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A review by msand3
Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics by Robert Faris, Hal Roberts, Yochai Benkler
4.0
4.5 stars. The primary argument in this book is that the current American media environment is not polarized (i.e., a symmetric division of co-equal, differing positions) but instead includes a fringe right-wing bubble encased in a propaganda feedback loop with no way to check their self-reinforcing views, set against a traditional media environment of centrist journalists and left-wing partisans who are concerned with fact-checking that resists the spread of misinformation. Whereas falsehoods, misinformation, and disinformation are tamped down and corrected in the traditional media and on the partisan left (the “reality-check dynamic”), they are amplified and built into the system as “design features of the network” on the right. Any attempt on to the right to use facts to correct such false information is punished.
The result is that media sources on the right identify and propagate “identity confirmation” rather than truth. Instead of factual checks, their audience is offered an echo chamber of misinformation. The authors refer to this as the “propaganda feedback loop.”
The authors come to this conclusion based on analyses of clicks and links into and out of Facebook, twitter, and blogs, using a huge number of graphs to present their findings. This is a long, detailed book, and sometimes it gets a little repetitive, but ultimately the authors succeed in making their case. My one minor criticism is that many of the graphs include text that is so microscopically small as to be impossible to read. Even when tracking down the free Open Access version of the book and zooming in, some of the text is impossible to read for all the smaller nodules in the graphs. But this is a minor criticism, since the point of the graphs is to highlight the major connections (which can be easily read) and to present a visually dynamic version of the collated evidence. In this case, the authors are also successful.
Recommended for anyone interested in propaganda in the Trump age, political rhetoric, and media studies in general.
The result is that media sources on the right identify and propagate “identity confirmation” rather than truth. Instead of factual checks, their audience is offered an echo chamber of misinformation. The authors refer to this as the “propaganda feedback loop.”
The authors come to this conclusion based on analyses of clicks and links into and out of Facebook, twitter, and blogs, using a huge number of graphs to present their findings. This is a long, detailed book, and sometimes it gets a little repetitive, but ultimately the authors succeed in making their case. My one minor criticism is that many of the graphs include text that is so microscopically small as to be impossible to read. Even when tracking down the free Open Access version of the book and zooming in, some of the text is impossible to read for all the smaller nodules in the graphs. But this is a minor criticism, since the point of the graphs is to highlight the major connections (which can be easily read) and to present a visually dynamic version of the collated evidence. In this case, the authors are also successful.
Recommended for anyone interested in propaganda in the Trump age, political rhetoric, and media studies in general.