Automating power: Social bot interference in global politics

First Monday ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel C. Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Organizational Communication ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Software Programs ◽  
Automated Software

Over the last several years political actors worldwide have begun harnessing the digital power of social bots — software programs designed to mimic human social media users on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Increasingly, politicians, militaries, and government-contracted firms use these automated actors in online attempts to manipulate public opinion and disrupt organizational communication. Politicized social bots — here ‘political bots’ — are used to massively boost politicians’ follower levels on social media sites in attempts to generate false impressions of popularity. They are programmed to actively and automatically flood news streams with spam during political crises, elections, and conflicts in order to interrupt the efforts of activists and political dissidents who publicize and organize online. They are used by regimes to send out sophisticated computational propaganda. This paper conducts a content analysis of available media articles on political bots in order to build an event dataset of global political bot deployment that codes for usage, capability, and history. This information is then analyzed, generating a global outline of this phenomenon. This outline seeks to explain the variety of political bot-oriented strategies and presents details crucial to building understandings of these automated software actors in the humanities, social and computer sciences.

OPINI PUBLIK TERHADAP PENERAPAN NEW NORMAL DI MEDIA SOSIAL TWITTER

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
AWAD BIN MUHAMMAD ALKATIRI ◽  
ZHAFIRA NADIAH ◽  
ADINDA NADA S. NASUTION
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
New Normal ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
The Social

Social media is popular with all ages, people in young and old age groups can access social media. Social media is a place for information and opinion exchange. Twitter is one of the social media that is actively used in Indonesia. The new normal phenomenon that is currently being applied is wanted to be further known by researchers by referring to the hashtag #newnormalindonesia on Twitter. Researchers want to find out how public opinion is formed based on the hashtag #newnormalindonesia on Twitter. This research uses the concept of public opinion which is categorized into positive, negative, and neutral. In the research method, researchers use quantitative content analysis, the analysis unit uses thematic analysis units with the operationalization of concepts using the concept of public opinion. Coding sheets are used as instruments in data collection techniques, then in testing the validity and reliability using inter-coder reliability. The results showed that the twitter posts with the #newnormalindonesia hashtag tendto be negative by not supporting the implementation of new normal.

scholarly journals DEMOKRASI POST-PENYIARAN DALAM MUNCULNYA FANS POLITIK DI INDONESIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vannyora Okditazeini
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
New Media ◽  
High Mobility ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Broadcast Media ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Technology And Communication

This study aims to elaborate on how the pattern of democracy shifts along with the development of technology and communication. This shift can be seen from the use of broadcast media as a channel of aspirations to the use of new media known as post-broadcasting democracy. This post-broadcasting democratic pattern will be seen on the #2019gantippresi fanpage community and will analyze the activities carried out by members in the group. This paper is a netnographic study by integrating the concepts of mediated politics, post-broadcasting democracy, and political fans. The results of the study show that this shift in the pattern of democracy creates a new phenomenon, namely political fans. This can be seen in: first, the activities carried out by political fans on social media foster a political constellation with high mobility. Second, post-broadcasting democratic publics become interactive publics. Third, political fans produce texts which in turn become cultural productions in mediated politics. Fourth, the activities of these political fans indirectly influence public opinion regarding the political actors they admire. The author observes that the phenomenon of political fans as seen on the #2019gantippresi fanspage can be a new strategy for political actors in growing fanatical sympathizers by utilizing technological and communication developments. 

scholarly journals Beyond Big Bird, Binders, and Bayonets: Humor and Visibility Among Connected Viewers of the 2012 US Presidential Debates

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511876120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Driscoll ◽  
Alex Leavitt ◽  
Kristen L. Guth ◽  
François Bar ◽  
Aalok Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Presidential Debates ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Political Actors

During the 2012 US presidential debates, more than five million connected viewers turned to social media to respond to the broadcast and talk politics with one another. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the prevalence of humor and its relationship to visibility among connected viewers live-tweeting the debates. Based on a content analysis of tweets and accounts, we estimate that approximately one-fifth of the messages sent during the debates consisted of strictly humorous content. Using retweet frequency as a proxy for visibility, we found a positive relationship between the use of humor and the visibility of individual tweets. Not only was humor widespread in the discourse of connected viewers, but humorous messages enjoyed greater overall visibility. These findings suggest a strategic use of humor by political actors seeking greater shares of attention on social media.

scholarly journals Communicating About COVID-19 Crisis: Content Analysis of Image Repair Strategy by The Malaysian Government and Its Association With Public Opinion on Social Media (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasaai Masngut ◽  
Emma Mohamad
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Image Repair ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Image Repair Theory ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Malaysian Government ◽  
Image Repair Strategies

BACKGROUND Good leadership image in times of health emergency is paramount to ensure public’s confidence towards government’s ability to manage a crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge for governments worldwide to manage and communicate about the pandemic effectively, while maintaining public trust. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to identify types of image repair strategies utilized by the Malaysian government in their communication about COVID-19. The study then analyzes public opinion towards these communication on social media. METHODS Content analysis was employed to analyze 120 media statements and 382 comments retrieved from Facebook page of two mainstream newspapers, Berita Harian and The Star. These samples were collected within a span of 6 weeks prior and during the implementation of Movement Control Order by the Malaysian Government. The media statements were analyzed according to Benoit’s Image Repair Theory to categorize strategies employed in government communication. Public opinion responses were measured using modified lexicon-based VADER sentiment analysis to categorize positive, negative and neutral statements. RESULTS The Malaysian government employed all 5 strategies of the Image Repair Theory in their communication in both newspapers. The strategy most utilized was the reduce offensiveness strategy (62.5%). This is followed by corrective action strategy (25.0%), evading responsibilities (8.3%), denial (3.3%) and mortification (0.8%). This study also found multiple sub-strategies in government media statements including denial, shifting blame, provocation, defeasibility, accident, good intention, bolstering, minimization, differentiation, transcendence, attacking accuser, resolve problem, prevent recurrence, admit wrongdoing and apologize. This study also found that 64.7% of public opinion were positive towards media statements made by the Malaysian government. This study also revealed a significant positive association between Image Repair Strategies utilized by the Malaysian government and public opinion. CONCLUSIONS Communication in the media may assist the government to foster positive support from the public. Suitable image repair strategies could garner positive public responses and help build trust in times of crisis.

scholarly journals Penggunaan Akun Bot Media Sosial untuk Mempengaruhi Opini Publik : Sebuah Tinjauan Hukum Di Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Devi Rahma Fatmala ◽  
Amanda Amelia ◽  
Fitri Agustina Trianingsih
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law

Today’s political discourse can’t be disattached from the usage of social media. There are plenty of political actors using it to campaign their issues and attack their political rival in order to influence public opinion. One of the instruments used by the political actor in using the social media is bot accounts. Bot accounts are an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person. The usage of bot accounts are viewed as harmful for democracy by many experts on law and democracy. However, a lot of states have no regulation regarding the usage of bot accounts, including Indonesia. This article is intended to bring legal review on the usage of bot accounts to influence public opinion in Indonesia. Using deliberative democratic theory, this article views that the usage of bot accounts could prevent the objective achievement of democracy based on UUD 1945. The authors recommend the regulation of bot accounts through the revision of UU No. 19 Tahun 2019 about Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik with bringing up various important argumentations regarding the law implementation. Keywords : Bot Accounts; Social Media; Public Opinion; Democracy; Legal Review.

Social media as public opinion: How journalists use social media to represent public opinion

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1070-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon C McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Press ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Shed Light

Public opinion, as necessary a concept it is to the underpinnings of democracy, is a socially constructed representation of the public that is forged by the methods and data from which it is derived, as well as how it is understood by those tasked with evaluating and utilizing it. I examine how social media manifests as public opinion in the news and how these practices shape journalistic routines. I draw from a content analysis of news stories about the 2016 US election, as well as interviews with journalists, to shed light on evolving practices that inform the use of social media to represent public opinion. I find that despite social media users not reflecting the electorate, the press reported online sentiments and trends as a form of public opinion that services the horserace narrative and complements survey polling and vox populi quotes. These practices are woven into professional routines – journalists looked to social media to reflect public opinion, especially in the wake of media events like debates. Journalists worried about an overreliance on social media to inform coverage, especially Dataminr alerts and journalists’ own highly curated Twitter feeds. Hybrid flows of information between journalists, campaigns, and social media companies inform conceptions of public opinion.

scholarly journals The use of social media bot accounts on influencing public opinion: a legal review in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Devi Rahma Fatmala ◽  
Amanda Amelia ◽  
Fitri Agustina Trianingsih
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Law ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Today’s political discourse cannot be separated from the usage of social media. There are plenty of political actors using it to campaign their issues and attack their political rivals to influence public opinion. One of the instruments used by the political actor in using social media is bot accounts. Bot accounts are an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person. The usage of bot accounts is viewed as harmful for democracy by many experts on law and democracy. However, lots of states have no regulation regarding the usage of bot accounts, including Indonesia. This article intends to bring legal review on the usage of bot accounts to influence public opinion in Indonesia. By using deliberative democratic theory, this article views that the usage of bot accounts could prevent the objective achievement of democracy based on the 1945 Constitution. The authors recommend the regulation of bot accounts through the revision of Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions with bringing up various notable arguments regarding the law implementation.

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