Digital Propaganda: The Tyranny of Ignorance

Sparkes-Vian, Cassian

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2018. The existence of propaganda is inexorably bound to the nature of communication and communications technology. Mass communication by citizens in the digital age has been heralded as a means to counter elite propaganda; however, it also provides a forum for misinformation, aggression and hostility. The extremist group Britain First has used Facebook as a way to propagate hostility towards Muslims, immigrants and social security claimants in the form of memes, leading to a backlash from sites antithetical to their message. This article provides a memetic analysis, which addresses persuasion, organisation, political echo chambers and self-correcting online narratives; arguing that propaganda can be best understood as an evolving set of techniques and mechanisms which facilitate the propagation of ideas and actions. This allows the concept to be adapted to fit a changing political and technological landscape and to encompass both propaganda and counter-propaganda in the context of horizontal communications networks.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 19, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Apr 19, 2018
• Publication Date: May 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 15, 2018
• Journal: Critical Sociology
• Print ISSN: 0896-9205
• Electronic ISSN: 1569-1632
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 393-409
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920517754241
• Keywords: Facebook, Islamophobia, meme, political communication, political sociology, propaganda, racism, social media
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/847533
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920517754241
• Additional Information: Additional Information : © 2019. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications
• Contract Date: May 15, 2018