Psychographics on Steroids: The Attacks on Democratic Governments

Mark Goodman¹ John Goodman
Mississippi State University, USA

Research originally developed in the 1970s to make television and mass media advertising more effective has involved into a contemporary system of propaganda manipulation. Agents use social media to convince people that fake news is a valid reason for people to act and to vote. While the Russian manipulation of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 has received the most attention, people are being manipulated around the world. These manipulations undermine democratic governments, which require an informed, voting public. This paper outlines the theories behind the manipulation of social media and the conditions under which these efforts are most likely to work.

Keywords: Psychographics, propaganda, democracy, Russian manipulation

References

Ackerman, S. (2018). Russians’ Biggest Facebook Ad Promoted ‘Blue Lives Matter.’ Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-biggest-facebook-ad-promoted-blue-lives-matter
Atkinson, N. S. (2011). Newsreels as domestic propaganda: Visual rhetoric at the dawn of the Cold War. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 14(1), 69-100.
Ballotpedia. Pivot counties: The counties that voted Obama-Obama-Trump from 2008-2016. Retrieved from https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_in_Wisconsin_ 2016#cite_note-11
BBC News (19 July 2018). How WhatsApp helped turn an Indian village into a lynch mob. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44856910.
Bode, K. (2019). Researchers Demonstrate How U.S. Emergency Alert System Can Be Hijacked and Weaponized. Vice. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evy75j/researchers-demonstrate-how-us-emergency-alert-system-can-be-hijacked-and-weaponized?wpisrc=nl_cybersecurity202&wpmm=1
Casey, S. (2010). Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion 1950-1953. Oxford University Press.
Chalabi, M. (2016). America’s undecided voters: could they swing the whole 2016 election? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/datablog/2016/nov/03/undecided-voters-election-2016-hillary-clinton-donald-trump
Chan, T.F. and Ma, A. (2017). Here are some of the Russian Facebook ads meant to divide the US and promote Trump. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-facebook-ads-2016-election-trump-clinton-bernie-2017-11
Condon, B. (2019). Trump Facebook ads use models to portray actual supporters. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trump-facebook-ads-use-models-to-portray-actual-supporters/2019/07/02/8f67fd1a-9d04-11e9-83e3-45fded8e8d2e_story.html?utm_term=.56ca59276428 &wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1
Conley, H.A. (2019). Undermining democracy: Kremlin tools of malign political influence. Retrieved from https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/congressionaltestimony/190520_HConley_Testimony.pdf
Costigliola, F. (2000). ‘I had come as a friend’: Emotion, culture, and ambiguity in the formation of the Cold War, Cold War History, 1(1), 103-28.
Demick, B. (2012). Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Spiegal & Grau: New York.
Diamond, L. and Schell, O. (2018). Chinese influence & American interests. The Hoover                 Institution Center on US-China Relations, Stanford University Asia Society. Retrieved from https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/chineseinfluence_ americaninterests_fullreport_web.pdf
Dwoskin, E. and Timberg, C. (2 May 2019). Facebook bans extremist leaders including Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos for being ‘dangerous’. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2019/05/02/facebook-bans-extremist-leaders-including-louis-farrakhan-alex-jones-milo-yiannopoulos-being-dangerous/
Elliott, M. (2019). How many people watched the ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale? Cheatsheet. Retrieved from www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-many-people-watched-the-game-of-thrones-series-finale.html/
Engel, R., Benyon-Tinker, K., and Werner, K. (2019). Russian Documents Reveal Desire to Sow Racial Discord—and violence—in the U.S. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-documents-reveal-desire-sow-racial-discord-violence-u-s-n1008051
Facebook Business (2019). Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/business/m/facebook-marketing-experts-program?ref=sem_smb&utm_source= GOOGLE&utm_medium=fbsmbsem&utm_campaign=G_S_Beta_FacebookMarketing Experts_Brand_US_EN&kenid=3ef69826-76ec-4ef4-bf2f-3366abd59680& product=Facebook+Marketing+Experts&utm_keyword=%2Bfacebook%20%2Badvertising %20%2Bexpert
Farber, M. and Schallhorn, K. (2018). Here are the Russian Facebook ads you might have seen during the election. Fox News. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/tech/here-are-the-russian-facebook-ads-you-might-have-seen-during-the-election
Harwell, D. (24 May 2019). Top AI researchers race to detect ‘deepfake’ videos: ‘We are outgunned’ The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2019/06/12/top-ai-researchers-race-detect-deepfake-videos-we-are-outgunned/ ?utm_term=.3cdd7c2c489f
Harwell, D. (12 June, 2019). Top AI researchers race to detect ‘deepfake’ videos: ‘We are outgunned.’ The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/12/top-ai-researchers-race-detect-deepfake-videos-we-are-outgunned/?utm_term=.9d93113d965b
Hatmaker, T. (2018). What we can learn from the 3,500 Russian Facebook ads meant to stir up U.S. politics. Techcrunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/russian-facebook-ads-house-    intelligence-full-list/Hilmes, M. (2007). NBC and the network idea: Defining the “American System.” In M. Hilmes (ed.), America’s Network, p. 7-24. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Isikoff, M. (2019). Exclusive: The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation. Yahoo News. Retrieved https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-the-true-origins-of-the-seth-rich-conspiracy-a-yahoo-news-investigation-100000831.html?wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1
Jamieson, K. H. (2018). Cyberwar. How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President. What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kalinina, A.V., Yusupova, E.E., and Voevoka, E.V. (2019). Means of influence on public opinion in political context: Speech manipulations in the media. Media Watch 10(2), p. 309-322.
King, G., Pan, J., and Roberts, M.E. (2017). How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument. American Political Science Review, 111(3), 484-501.
Kohle, F. (2014). Social media and documentary cinema: the Arab Spring, the Wall Street Movement, challenges and implications for documentary filmmakers. Media Watch 5(2), 173-184.
Korecki, N. (2019). ‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates. A coordinated barrage of social media attacks suggests the involvement of foreign state actors. Politico. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/20/2020-candidates-social-media-attack-1176018
Kranish, M. (2019). Inside the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters—and help elect Trump. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-russian-effort-to-target-sanders-supporters—and-help-elect-trump/2019/04/11/741d7308-5576-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html?utm_term=.09bce7be6836
Krogstad, J.M. and Lopez, M.H. (2016). Hillary Clinton won Latino vote but fell below 2012 support for Obama. The Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/ 2016/11/29/hillary-clinton-wins-latino-vote-but-falls-below-2012-support-for-obama/
Lasswell, H. D. (1927). The theory of political propaganda. The American Political Science Review, 21 (3): 627-631.
Lasswell, H. D (1971). Propaganda Technique in World War I. Cambridge, Mass: The M.I.T. Press.
Levin, D.H. (2016). When the Great Power gets a vote: The Effects of great power electoral interventions on election results. International Studies Quarterly, 60(2), 189-202.
Martinez, J. and Smith, G.A. (2016). How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/
Maslow, A.H. (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper.
Matheny, T. and Goodman, M. (2018). Trump: The Threat of Chaos and the Promise of Stability. Media Watch, 9(1), 5-17.
McCarthy, J. (2016). Americans’ reaction to Trump, Clinton explain poor images. Gallup. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/193418/americans-reactions-trump-clinton-explain-poor-images.aspx
Mitchell, A. (1983). The Nine American Life Styles. New York: Warner.
Moneywatch, CBS News (2018). Russian ads on Facebook: A sample gallery. Retrieved from        https://www.cbsnews.com/media/russian-ads-on-facebook-a-gallery/
Mueller, III, R. S. (2019). Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, p. 14. Retrieved from https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Muelller-Report-Redacted-Vol-II-Released-04.18.2019-Word-         Searchable.-Reduced-Size.pdf
Myre, G. (2019). ‘Putin’s Chef’ has his fingers in many pies, critics say. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/01/30/685622639/putins-chef-has-his-fingers-in-many-pies-                critics-say
Nance, M. (2016). The Plot to Hack America. How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election, 2nd edition. New York: Skyhorse Publishing.
Ng, A. (2018). This was the most viewed Facebook ad bought by Russian trolls. C/Net. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/news/this-was-the-most-viewed-facebook-ad-bought-by-russian-trolls/
Nielsen (2018). Neilsen estimates 119.9 million TV homes in the U.S. for the 2018-2019 TV season. Retrieved from https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2018/nielsen-estimates-119-9-million-tv-homes-in-the-us-for-the-2018-19-season.html
Novak, M. (2019). Trump campaign uses stock video of ‘supporters’ in latest Facebook ads. Gizmodo. Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/trump-campaign-uses-stock-video-of-supporters-in-latest-1836070120
Parry-Giles, S. J. (1994). Rhetorical experimentation and the Cold War, 1947-1953: The development of an internationalist approach to propaganda. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 80, 452-463.
Parry-Giles, S.J. (2002) The Rhetorical Presidency, Propaganda, and the Cold War, 1945-1955. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Petty, R.E. and Cacioppo, J.T. (1981). Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown.
Pew Research Center. (2016). Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/
Pew Research Center. (2018). An examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters.
Retrieved from https://www.people-press.org/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/
Politico Staff. The social media ads Russia wanted Americans to see. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/01/social-media-ads-russia-wanted-americans-to-see-244423
Robinson, W. I. (1992). A Faustian Bargain: U.S. intervention in the Nicaraguan Elections and American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Romm, T. (17 January 2019). Facebook disables hundreds of accounts tied to Russian news agency for hiding their identity. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/17/facebook-disables-hundreds-accounts-tied-russian-news-agency-hiding-their-identity/?utm_term=.82e0f52ed0f4
Romm, T. (31 January 2019). Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election. The Washington Post. Retrieved from         https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/31/twitter-removed-some-accounts-originating-iran-russia-venezuela-that-targeted-us-midterms/?utm_term=.4dc649fd9779
Romo, V. (2018). Sandy Hook Parents Sue Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones Over Claim Shooting Was ‘Fake.’ New England Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.nepr.net/post/sandy-hook-parents-sue-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-over-claim-shooting-was-fake
Satter, R. (2019). Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets. Associated Press. Retrieved from https://www.apnews.com/bc2f19097a4c4fffaa00de6770b8a60d
Schwadron, T.H. (2018). Russian dirty tricks for all to see: Senate report lays bare the Kremlin’s    continuing assault on U.S. democracy. DCReport. Retrieved from https://www.dcreport.org/2018/12/19/russian-dirty-tricks-for-all-to-see/
Sellnow, T.L., Parrish, A., and Semenas, L. (2019). From hoax as crisis to crisis as hoax: Fake news and information disorder as disruptions to the discourse of renewal. Journal of International Crisis and Risk, 2(1), 121-142.
Shane, S. (2018). Russia isn’t the only one meddling in elections. We do it, too. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/sunday-review/russia-isnt-the-only-one-meddling-in-elections-we-do-it-too.html
Singh and Shukla (2016). India, nationalism and sedition debate: Media trial of JNU outrage. Media Watch 7(3), p. 274-280.
Skelley, g. (2017). Just How Many Obama 2012-Trump 2016 Voters Were There? Rasmussen Reports. Retrieved from http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_geoffrey_skelley/just_how_many_obama_2012_trump_2016_voters_were_there
Starks, T. (2019). Iran-linked campaign impersonated GOP midterm candidates online. Politico. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/28/iran-fake-accounts-facebook-twitter-1479189
Starks, T., Cerulus, L., and Scott, M. (2019). Russia’s manipulation of Twitter was far vaster than believed. Politico. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/study-russia-cybersecurity-twitter-1353543
Stolton, S. (2019). As election looms, Spaniards are hit by WhatsApp disinformation campaign. Euractiv. Retrieved from https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/as-election-looms-spaniards-are-hit-by-whatsapp-disinformation-campaign/
Sullivan, P. (2016). Trump promises to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/279535-trump-on-justices-they-will-be-pro-life
Sullivan, P. (2019). McConnell-aligned group launches $4m ad campaign against ‘Medicare for All.’ The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/449477-mcconnell-aligned-group-launches-4m-round-of-ads-against-medicare-for-all.
The Fact Checker (2019). Seeing isn’t believing. The Fact Checker’s guide to manipulated video. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/fact-checker/manipulated-video-guide/?utm_term=.313fcdfbc9ec
Timberg, C. (2016). Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html?utm_term=.fd65922af6e7
Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate Hearing. The Switch (2018, April 10). Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/10/transcript-of-mark-zuckerbergs-senate-hearing/?utm_term=.55c4990f44ff
Twitter (2019). Get started with Twitter ads. Retrieved from https://business.twitter.com/en/solutions/twitter-ads.html
Wells, W.D. and Tigert, D.J. (1971). Activities, interests and opinions. Journal of Advertising Research, 11 (August 1971):27-35.
YouTube. (2019). YouTube advertising. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ads/?&subid=us-en-ha-yt-bkcplt!o3~Cj0KCQjwi43oBRDBARIsAExSRQEnG9qR78YYMilFpQ Nu3ERX73ybZ7nSFbHcOFfYt2JF3sXncTGeD7oaArUIEALw_wcB~7badgroup%7d~kwd-298101418989~1695551494~329932453189&gclid=Cj0KCQjwi43oBRDBARIsAE xSRQEnG9qR 78YYMilFpQNu3ERX73ybZ7nSFbHcOFfYt2JF3sXncTGeD7oaArUIEALw _wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Zadrozny, B. (21 May 2019. Parents are poisoning their children with bleach to ‘cure’ autism. These moms are trying to stop it. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871.

Mark Goodman (Ph.D., University of Missouri, USA, 1993) is a Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication, Mississippi State University, USA. His other research interests include free speech an First Amendment Law.

John Goodman is an independent researcher and a solutions architect for Poetic Systems (poeticsystems.com). Poetic Systems is a Houston (TX) based firm that develops applications and websites for the internet and social media.