Concepts
Propaganda 1. Publicly disseminated information that serves to
influence others in belief and/or action
2. The attempt to transmit social and political values
in the hope of affecting people’s thinking, emotions
and behavior
Focus on instigator’s purpose
Soft Power Ability to affect others by attraction (seduction) and
persuasion rather than just coercion and payment
Hard Propaganda Signals the ruling party’s strength in social control and its
capacity to meet potential challenges
● Over the top unrealistic claims and praise
● Newspapers, TV, radio
Soft Propaganda Products of soft power (movies, documentaries, viral
social media content)
● More credible & subtle claims
● High production and entertainment value
Collective Action Problem Rational, self-interested individuals will not act to achieve
their common/group interest unless there is coercion or a
separate individual incentive to do so
Online Political Microtargeting Creating finely hones messages targeted at narrow
categories of voters’ based on data analysis garnered
from individuals’ demographic characteristics and
consumer lifestyle habits
- TL;DR: Collecting information about people and
using that information to show them targeted
political advertisements
Duverger’s law In political systems with only one winner, two main parties
tend to emerge with minor parties typically splitting votes
away from the most similar party. ins systems with
proportional representation, there is usually more
representation of minor parties in government
Engagement (working The level of interaction with a social media platform.
definition) Usually assessed with monitoring tools providing
quantitative metrics, i.e. n. of likes, shares, comments,
opens, views, clicks (quantifiable)
Astroturfing A campaign in which participants appear to be part of a
genuine grassroots movement or sentiment, while it is in
fact orchestrated centrally and top-down
- National intelligence services (South Korea)
- 50c party,
- Bots (Russia)
Disinformation vs. Disinformation: deliberately propagated false information
Astroturfing Difference: in “normal” disinformation the content is false.
Propaganda 1. Publicly disseminated information that serves to
influence others in belief and/or action
2. The attempt to transmit social and political values
in the hope of affecting people’s thinking, emotions
and behavior
Focus on instigator’s purpose
Soft Power Ability to affect others by attraction (seduction) and
persuasion rather than just coercion and payment
Hard Propaganda Signals the ruling party’s strength in social control and its
capacity to meet potential challenges
● Over the top unrealistic claims and praise
● Newspapers, TV, radio
Soft Propaganda Products of soft power (movies, documentaries, viral
social media content)
● More credible & subtle claims
● High production and entertainment value
Collective Action Problem Rational, self-interested individuals will not act to achieve
their common/group interest unless there is coercion or a
separate individual incentive to do so
Online Political Microtargeting Creating finely hones messages targeted at narrow
categories of voters’ based on data analysis garnered
from individuals’ demographic characteristics and
consumer lifestyle habits
- TL;DR: Collecting information about people and
using that information to show them targeted
political advertisements
Duverger’s law In political systems with only one winner, two main parties
tend to emerge with minor parties typically splitting votes
away from the most similar party. ins systems with
proportional representation, there is usually more
representation of minor parties in government
Engagement (working The level of interaction with a social media platform.
definition) Usually assessed with monitoring tools providing
quantitative metrics, i.e. n. of likes, shares, comments,
opens, views, clicks (quantifiable)
Astroturfing A campaign in which participants appear to be part of a
genuine grassroots movement or sentiment, while it is in
fact orchestrated centrally and top-down
- National intelligence services (South Korea)
- 50c party,
- Bots (Russia)
Disinformation vs. Disinformation: deliberately propagated false information
Astroturfing Difference: in “normal” disinformation the content is false.
