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Really happy to share our @Journal_Of_Comm piece on how successful Russian disinformation actors assembled their Twitter followings. w/ @JosephineLukito @MinHsinSu1 @jiyoun_suk @Xiayp @SangJungKim2 @doroshishka @cfwells Link: https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqaa042/6104044?guestAccessKey=847323c5-0adb-4e0d-a6b5-10bea34e0742
An account’s social media following helps disseminate that account’s messages and provides visible metrics for its authority and authenticity. Therefore, how disinformation actors accumulated followings can shed light on factors driving the spread of disinformation.
Our results show that 1) partisan enclaves on Twitter contributed to IRA accounts’ followings through retweeting; 2) mainstream and hyperconservative media (unintentionally) helped grow conservative IRA accounts’ following gain by embedding their tweets in news.
The results of our analysis suggest that impassioned partisans can easily turn into unsuspecting amplifiers of disinformation. And these partisans’ short-term retweeting of disinformation actors can translate into long-term follower gain for the latter.
We also confirm that the conservative media ecology can be more susceptible to disinformation. Hyperconservative media mentioned the two conservative IRA accts that we studied 484 & 151 times, while hyperliberal media amplified the two liberal IRA accts only 12 & 7 times.
Our findings echo what many scholars have argued about the political and social factors contributing to disinformation. @shannimcg @alicetiara @BostonJoan @beccalew @YBenkler @LanceBennett1 @farkasjohan @kreissdaniel @dfreelon @j_a_tucker
Fact-check and media literacy are likely insufficient for addressing disinformation spread. Instead, we must wrestle with the structural, institutional, and cultural issues that disinformation actors exploit, including cross-platform flows.
This paper started as a collaborative effort of the disinformation research group (led by the amazing @JosephineLukito) within @UW_MCRC. I'm proud of the collaborative spirit and model we created there, something I look forward to building on @CommDepUB.
