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Countering Russian & Chinese Influence Activities: Examining Democratic Vulnerabilities & Building Resiliency

Cyrus Newlin, Heather A. Conley, Amy Searight, Tim Kostelancik, Rachel Ellehuus, Jeffrey Mankoff, Devin Stewart

Washington, DC: Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) (2020), v, 31 pp.

"With their heavily censored and restricted civil societies at home, China and Russia exploit the asymmetry of democratic systems by targeting open information environments, freedom of expression, participatory civic discourse, and pluralistic and fluid politics. Democracies have unique vulnerabilit ... more

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Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation: Causes, Trends, and Their Influence on Democracy

Lejla Turcilo, Mladen Obrenovic

Sarajevo: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2020), 38 pp.

"The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomena of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, as well as their impact on the political sphere. In addition, the paper attempts to explain the harmful influence of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation on public debates, dem ... more

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WorldCat (105)

The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health - and How We Must Adapt

Sinan Aral

London: HarperCollins (2020), xv, 390 pp.

"It is paramount, MIT social media expert Sinan Aral says, that we recognize the outsized impact social media has on our culture, our democracy, and our lives in order to steer today's social technology toward good, while avoiding the ways it can pull us apart. Otherwise, we could fall victim to wha ... more

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Pillars of Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State (2020), 76 pp.

"Russia has operationalized the concept of perpetual adversarial competition in the information environment by encouraging the development of a disinformation and propaganda ecosystem that allows for varied and overlapping approaches that reinforce each other even when individual messages within the ... system appear contradictory. This ecosystem reflects both the sources of disinformation and propaganda—official government statements, state-funded media outlets, proxy websites, bots, false social media personas, cyber-enabled disinformation operations, etc.—and the different tactics that these channels use. Russia’s willingness to employ this approach provides it with three perceived advantages. First, it allows for the introduction of numerous variations of the same false narratives. This allows for the different pillars of the ecosystem to fine tune their disinformation narratives to suit different target audiences because there is no need for consistency, as there would be with attributed government communications. Second, it provides plausible deniability for Kremlin officials when proxy sites peddle blatant and dangerous disinformation, allowing them to deflect criticism while still introducing pernicious information. Third, it creates a media multiplier effect among the different pillars of the ecosystem that boost their reach and resonance. The media multiplier effect can, at times, create disinformation storms with potentially dangerous effects for those Russia perceives as adversaries at the international, national, and local level. In the past, Russia has leveraged this dynamic to shield itself from criticism for its involvement in malign activity. This approach also allows Russia to be opportunistic, such as with COVID-19, where it has used the global pandemic as a hook to push longstanding disinformation and propaganda narratives [...] This report provides a visual representation of the ecosystem described above, as well as an example of the media multiplier effect it enables. This serves to demonstrate how the different pillars of the ecosystem play distinct roles and feed off of and bolster each other. The report also includes brief profiles of select proxy sites and organizations that occupy an intermediate role between the pillars of the ecosystem with clear links to Russia and those that are meant to be fully deniable." (Pages 5-7) more

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WorldCat (100)

The Sage Handbook of Propaganda

Paul Baines, Nicholas J. O'Shaughnessy, Nancy Snow (eds.)

London et al.: Sage (2020), 612 pp.

"The Sage Handbook of Propaganda unpacks the ever-present and exciting topic of propaganda to explain how it invades the human psyche, in what ways it does so, and in what contexts. As a beguiling tool of political persuasion in times of war, peace, and uncertainty, propaganda incites people to take ... more

Google Scholar (128)

WorldCat (125)

Global Communication: A Multicultural Perspective

Yahya R. Kamalipour (ed.)

Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield, 3rd ed. (2020), xxviii, 454 pp.

"Brings together diverse issues and expert perspectives of twenty-two notable and accomplished communication scholars, representing eight countries around the world. Together they discuss international communication, public relations and advertising, cultural implications of globalization, internati ... more

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WorldCat (87)

Fakten gegen Fake News oder der Kampf um die Demokratie

Patrick Gensing

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Sonderausg. (2020), 175 pp.

"Fake News, also absichtsvoll und zumeist digital verbreitete Falschmeldungen zielen darauf, demokratische Grundprinzipien zu unterminieren. Durch Hass-Inhalte oder als Satire verschleierte Herabsetzung schüren oder verstärken sie Antipathien zwischen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen oder stacheln gar z ... more

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Bilder einer besseren Welt: Die Utopie im nichtfiktionalen Film

Simon Spiegel

Marburg: Schüren (2019), 424 pp.

Google Scholar (99)

WorldCat (92)

Chinese Propaganda Seducing the World

Jeanne Boden

Brussels: PUNCT (2019), 292 pp.

"In contrast to earlier publications on Chinese propaganda and media, 'Chinese propaganda seducing the world' offers the first comprehensive analysis of propaganda from Mao to today. Here lies the book’s strength. The author, Jeanne Boden, holds a PhD in Oriental Languages and Cultures (Ghent Univ ... more

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Google Scholar (111)

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Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy

Corneliu Bjola, James Pamment (eds.)

Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge (2019), xiv, 213 pp.

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WorldCat (112)

Propaganda & Persuasion
Deep Insights

Garth Jowett, Victoria O'Donnell

Los Angeles et al.: Sage, 7th ed. (2019), xv, 400 pp.

"Reflecting the remarkable changes in the world of propaganda due to the increasing use of social media, this updated Seventh Edition provides a systematic introduction to the increasingly complex world of propaganda. Viewing propaganda as a form of communication, the authors help you understand inf ... more

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Google Scholar (103)

WorldCat (101)

Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent

Alan MacLeod (ed.)

London; New York: Routledge (2019), x, 171 pp.

"Propaganda in the Information Age is a collaborative volume which updates Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for the twenty-first-century media landscape and makes the case for the continuing relevance of their original ideas. It includes an exclusive interview with Noam Chomsky himself. 2018 ... more

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WorldCat (109)

La posverdad: Una cartografía de los medios, las redes y la política

Roberto Aparici, David García-Marín (eds.)

Barcelona: Gedisa (2019), 185 pp.

External Link (112)

Google Scholar (119)

WorldCat (107)

Computational Propaganda: Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media

Samuel C. Woolley, Philip N. Howard (eds.)

New York: Oxford University Press (2019), vi, 263 pp.

"Computational propaganda is an emergent form of political manipulation that occurs over the Internet. The term describes the assemblage of social media platforms, autonomous agents, algorithms, and big data tasked with the manipulation of public opinion. Our research shows that this new mode of int ... more

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Anti-Western Propaganda

Tamar Kintsurashvili

Tblisi: Media Development Foundation (MDF); UN Association of Georgia; USAID (2018), 38 pp.

"As many as 1,967 anti-Western comments were detected in the 17 monitored media outlets in 2017. In contrast to 2016 and 2015, when negative messages targeted human identity and rights, in 2017, a dominant topic was the foreign policy with the messages aimed at increasing the polarization on the for ... eign policy orientation of the country. This change in the strategic communication of pro-Kremlin actors shows that “loss of identity” was a rather tactical message that prepared the ground, while the messaging aimed at demonizing Georgia’s strategic partners (USA, NATO, EU) is of strategic nature. The United States of America accounted for the highest share of negative comments (25.9%), up by almost three times as compared to the previous year, followed by NATO (18,4%) and the West (14,1%). Compared to 2016, messages against the European Union have almost doubled (13.4%) whereas the comments about the loss of identity and human rights in anti-Western context have almost halved (12.9%). Comments against nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and the US philanthropist George Soros have trebled, as compared to 2016, and comprised 7.3%; this increase can be explained by a stepped up activity of far-right groups and their campaign to smear Open Society Georgia Foundation. Yet another change as compared to the previous years were clearer messages showcasing Russia as an alternative to the West and idealizing the Soviet system (7.2%). Comments against Great Britain (0,8%) have been mainly detected in two pro-Kremlin online media outlets – Georgia and the World, and Sakinformi. Alike previous years, the main source of anti-Western messages was media (827), followed by politicians (463), society (411), civil organizations (230) and the clergy (37). The structure of the Kremlin narrative in the Georgian discourse consists of three stages and aims at: 1. Creating threats; 2. Sowing distrust towards partners and Western institutions; 3. Ingraining a belief that Russia is the only option in fighting against the threats and that authoritative/Soviet-style governance is necessary. Four major threats were emphasized by pro-Kremlin actors: threat of war; threat of loss of territories; threat of bio subversion; threat of loss of identity." (Key findings, page 7) more

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Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts

New York, NY: Oxford University Press (2018), ix, 462 pp.

"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 o ... more

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Understanding Russian Communication Strategy: Case Studies of Serbia and Estonia

Stefan Meister (ed.)

Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2018), 60 pp.

"As a part of Russian soft (or coercive) power disinformation and propaganda have become key elements in an updated Russian security policy since 2012/13. For Russian leadership disinformation and propaganda have become key instruments to impact domestic debates in EU member states and in the neighb ... more

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Russian Social Media Influence: Understanding Russian Propaganda in Eastern Europe

Todd C. Helmus, Elizabeth Bodine-Baron, Andrew Radin, Mdeline Magnuson, Joshua Mendelsohn, William Marcellino, Andriy Bega, Zev Winkelman

Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation (2018), xvii, 130 pp.

"A RAND Corporation study examined Russian-language content on social media and the broader propaganda threat posed to the region of former Soviet states that include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and, to a lesser extent, Moldova and Belarus. In addition to employing a state-funded multilingu ... more

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Issue Brief: Distinguishing Disinformation from Propaganda, Misinformation and 'Fake News'

Dean Jackson

Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (2018), 5 pp.

"Disinformation is a relatively new word. Most observers trace it back to the Russian word dezinformatsiya, which Soviet planners in the 1950s defined as “dissemination (in the press, on the radio, etc.) of false reports intended to mislead public opinion.” Others suggest that the earliest use o ... more

Google Scholar (101)

WorldCat (92)

Media, Propaganda and the Politics of Intervention

Florian Zollmann

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2017), xiv, 276 pp.

"Building on critical theory, most notably Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model, Florian Zollmann's pioneering study brings propaganda back to the forefront of the debate. On the basis of a forensic examination of 1,911 newspaper articles, Zollmann investigates US, UK and German media reporting of ... more

Propaganda & Persuasion Deep Insights

Propaganda & Persuasion
Deep Insights