi:10.1017/9781108890960
Misinformation on Misinformation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges
Altay, S., Berriche, M., & Acerbi, A. (2023) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/20563051221150412 · Cited by 363
“Television is a gateway to misinformation from elites, most notably from politicians (Benkler et al., 2018; Tsfati et al., 2020).”
Stewardship of global collective behavior
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
False equivalencies: Online activism from left to right
Freelon, D., Marwick, A., & Kreiss, D. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abb2428 · Cited by 281
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Online Propaganda
Guess, A. M., & Lyons, B. A. (2020) · Social Media and Democracy · doi:10.1017/9781108890960.003 · Cited by 284
“In linewith thisfinding, Benkler et al. (2018) reveal highly asymmetric patterns in the online media ecosystem.”
BackgroundA systematic literature review on disinformation: Toward a unified taxonomical framework
Kapantai, E., Christopoulou, A., Berberidis, C., & Peristeras, V. (2020) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444820959296 · Cited by 333
“Digital media and especially social media enable people to produce and rapidly spread incorrect information through decentralized and distributed networks (Benkler et al., 2018).”
BackgroundEarl, J. (2022) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abl8198 · Cited by 250
Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right‐Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies
Heft, A., Mayerhöffer, E., Reinhardt, S., & Knüpfer, C. B. (2019) · Policy & Internet · doi:10.1002/poi3.219 · Cited by 241
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2020) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1080/00461520.2020.1786388 · Cited by 275
Broda, E., & Strömbäck, J. (2024) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2024.2323736 · Cited by 310
“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
Freelon, D., Bossetta, M., Wells, C., Lukito, J., Xia, Y., & Adams, K. (2020) · Social Science Computer Review · doi:10.1177/0894439320914853 · Cited by 191
“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
Guess, A. M., Barberá, P., Munzert, S., & Yang, J. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2013464118 · Cited by 189
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Walsh, J. P. (2020) · International Journal of Cultural Studies · doi:10.1177/1367877920912257 · Cited by 198
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BackgroundKrafft, P. M., & Donovan, J. (2020) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2019.1686094 · Cited by 226
“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…”
BackgroundAskanius, T. (2021) · Television & New Media · doi:10.1177/1527476420982234 · Cited by 183
Algorithmic governance: A modes of governance approach
Gritsenko, D., & Wood, M. (2020) · Regulation & Governance · doi:10.1111/rego.12367 · Cited by 238
Conservatives’ susceptibility to political misperceptions
Garrett, R. K., & Bond, R. M. (2021) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf1234 · Cited by 193
Stier, S., Kirkizh, N., Froio, C., & Schroeder, R. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161220907018 · Cited by 185
“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 218
“…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. M., Rivero, G., & Gayo-Avello, D. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108297820 · Cited by 227
Covid-19 and the digital revolution
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 186
Taking a Break from News: A Five-nation Study of News Avoidance in the Digital Era
Villi, M., Aharoni, T., Tenenboim‐Weinblatt, K., et al. (2021) · Digital Journalism · doi:10.1080/21670811.2021.1904266 · Cited by 158
Discursive Power in Contemporary Media Systems: A Comparative Framework
Jungherr, A. M., Posegga, O., & An, J. (2019) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161219841543 · Cited by 159
“…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
Müller, P., & Schulz, A. M. (2019) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2019.1646778 · Cited by 151
A review and provocation: On polarization and platforms
Kreiss, D., & McGregor, S. C. (2024) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448231161880 · Cited by 151
Jungherr, A. M., & Schroeder, R. (2021) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/2056305121988928 · Cited by 198
Bimber, B., & de Zúñiga, H. G. (2020) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444819893980 · Cited by 174
“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).”
BackgroundInfluentialProtecting Democracy from Disinformation: Normative Threats and Policy Responses
Tenove, C. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161220918740 · Cited by 147
“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
“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
Carlson, M., Robinson, S., & Lewis, S. C. (2020) · Digital Journalism · doi:10.1080/21670811.2020.1836981 · Cited by 139
Digital Threats to Democracy: Comparative Lessons and Possible Remedies
Miller, M. L., & Vaccari, C. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161220922323 · Cited by 172
“…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 138
(Why) Is Misinformation a Problem?
Adams, Z., Osman, M., Bechlivanidis, C., & Meder, B. (2023) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916221141344 · Cited by 182
“…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;…”
BackgroundRomer, D., & Jamieson, K. H. (2021) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/25215 · Cited by 154
Eady, G., Paskhalis, T., Zilinsky, J., Bonneau, R., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. A. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35576-9 · Cited by 125
Measuring the news and its impact on democracy
Watts, D. J., Rothschild, D. M., & Mobius, M. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1912443118 · Cited by 121
Deepfake news: AI-enabled disinformation as a multi-level public policy challenge
Whyte, C. (2020) · Journal of Cyber Policy · doi:10.1080/23738871.2020.1797135 · Cited by 130
Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity
Aslett, K., Sanderson, Z., Godel, W., Persily, N., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. A. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06883-y · Cited by 151
Deplatformization and the governance of the platform ecosystem
van Dijck, J., de Winkel, T., & Schäfer, M. T. (2021) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448211045662 · Cited by 116
“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).”
BackgroundKlein, C., Clutton, P., & Dunn, A. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225098 · Cited by 108
Chadwick, A., & Stanyer, J. (2021) · Communication Theory · doi:10.1093/ct/qtab019 · Cited by 151
“Donald Trump Is My President!”: The Internet Research Agency Propaganda Machine
Bastos, M., & Farkas, J. (2019) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/2056305119865466 · Cited by 119
“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).”
BackgroundFlamino, J., Galeazzi, A., Feldman, S., Macy, M. W., Cross, B., Zhou, Z., Serafino, M., Bovet, A., Makse, H. A., & Szymanski, B. K. (2023) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01550-8 · Cited by 113
The Covid-19 Infodemic — Applying the Epidemiologic Model to Counter Misinformation
Scales, D. A., Gorman, J. M., & Jamieson, K. H. (2021) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmp2103798 · Cited by 112
Contemporary Social Movements in a Hybrid Media Environment
Caren, N., Andrews, K. T., & Lu, T. (2020) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054627 · Cited by 108
Heft, A., Knüpfer, C. B., Reinhardt, S., & Mayerhöffer, E. (2020) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161220963670 · Cited by 104
“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
Yang, Y., Davis, T., & Hindman, M. (2023) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1093/joc/jqac051 · Cited by 101
Jungherr, A. M., Schroeder, R., & Stier, S. (2019) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/2056305119875439 · Cited by 119
Siegel, A. A. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108890960.005 · Cited by 123
Who Uses Right-Wing Alternative Online Media? An Exploration of Audience Characteristics
Schulze, H. (2020) · Politics and Governance · doi:10.17645/pag.v8i3.2925 · Cited by 81
“However, several studies showed that right-wing audiences, in particular, prefer and build ideologically aligned media repertoires by intentionally avoiding opposing news sources (Benkler et al., 2018; Rauch, 2019).”
BackgroundPolarized information ecosystems can reorganize social networks via information cascades
Tokita, C. K., Guess, A. M., & Tarnita, C. E. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2102147118 · Cited by 92
Partisanship, White Racial Resentment, and State Support for Higher Education
Taylor, B. J., Cantwell, B. J., Watts, K., & Wood, O. (2020) · The Journal of Higher Education · doi:10.1080/00221546.2019.1706016 · Cited by 99
Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok
Solea, A. I., & Sugiura, L. (2023) · European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10610-023-09559-5 · Cited by 105
Restructuring Democratic Infrastructures: A Policy Approach to the Journalism Crisis
Pickard, V. W. (2020) · Digital Journalism · doi:10.1080/21670811.2020.1733433 · Cited by 89
Farrell, H. J., & Newman, A. L. (2021) · International Organization · doi:10.1017/s0020818320000302 · Cited by 95
Identity propaganda: Racial narratives and disinformation
Reddi, M., Kuo, R., & Kreiss, D. (2021) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448211029293 · Cited by 99
“Email: madhavi@live.unc.edu numerous identity-based attacks by the “right-wing media ecosystem” (Benkler et al., 2018) that sought to delegitimize her attempt for higher office.”
BackgroundThe marketplace of rationalizations
Williams, D. (2022) · Economics and Philosophy · doi:10.1017/s0266267121000389 · Cited by 97
“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).”
BackgroundInfluentialCountering Extremists on Social Media: Challenges for Strategic Communication and Content Moderation
Ganesh, B., & Bright, J. (2020) · Policy & Internet · doi:10.1002/poi3.236 · Cited by 101
“Far‐right narratives are readily accessible on social media platforms and their exponents, and audiences often benefit from legitimation from political representatives in Western democracies (see Benkler et al., 2018, Ch. 3).”
BackgroundBjola, C., & Papadakis, K. (2020) · Cambridge Review of International Affairs · doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1704221 · Cited by 109
Three Challenges for Media Studies in the Age of Platforms
Poell, T. (2020) · Television & New Media · doi:10.1177/1527476420918833 · Cited by 85
“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).”
BackgroundVowles, K., & Hultman, M. (2021) · Australian Feminist Studies · doi:10.1080/08164649.2022.2062669 · Cited by 107
“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).”
Tolz, V., & Hutchings, S. (2023) · Post-Soviet Affairs · doi:10.1080/1060586x.2023.2202581 · Cited by 81
Damstra, A., Vliegenthart, R., Boomgaarden, H. G., Glüer, K., Lindgren, E., Strömbäck, J., & Tsfati, Y. (2021) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/19401612211031457 · Cited by 81
“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
Berriche, M., & Altay, S. (2020) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0452-1 · Cited by 86
The digital transformation of knowledge order: a model for the analysis of the epistemic crisis
Neuberger, C., Bartsch, A., Fröhlich, R., Hanitzsch, T., Reinemann, C., & Schindler, J. (2023) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2023.2169950 · Cited by 92
“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
Iosifidis, P., & Nicoli, N. (2020) · International Communication Gazette · doi:10.1177/1748048519880729 · Cited by 75
Nygaard, S. (2020) · Journalism Studies · doi:10.1080/1461670x.2020.1722731 · Cited by 87
Mayerhöffer, E. (2021) · Journalism Studies · doi:10.1080/1461670x.2020.1814846 · Cited by 74
The weaponization of language: Discourses of rising right-wing authoritarianism
Pascale, C.-M. (2019) · Current Sociology · doi:10.1177/0011392119869963 · Cited by 77
“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).”
BackgroundMethodMin, S. J. (2021) · American Politics Research · doi:10.1177/1532673x211013526 · Cited by 70
“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
“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…”
BackgroundHarris, A., & Johns, A. (2020) · Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1177/1440783320919173 · Cited by 70
“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 82
“…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
Self-citationHmielowski, J. D., Hutchens, M. J., & Beam, M. A. (2020) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2020.1763525 · Cited by 70
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
The sharing of disinformation in cross-national comparison: analyzing patterns of resilience
Humprecht, E., Esser, F., Aelst, P. V., Staender, A., & Morosoli, S. (2021) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2021.2006744 · Cited by 92
“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
Altay, S., Nielsen, R. K., & Fletcher, R. (2023) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/19401612221148981 · Cited by 83
“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
Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., & Kaiser, J. (2022) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/00027642221118264 · Cited by 82
“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 106
Echoes of covid misinformation
Levy, N. L. (2021) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2021.2009452 · Cited by 64
“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 68
“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
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
Metadata
- 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
- 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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