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This Is An Open Access Title Available Under The Terms Of A Cc By-nc-nd 4.0 International Licence. It Is Free To Read At Oxford Scholarship Online And Offered As A Free Pdf Download From Oup And Selected Open Access Locations. Is Social Media Destroying Democracy? Are Russian Propaganda Or Fake News Entrepreneurs On Facebook Undermining Our Sense Of A Shared Reality? A Conventional Wisdom Has Emerged Since The Election Of Donald Trump In 2016 That New Technologies And Their Manipulation By Foreign Actors Played A Decisive Role In His Victory And Are Responsible For The Sense Of A Post-truth Moment In Which Disinformation And Propaganda Thrives. Network Propaganda Challenges That Received Wisdom Through The Most Comprehensive Study Yet Published On Media Coverage Of American Presidential Politics From The Start Of The Election Cycle In April 2015 To The One Year Anniversary Of The Trump Presidency. Analysing Millions Of News Stories Together With Twitter And Facebook Shares, Broadcast Television And Youtube, The Book Provides A Comprehensive Overview Of The Architecture Of Contemporary American Political Communications. Through Data Analysis And Detailed Qualitative Case Studies Of Coverage Of Immigration, Clinton Scandals, And The Trump Russia Investigation, The Book Finds That The Right-wing Media Ecosystem Operates Fundamentally Differently Than The Rest Of The Media Environment. The Authors Argue That Longstanding Institutional, Political, And Cultural Patterns In American Politics Interacted With Technological Change Since The 1970s To Create A Propaganda Feedback Loop In American Conservative Media. This Dynamic Has Marginalized Centre-right Media And Politicians, Radicalized The Right Wing Ecosystem, And Rendered It Susceptible To Propaganda Efforts, Foreign And Domestic. For Readers Outside The United States, The Book Offers A New Perspective And Methods For Diagnosing The Sources Of, And Potential Solutions For, The Perceived Global Crisis Of Democratic Poli
Does the manipulation of social media by foreign actors and fake news entrepreneurs truly account for the current crisis in American democratic discourse? The authors, a team of researchers from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, utilize an extensive dataset covering the 2016 election cycle to challenge the prevailing narrative that technology is the primary driver of political polarization. They argue that long-standing institutional and cultural patterns within the American conservative media ecosystem, rather than mere technological disruption, are responsible for the creation of a self-reinforcing propaganda feedback loop.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts frequently cite this work as a foundational empirical study for understanding the structural differences between media ecosystems in the United States. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which relies heavily on data-driven methodology to support its conclusions.
Page Count:
208
Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190923644
ISBN-13:
9780190923648
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