Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-18899-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 434 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 885 g

This Handbook provides the first comprehensive examination of the influence industry and how it operates worldwide across different domains.

The rapid evolution of emerging technologies and data-driven persuasive practices has been linked to the spread of misleading content in domestic and foreign influence campaigns. This has prompted worldwide public and policy discussions about disinformation and how to curb its spread. However, less attention has been paid to the increasingly data-driven commercial industry taking advantage of the opportunities these new technologies afford. The handbook uses the term ‘influence’ here to include not only messaging and public relations (PR), which fell within the traditional focus of propaganda studies, but to consider the infrastructure and actors behind an advanced array of capabilities that can be used in a coordinated way to affect an audience’s emotions, ideas and behaviors in order to advance a state or non-state actor’s objectives – increasingly based on data-driven profiling. The volume fills a gap in scholarship exploring the recent technical, political and economic development of this industry, surveying the extent of different technologies and services offered to clients worldwide across multiple domains (commercial, political, national security and government). The chapters are divided into three thematic sections and evaluate Influence Industry practices, aims and effectiveness across audiences; business practices and economics; and democratic structures and human rights. They also offer advice for researchers and consider key ethical issues and new regulatory approaches.

This volume will be of much interest to students of political science, propaganda studies, sociology, communication studies and journalism.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Briant, Emma L

Bakir, Vian

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikation & Medien in der Politik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Interessengruppen, Lobbyismus und Protestbewegungen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Diplomatie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Propaganda & Kampagnen, Politik & Medien
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Tables

List of Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors 

Part I: Theoretical, Conceptual and Historical Background to the Influence Industry

1 Introducing the Influence Industry

Vian Bakir and Emma L. Briant

2 Concepts for Understanding the Influence Industry

Emma L. Briant and Vian Bakir

3 Situating the Digital Influence Industry

Emma L. Briant and Vian Bakir

4 Techniques and Transformation in the Digital Influence Industry

Vian Bakir and Emma L. Briant

5 The Economics of Social Media Manipulation: Insights into Digital Influence Mercenaries' Tactics and Impact

James Forest

6 Masspersonal Social Engineering and the Evolution of the Influence Industry

 Robert W. Gehl and Sean T. Lawson

7 The analogue-era Influence Industry and South Africa’s Quest for Reputational Security, 1948-1994: Buying Friends for Apartheid.

Nicholas J. Cull

Part II: Micro-Practices and Social Impacts of the Influence Industry: International Case Studies

8 Cambridge Analytica's Online Disinformation and Propaganda in Nigeria: Does Local Culture Reveal Limits in Persuasion and Influencer Activities?

Shola Olabode

9 Russian Active Measures in the 2016 US Presidential Election: 'Useful Idiots' and Intelligence Agencies

Stephen McCombie and Allon J. Uhlmann

10 The Kremlin’s Influence Industry and its Use of Lawfare to Undermine Democracy

Alexandra Chalupa

11 Deception Supply Chains in the Middle East, 2010–2023: A Playbook of Social Media Manipulation, Disinformation and Influence Operations

Marc Owen Jones

12 Medical Populism, Nationalism, and Parody: Unmasking Digital Dissent in Turkey’s COVID-19 Landscape

Alkim Yalin, Nora Suren and Jonathan Corpus Ong

13 Understanding Conspiracy Theories as a Business: The Case of Humanitad

Alexander Beunder and Emma L. Briant

14 Digital ‘Guerrillas’ and the Changing Influence Industry’s Impact on Latin American Democracies: Lessons from Chile

Marcelo Santos and Ximena Orchard 

15 Brazil's Far-Right 'Media Literacy' Campaign: Delegitimizing The Press For Profit

Rose Marie Santini and Débora Salles

16 Weaponizing WhatsApp: A Case Study of a Digitally Amplified Institutionalized Riot System in India

Benjamin Grazda

Part III: The Future of the Influence Industry: Rights, Ethics and Governance for Emerging Technologies

17 Why the Influence Industry Matters

Vian Bakir and Emma L. Briant

18 Ethics for the Future of Military Information Operations

Mark Zelcer

19 Trust, Truth and ‘Organised Lying’: A Critical Study of The Edelman Trust Barometer

Lee Edwards

20 Local Civil Society and the International Influence Industry: Preparing for Elections with Practice-led Research

Amber Macintyre and Stephanie Hankey

21 Combatting the Influence Industry within Surveillance Capitalism: The Potentials and Pitfalls of Personal Information Management Systems

Vian Bakir Alexander Laffer and Andrew McStay

22 Guarding against Automated Empathy Attacks on Ontological Security

Vian Bakir and Andrew McStay

Part IV: Conclusions and Recommendations

23 Towards an Ethical Influence Industry

Emma L. Briant and Vian Bakir

24 Researching and Conceptualizing the Influence Industry

Emma L. Briant

25 Conclusion

Emma L. Briant 

 

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Emma L. Briant is Associate Professor of News and Political Communication at Monash University, Melbourne. She researches contemporary propaganda and information warfare and previously authored Bad News for Refugees (with Greg Philo and Pauline Donald, 2013) and Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism: Strategies for Global Change (2015).

Vian Bakir is Professor in Journalism and Political Communication at Bangor University, UK. Expert in the impact of the digital age on propaganda, disinformation and dataveillance, her most recent book is Optimising Emotions, Incubating Falsehoods (with Andrew McStay, 2022).