Creating chaos online : : disinformation and subverted post-publics / / Asta Zelenkauskaitė.

• Author: Zelenkauskaite, Asta.
• Place / Publishing House: Ann Arbor, Michigan : : University of Michigan Press,, 2022.; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (319 pages)

With the prevalence of disinformation geared to instill doubt rather than clarity, Creating Chaos Online unmasks disinformation when it attempts to pass as deliberation in the public sphere and distorts the democratic processes. Asta Zelenkauskaitė finds that repeated tropes justifying Russian trolling were found to circulate across not only all analyzed media platforms' comments but also across two analyzed sociopolitical contexts suggesting the orchestrated efforts behind messaging. Through a dystopian vision of publics that are expected to navigate in the sea of uncertain both authentic and orchestrated content, pushed by human and nonhuman actors, Creating Chaos Online offers a concept of post-publics. Post-publics is reflected within the continuum of treatment of public, counter public, and anti-public. This book argues that affect-instilled arguments used in public deliberation in times of uncertainty, along with whataboutism constitute a playbook for chaos online.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction. A Déjà Vu from the Silenced Generation -- Disinformation -- Soviet Propaganda in the Eyes of a Child -- Vulnerabilities of Social Media -- Trolling and Russian Trolling -- Russian Trolling Circulation -- Chapter 1. Propagandistic Masquerade -- Text as a Mask -- Paradoxes of a Mask -- Subversiveness of a Mask -- Performativity and Modus Operandi of a Propagandist Mask: self-sabotage -- Multiple Faces for the Masks: Commenting User Typology -- Discussion -- Summary -- Chapter 2. Divide and Conquer: Exploiting Political Polarization -- Frameworks of Information Persuasion -- Communication Persuasion Models -- Mechanics of Propaganda -- Communicative Tactics: Attack, Defense, and Whataboutism -- Tactics Used in Online News Comments -- Discussion -- Summary -- Chapter 3. Instilling Mistrust in Institutions -- Living in Media -- Comments as Forms of News Deliberations -- News Portals Comments as Information Warfare Zones -- Contexts That Situate Online Public Deliberation -- Discrediting Media as an Institution -- Attack on Government Institutions -- Discussion -- Summary -- Chapter 4. Roots of Russia's Victim's Playing -- New Media and Information Warfare in Authoritarian Regimes -- Roots of Russia's (Information) Warfare -- Information Warfare in Action by Russia -- Victim-Playing Russian Trolls in the News Comments -- Delegitimization Rhetoric -- Summary -- Chapter 5. Deny and Conquer: Fears of Looking Like a "Pussy State" -- Implications of the Denialism Discourse regarding Russian Trolling -- Psychology of Denialism -- Denial and Conspiracy Theories -- Denial Normalization Traps to Avoid -- Discussion -- Summary -- Epilogue: Now What? -- Imperviousness to Chaos -- What Solutions Are There for Russian Trolling? -- Web as a Zero Institution -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index.