The Disinformers uncovers the people and the organizations behind the disinformation campaigns that began on social media with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and reached a violent crescendo with the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Edited by social media researcher Lance Porter, this vital collection of interdisciplinary scholarship analyzes how foreign interference destabilized political conversations, stoked racial tensions, and spread disinformation across social media platforms to produce increasing friction among voters. With a new presidential election cycle in motion, members of the voting public continue questioning both the security of the nation’s election systems and the validity of its media networks. The 2016 election thrust the vulnerability of voting technology to the forefront of conversations in the United States and sparked discussions about the use of social media to distribute divisive and false information. While Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2016 and 2020 elections were verifiably false, disinformation undoubtedly roiled the nation’s media systems and spurred on the insurrection of January 6. Presenting seven essays of original research, The Disinformers focuses on the turning point of 2016 and how disinformation campaigns continued in the following years. The contributors examine organizations such as Russia’s Internet Research Agency and its connections with a conservative network across social media, including Facebook and Twitter, that disseminated incendiary content. Essays from political scientists, media scholars, computer scientists, and cybersecurity experts reveal the ways in which disinformation permeates social media, the platform policies and chronic inaction that enable disinformation to circulate, and the effects of disinformation on young people as well as on historically repressed groups. At a critical time in the U.S. political cycle, The Disinformers provides in-depth analysis of issues essential to understanding the role disinformation can play in elections across the world.

Since the start of the Trump era, the United States and the Western world has finally begun to wake up to the threat of online warfare and the attacks from Russia, who flood social media with disinformation, and circulate false and misleading information to fuel fake narratives and make the case for illegal warfare. The question no one seems to be able to answer is: what can the West do about it? Central and Eastern European states, including Ukraine and Poland, however, have been aware of the threat for years. Nina Jankowicz has advised these governments on the front lines of the information war. The lessons she learnt from that fight, and from her attempts to get US congress to act, make for essential reading. How to Lose the Information War takes the reader on a journey through five Western governments' responses to Russian information warfare tactics - all of which have failed. She journeys into the campaigns the Russian operatives run, and shows how we can better understand the motivations behind these attacks and how to beat them. Above all, this book shows what is at stake: the future of civil discourse and democracy, and the value of truth itself.

This interdisciplinary Handbook provides an in-depth analysis of the complex security phenomenon of disinformation and offers a toolkit to counter such tactics. Disinformation used to propagate false, inexact or out of context information is today a frequently used tool of political manipulation and information warfare, both online and offline. This Handbook evidences a historical thread of continuing practices and modus operandi in overt state propaganda and covert information operations. Further, it attempts to unveil current methods used by propaganda actors, the inherent vulnerabilities they exploit in the fabric of democratic societies and, last but not least, to highlight current practices in countering disinformation and building resilient audiences. The Handbook is divided into six thematic sections. The first part provides a set of theoretical approaches to hostile influencing, disinformation and covert information operations. The second part looks at disinformation and propaganda in historical perspective offering case study analysis of disinformation, and the third focuses on providing understanding of the contemporary challenges posed by disinformation and hostile influencing. The fourth part examines information and communication practices used for countering disinformation and building resilience. The fifth part analyses specific regional experiences in countering and deterring disinformation, as well as international policy responses from transnational institutions and security practitioners. Finally, the sixth part offers a practical toolkit for practitioners to counter disinformation and hostile influencing. This handbook will be of much interest to students of national security, propaganda studies, media and communications studies, intelligence studies and International Relations in general.

The grainy black-and-white television ad shows a young girl in a flower-filled meadow, holding a daisy and plucking its petals, which she counts one by one. As the camera slowly zooms in on her eye, a man's solemn countdown replaces hers. At zero the little girl's eye is engulfed by an atomic mushroom cloud. As the inferno roils in the background, President Lyndon B. Johnson's voice intones, "These are the stakes -- to make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." In this thought-provoking and highly readable book, Robert Mann provides a concise, engaging study of the "Daisy Girl" ad, widely acknowledged as the most important and memorable political ad in American history. Commissioned by Johnson's campaign and aired only once during Johnson's 1964 presidential contest against Barry Goldwater, it remains an iconic piece of electoral propaganda, intertwining cold war fears of nuclear annihilation with the increasingly savvy world of media and advertising. Mann presents a nuanced view of how Johnson's campaign successfully cast Barry Goldwater as a radical too dangerous to control the nation's nuclear arsenal, a depiction that sparked immediate controversy across the United States. Repeatedly analyzed in countless books and articles, the spot purportedly destroyed Goldwater's presidential campaign. Although that degree of impact on the Goldwater campaign is debatable, what is certain is that the ad ushered in a new era of political advertising using emotional appeals as a routine aspect of campaign strategy.

Professor Michael Edgeworth McIntyre is an eminent scientist who has also had a part-time career as a musician. In this book he offers an extraordinary synthesis, revealing the many deep connections between science, music, and mathematics. He avoids equations and technical jargon. The connections are deep in the sense of being embedded in our very nature, rooted in biological evolution over hundreds of millions of years.Michael guides us through biological evolution, perception psychology, and even unconscious science and mathematics, all the way to the scientific uncertainties about the climate crisis.He also has a message of hope for the future. Contrary to popular belief, he holds that biological evolution has given us not only the nastiest, but also the most compassionate and cooperative parts of human nature. This insight comes from recognizing that biological evolution is far more than a simple competition between selfish genes. Instead, he argues, in some ways it is more like the turbulent, eddying flow in a river or in an atmospheric jet stream, a complex process spanning a vast range of timescales.Professor McIntyre is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) and has long been interested in how different branches of science can better communicate with each other, and with the public. His work harnesses aspects of neuroscience and psychology that point toward the deep 'lucidity principles' that underlie skilful communication, principles related to the way music works — music of any genre.This Second Edition sharpens the previous discussion of communication skills and their importance for today's great problems, ranging from the widely discussed climate crisis to the need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of artificial intelligence.

This new book addresses disinformation and proposes a strategic communication approach, which the authors argue is an effective way to eliminate disinformation narratives. The book uses both theoretical interpretations and concrete examples of these two phenomena. The authors use contemporary examples from the United Kingdom, the USA, Central and Eastern Europe, and the wider global world. The authors draw together their varied experiences and backgrounds in corporate marketing and communications, state security administration, and academic research. The book's first part deals with the role of disinformation in modern society, and examines disinformation throughout history. It reflects on the impact of modern technologies on the changing nature of disinformation, primarily in the speed and method of dissemination. The second section examines why we are losing the fight against disinformation. Disinformation is not rational; it utilises cognitive biases, the mental shortcuts that help us, and misleads us in our everyday lives. To reduce the impact of disinformation narratives, we need to understand better how people decide and use cognitive biases to reduce the impact of disinformation. The third part is devoted to strategic communication, which the authors present as an effective tool to fight disinformation. This part analyses individual communication channels and how we can use them as part of strategic communication. It guides the creation of the most effective media mix to support strategic intent.

A powerful, pocket-sized citizen’s guide on how to fight back against the disinformation campaigns that are imperiling American democracy, from the bestselling author of Post-Truth and How to Talk to a Science Denier. The effort to destroy facts and make America ungovernable didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the culmination of seventy years of strategic denialism. In On Disinformation, Lee McIntyre shows how the war on facts began, and how ordinary citizens can fight back against the scourge of disinformation that is now threatening the very fabric of our society. Drawing on his twenty years of experience as a scholar of science denial, McIntyre explains how autocrats wield disinformation to manipulate a populace and deny obvious realities, why the best way to combat disinformation is to disrupt its spread, and most importantly, how we can win the war on truth. McIntyre takes readers through the history of strategic denialism to show how we arrived at this precarious political moment and identifies the creators, amplifiers, and believers of disinformation. Along the way, he also demonstrates how today’s “reality denial” follows the same flawed blueprint of the “five steps of science denial” used by climate deniers and anti-vaxxers; shows how Trump has emulated disinformation tactics created by Russian and Soviet intelligence dating back to the 1920s; provides interviews with leading experts on information warfare, counterterrorism, and political extremism; and spells out the need for algorithmic transparency from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. On Disinformation lays out ten everyday practical steps that we can take as ordinary citizens—from resisting polarization to pressuring our Congresspeople to regulate social media—as well as the important steps our government (if we elect the right leaders) must take. Compact, easy-to-read (and then pass on to a friend), and never more urgent, On Disinformation does nothing less than empower us with the tools and knowledge needed to save our republic from autocracy before it is too late.

Politicking While Female traces the challenges and opportunities that shape the experiences of women who pursue and hold positions of political leadership in the United States. In this volume, Nichole M. Bauer gathers new essays studying the forces that keep women out of political institutions, along with the hurdles faced by female candidates and politicians once they overcome those barriers. Drawing on recent, original data, Politicking While Female examines the life cycle of a woman’s political career. The first section charts the development of political identities that shape women’s participation in politics as voters and as potential candidates, with attention to the patterns of socialization that can discourage women from seeing themselves as political leaders. The next two sections focus on the process of deciding to run for public office, especially the crucial role of mentors, and the challenges female candidates face when campaigning, as they work to raise money, develop effective messages, and overcome voter biases regarding women in leadership roles. The final section explores how women govern once in office, showing the impact of having larger numbers of women in positions of political power. A valuable resource for students, scholars, and voters of all backgrounds, Politicking While Female: The Political Lives of Women offers a comprehensive and accessible collection of essays, supported by new research and analysis, that captures central debates in the study of gender and politics.

Presenting startling new biographical details about Timothy McVeigh and exposing stark contradictions and errors contained in previous depictions of the "All-American Terrorist," this book traces McVeigh's life from childhood to the Army, throughout the plot to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and the period after his 1995 arrest until his 2001 execution. McVeigh's life, as Dr. Wendy Painting describes it, offers a backdrop for her discussion of not only several intimate and previously unknown details about him, but a number of episodes and circumstances in American History as well. In Aberration in the Heartland, Painting explores Cold War popular culture, all-American apocalyptic fervor, organized racism, contentious politics, militarism, warfare, conspiracy theories, bioethical controversies, mind control, the media's construction of villains and demons, and institutional secrecy and cover-ups. All these stories are examined, compared, and tested in Aberration in the Heartland of the Real, making this book a much closer examination into the personality and life of Timothy McVeigh than has been provided by any other biographical work about him