(Created page with " == Abstract == Misinformation, post-truth and fake news are the consequence of the complex interaction between technological disruption, collective interpersonal communicati...")
 
 
(No difference)

Latest revision as of 14:11, 8 April 2019

Abstract

Misinformation, post-truth and fake news are the consequence of the complex interaction between technological disruption, collective interpersonal communication and sociopolitical action. We analyzed the impact of content produced by the hacktivist Julian Assange [1] and his WikiLeaks organization in support of the Catalan independence process in the last quarter of 2017. A total of 1,708,087 unique results were retrieved from multiple streams of Internet data, of which 99.85% is from Twitter with a 93% viralization rate. The 50 most viral tweets were analyzed qualitatively to identify the underlying misinformation patterns. The research findings show 1) the extent to which such misinformation favors the internal logic, coherence and survival of the independence worldview, whose main value lies in its national utility and 2) misinformation does not use the coercion of lies or falsehoods typical of totalitarian propaganda, but the freedom of citizens to voluntarily engage.


Click to link the PDF version


References

Alcorn, Gay (2014). “Facts are futile in an era of post-truth politics”. The age, 28 February. http://bit.ly/2iKT7Bl

Anthony, Andrew (2016). “Inside the hate-filled echo chamber of racism and conspiracy theories”. The guardian, 18 December. http://bit.ly/2i4HHXv

Austin, John-Langshaw (1975[1962]). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://goo.gl/kvagRP

Beck, Ulrick (2016). The metamorphosis of the world: How climate change is transforming our concept of the world. Cambridge: Polity press. ISBN: 978 0 745690223

Bekkers, Victor; Beunders Henri; Edwards, Arthur; Moody, Rebecca (2011). “New media, micromobilization, and political agenda setting: Crossover effects in political mobilization and media usage”. The information society, v. 27, n. 4, pp. 209-219. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2011.583812

Benkler, Yochai (2006). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978 0 300125771

Benkler, Yochai (2011). “A free irresponsible press: Wikileaks and the battle over the soul of the networked fourth estate”. Harvard civil rights-civil liberties law review, n. 46, pp. 311-397. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:10900863

Benkler, Yochai (2013). “WikiLeaks and the networked fourth estate”. In: Brevini, Benedetta; Hintz, Arne; McCurdy, Patrick (eds.). Beyond WikiLeaks. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 11-34. ISBN: 978 1 137275738 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275745_2

Buncombe, Andrew (2017). “Julian Assange renews offer to become ambassador to US after private messages with Trump Jr are revealed”. The independent, 14 November. https://ind.pn/2hE2Zxb

Cadwalladr, Carole (2017). “Trump, Assange, Bannon, Farage… bound together in an unholy Alliance”. The guardian, 29 October. http://bit.ly/2hEFT9X

Del-Fresno-García, Miguel (2014). “Haciendo visible lo invisible: visualización de la estructura de las relaciones en red en Twitter por medio del análisis de redes sociales”. El profesional de la información, v. 23, n.3, pp. 246-252. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2014.may.04

Del-Fresno-García, Miguel (2017). “We the new media : The disruption of social media in interpersonal and collective communication”. In: Cabrera, Margarita; Lloret, Nuria (2017). Digital tools for academic branding and self-promotion. Cincinnati: IGI-Books, pp. 11-30. ISBN: 978 1 522509172 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0917-2

Del-Fresno-García, Miguel (2018). “Posverdad y desinformación: guía para perplejos”. El país, 16 March. http://bit.ly/2H88z9M

Del-Fresno-García, Miguel; Daly, Alan-James (2018). “Limits for the political communication through large online platforms: from The caste to The plot”. Revista española de investigaciones sociológicas, n. 165, pp. 23-42. https://goo.gl/6p7Qpa

Del-Fresno-García, Miguel; Daly, Alan-James; Segado-Sánchez-Cabezudo, Sagrario (2016). “Identificando a los nuevos influyentes en tiempos de internet: medios sociales y análisis de redes sociales”. Revista española de investigaciones sociológicas v. 153, pp. 23-42. https://doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.153.23

Del-Vicario, Michela; Bessi, Alessandro; Zollo, Fabiana; Petroni, Fabio; Scala, Antonio; Caldarelli, Guido; Stanley, H. Eugene; Quattrociocchi, Walter (2016). “The spreading of misinformation online”. PNAS. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, v. 113, n. 3, pp. 554-559. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517441113

Der Spiegel (2017). “Dortmund: Polizei reagiert auf US-Horrormeldung zu Silvesternacht”. Spiegel online, 5 January. http://bit.ly/2i4ExD6

Dorsey, Jack (2012). “Twitter takes the pulse of the planet. It’s the intersection of every media & medium”. - @jack #makinghistory. Twitter, November 15th. https://twitter.com/TwitterMktg/status/269129576318386177 Drezner, Daniel (2016). “Why the post-truth political era might be around for a while”. The Washington Post, 16 June. http://wapo.st/2iLqe7Z

Dunn, Hopeton (2013). “‘Something old, something new…’: WikiLeaks and the collaborating newspapers. Exploring the limits of conjoint approaches to political exposure”. In: Brevini, Benedetta; Hintz, Arne; McCurdy, Patrick (eds.) Beyond WikiLeaks. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 85-100. ISBN: 978 1 137 27574 5 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275745_6

Elmer, Greg (2013). “Live research: Twittering an election debate”. New media & society, v. 15, n. 1, pp. 18-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812457328

EsDiario (2017). “Encuentran la factura que la Generalitat pagó a Assange por mentir sobre España”. EsDiario, 10 November. http://bit.ly/2BxcAhB

European Commission (2018). “A multi-dimensional approach to disinformation. Report of the independent High level Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation”. Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology. http://bit.ly/2Ponxc1

Flood, Alison (2016). “‘Post-truth’ named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries”. The guardian, 15 November. http://bit.ly/2iKOU0u

Fox, Christopher (1983). Information and misinformation: An investigation of the notions of information, misinformation, informing, and misinforming. Westport, CT: Greenwood. ISBN: 978 0 313239281

Freedland, Jonathan (2016). “Post-truth politicians such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are no joke”. The guardian, 13 May. http://bit.ly/2iKKMxr

García, David; Méndez, Fernando; Serdült, Uwe; Schweitzer, Frank (2012). “Political polarization and popularity in online participatory media : An integrated approach”. Association for Computing Machinery ACM. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-98855

Gascón, Daniel (2018). El golpe posmoderno: 15 lecciones para el futuro de la democracia. Barcelona: Debate. ISBN: 978 84 99928685

Geere, Duncan (2010). “It’s not just you: 71 percent of tweets are ignored”. Wired, 10 November. http://bit.ly/2BtkaJt

González-Bailón, Sandra; Borge-Holthoefer, Javier; Rivero, Alejandro; Moreno, Yamir (2011). “The dynamics of protest recruitment through an online network”. Scientific reports, n. 1, pp. 1-7. https://go.nature.com/2qKZslO

Harsin, Jayson (2006). “The rumor bomb: Theorising the convergence of new and old trends in mediated US politics”. Southern review: Communication, politics and culture, v. 39, n. 1, pp. 84-110. https://bit.ly/2SqHOQn

Hern, Alex (2017). “WikiLeaks ‘hacked’ as OurMine group answers ‘hack us’ challenge”. The guardian, 31 August. http://bit.ly/2hxBa9X

Hernon, Peter (1995). “Disinformation and misinformation through the internet: Findings of an exploratory study”. Government information quarterly, v. 12, n. 2, pp. 133-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/0740-624X(95)90052-7

Howell, Lee (2013). “Digital wildfires in a hyperconnected world”. WEF Report 2013. http://bit.ly/2hpiDxa

Karlova, Natascha; Lee, Jin-Ha (2011). “Notes from the underground city of disinformation: A conceptual investigation”. En: Proceedings of the ASIST, October 9-13, New Orleans, LA. http://bit.ly/2x4KDNp

King, Gary; Pan, Jennifer; Roberts, Margaret (2017). “How the Chinese government fabricates social media posts for strategic distraction, not engaged argument”. American political science review, v. 111, n. 3, pp. 484-501. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055417000144

Kunda, Ziva (1990). “The case for motivated reasoning”. Psychological bulletin, v. 108, n. 3, pp. 480-498. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480

Landert, Daniela; Miscione, Gianluca (2017). “Narrating the stories of leaked data: The changing role of journalists after Wikileaks and Snowden”. Discourse, context and media, v. 19, pp. 13-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.02.002

Lazer, David M. J.; Baum, Mathew A.; Benkler, Yochai; Berinsky, Adam J.; Greenhill, Kelly M.; Menczer, Filippo; Metzger, Miriam J.; Nyhan, Brendan; Pennycook, Gordon; Rothschild, David; Schudson, Michael; Sloman, Steven A.; Sunstein, Cass R.; Thorson, Emily A.; Watts, Duncan J.; Zittrain, Jonathan L. (2018). “The science of fake news”. Science, v. 359, n. 6380, pp. 1094-1096. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2998

Luque, Pau (2018). La secesión en los dominios del lobo. Madrid: Catarata. ISBN: 978 84 90974933

Lynch, Lisa (2013). “The leak heard round the world? Cablegate in the evolving GlobalMediascape”. In: Brevini, Benedetta; Hintz, Arne; McCurdy, Patrick (eds.) Beyond WikiLeaks. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 56-77. ISBN: 978 1 137 27574 5 https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275745_4

Nicks, Denver (2012). Private: Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the biggest exposure of official secrets in American History. Chicago, Ill: Chicago Review Press. ISBN: 978 1 613740682

Noveck, Beth (2009). Wiki government: How technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more powerful. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press. ISBN: 978 0 815705109

Ordeix, Enric; Ginesta, Xavier (2014). “Political engagement principles as the basis for new regional self-determination processes in Europe: The case of Catalonia”. American behavioral scientist, v. 58, n. 7, pp. 928-940. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764213506214

Oxford University Press (2016). “Word of the Year 2016 is…”. Oxford Dictionaries. http://bit.ly/2BzsaJf

Pariser, Eli (2011). The filter bubble: What the internet is hiding from you. London: Viking/Penguin Press. ISBN: 978 0 241954522

Recuero, Marisa; Marraco, Manuel (2017). “Declaración de la independencia en Cataluña. Los apoyos al soberanismo de Assange y Yoko Ono no fueron espontáneos, según el fiscal”. El mundo, 31 October. http://bit.ly/2By8N3u

Rojecki, Andrew; Meraz, Sharon (2016). “Rumors and factitious informational blends: The role of the web in speculative politics”. New media and society, v. 18, n. 1, pp. 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814535724

Romano, Aja (2017). “The alt-right drove feminist writer Lindy West off Twitter. That has real-world political implications”. Vox, 6 January. http://bit.ly/2i4FJX0

Rothe, Dawn; Steinmetz, Kevin (2013). “The case of Bradley Manning: State victimization, realpolitik and WikiLeaks”. Contemporary justice review, v. 16, n. 2, pp. 280-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2013.798694

Sandoval-Almazán, Rodrigo; Gil-García, Ramón (2014). “Towards cyberactivism 2.0? Understanding the use of social media and other information technologies for political activism and social movements”. Government information quarterly, v. 31, n.3, pp. 365-378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.10.016

Shapiro, Michael; Rieger, Robert (1992). “Comparing positive and negative political advertising on radio” Journalism quaterly, v. 69, n. 1, pp. 135-144. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909206900111

Shirky, Clay (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. London: The Penguin Press. ISBN: 978 0 143114949 https://goo.gl/2V8uaW

Steenkamp, Marika; Hyde-Clarke, Nathalie (2014). “The use of Facebook for political commentary in South Africa”. Telematics and informatics, v. 31, n. 1, pp. 91-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2012.10.002

Sontheimer, Michael (2015). “Interview with Julian Assange”. Der spiegel, July 20th. http://bit.ly/2zB9Dzs

Simon, Herbert (1957). Models of man, social and rational: Mathematical essays on rational human behavior in a social setting. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Taber, Charles; Lodge, Milton (2006). “Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs”. American journal of political science, n. 50, pp. 755-769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00214.x

Uysal, Nur; Yang, Aimei (2013). “The power of activist networks in the mass self-communication era: A triangulation study of the impact of WikiLeaks on the stock value of Bank of America”. Public relations review, v. 39, n. 5, pp. 459-469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.09.007

Virilio, Paul (1991). The aesthetics of disappearance. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN: 978 1 570270413

Virilio, Paul (1995). Speed and information: Cyberspace alarm! http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=72

Virilio, Paul (1996). “Speed pollution”. Wired, January 5th. http://bit.ly/2iKGO87

Vosoughi, Soroush; Roy, Deb; Aral, Sinan (2018). “The spread of true and false news online”. Science, v. 359, n. 6380, pp. 1146-1151. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559

Weeks, Brian E. (2015). “Emotions, partisanship, and misperceptions: How anger and anxiety moderate the effect of partisan bias on susceptibility to political misinformation”. Journal of communication, n. 65, n. 4, pp. 699-719. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12164

WikiLeaks (2017). “Vault 7: CIA hacking tools revealed”. WikiLeaks, March 7th. https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1

WikiLeaks (2015). “What is WikiLeaks”. WikiLeaks, November 3rd. http://bit.ly/2zyq5jS

Willis, Oliver (2016). “What is the ‘Alt-Right’? A guide to the white nationalist movement now leading conservative media”. Mediamatters.org, August 25th. http://bit.ly/2zsWXty

Wills, Davis; Reeves, Stuart (2009). “Facebook as a political weapon: Information in social networks”. British politics, v. 4 n. 2, pp. 265-281. https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2009.3

Back to Top

Document information

Published on 04/12/18
Accepted on 04/12/18
Submitted on 04/12/18

Volume 27, Issue 6, 2018
DOI: 10.3145/epi.2018.nov.06
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA license

Document Score

0

Times cited: 2
Views 9
Recommendations 0

Share this document

claim authorship

Are you one of the authors of this document?