Introduction and Overview

Introduction and Overview
President Obama and Social Media Campaigning
Origins of Mass Media and Disinformation
Focus of Thesis

Introduction and Overview

Disinformation (n.): false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.¹

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

The democratic system within the United States has thrived thanks to the trust that the American voters bestow upon the electoral system. However, in light of events over the past decade, we have been witness to the degradation of a fair and just system. Moreover, we have become unknowing actors in the complex decades-long rivalry between international superpowers — the United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China. Reflecting on the events of the 2016 Presidential Election in the United States, millions of American voters became blind victims and aided in carrying out the spread of disinformation that originated from the increasingly aggressive international adversaries, who have fueled criticism of the United States and its democratic system. Are Russia and China to blame for the growing skepticism surrounding the purity and functionality of our system, and are we serving as unwitting enablers in advancing the impact of related disinformation campaigns?

In the past two decades, we have seen the rise of technology giants, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that have driven a sense of a virtual mutual community among users across the globe through social media platforms. However, the rise of these platforms has adversely affected the traditional means by which individuals connect with each other, become informed, and formulate their opinions on current events. The Pew Research Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank, reported in 2016 that 62% of U.S. adults received their news from social media, with 64% of these individuals only getting news from one

¹ “Definition of Disinformation,” Merriam-webster.com (Merriam-Webster, 2019), https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disinformation.

given social media platform.² The growing reliance on social media has directly affected the news industry, as early to middle stage media outlets are being forced to shut down or merge with the big-name networks that control the industry.³ As we see titans of the industry, such as CNN or Fox News, relentlessly strive to extend their brands’ reach across these platforms, we have seen a rise in subjective reporting. These outlets deviate from the traditional nonpartisan and objective reporting strategy, thus creating a population of users that are increasingly polarized.

Beginning in 2008, Barack Obama as a Presidential candidate paved the way for implementing social media strategy into politics. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2008 was the first year “that more than half [of] the voting-age population used the internet to connect to the political process during an election cycle.”⁴ While the study shows that Republican voters were more likely to be users of the internet due to education and income levels, the Obama voters had cultivated the concept of online political activism.⁵ The 2008 election had figuratively opened the floodgates to a reshaped strategy behind 21st-century politics in the face of a social media-dominated era. Subsequently, we can see how this developing political strategy has fueled a growing divide between the two major political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats. This divide is continuously exacerbated by the media

² Jeffrey Gottfried and Elisa shearer, “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016,” Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, December 27, 2017, https://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/.

³ David Shimer, Rigged : America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020), 246.

⁴ Aaron Smith, “The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008,” Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology (Pew Research Center, April 15, 2009), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/.

⁵ Ibid.

titans of the industry, who flood the social media timelines of their users with subjective opinion-driven articles that aggressively attack the opposing view.

Origins of Mass Media and Disinformation

While 21st-century technology platforms that have capabilities of reporting news have become undoubtedly linked to politics during the rise of the ‘Information Age’, it is important that we understand that manipulation of this decade’s long relationship between politics and reporting has long been exploited by state-backed entities to promote disinformation campaigns across domestic and international communities.⁶ Scholars often credit the origins of media disinformation to the 15th century, with the creation of the Gutenberg Printing Press.⁷ By the beginning of the 16th century, the church had begun to utilize this technology for mass publication and by the beginning of the 17th century, the first widespread international distribution of newspapers led by independent organizations was documented.⁸Along with the rapid spread of news came the uptick in demands for content and newspapers had begun to be overrun with unverifiable stories that ranged from eye witness accounts on sea monsters and witches to natural disasters and the church.⁹

Though there are centuries of documented disinformation campaigns throughout modern history, this thesis focuses on the more recent cases of states utilizing disinformation as a means to control public narrative and thought. While Germany fell under the rule of the Nazi Party beginning in the early 19th century, Adolf Hitler had devised the concept of the Reich Ministry

⁶ “Definition of Information Age,” Merriam-webster.com (Merriam-Webster, 2019), https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Information%20Age.

⁷ Marina Gorbis, “Our Gutenberg Moment (SSIR),” ssir.org (Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 17, 2017), https://ssir.org/articles/entry/our_gutenberg_moment.

⁸ History.com Editors, “Printing Press,” History.com (History.com, May 7, 2018), https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press.

⁹ Jacob Soll, “The Long and Brutal History of Fake News,” POLITICO Magazine (POLITICO LLC, December 18, 2016), https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent-214535.

of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.¹⁰ With the help of this ministry, Hitler successfully managed to control and manipulate all forms of state media.¹¹ Concurrently, the Soviet Union launched its very own disinformation office in 1923, which came at the request of Józef Unszlicht, Deputy Chairman of the KGB.¹² Under this initiative, the KGB was credited with the creation of the word dezinformatsiya which we have come to know as disinformation. ¹³ Subsequently, in the decades following, the People’s Republic of China underwent the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, which aimed to erase the “four olds” or the concepts of old ideas, old things, old customs, and old habits.¹⁴ It was under this jarring transition that the People’s Republic of China began an internal campaign on rewriting its past so that it could begin to alter the narrative of its future.

While the scale of disinformation seen within the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election may be alarming to the government of the United States and its citizens, historical context utilization allows us to better understand the severity of recent events in relation to the century’s old phenomenon. But most importantly, let this serve as a reminder to reflect upon the past with the intent of better understanding how to predict the future, so that we may continue to safeguard the long-lasting prosperity of our democracy and our great nation as we proceed to enter into the unknown.

¹⁰ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, “Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment,” Ushmm.org (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2019), https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ministry-of-propaganda-and-public-enlightenment.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Martin J Manning, Herbert Romerstein, and Martin Manning, Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda, ed. James Olson (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004), 83.

¹³Ibid.

¹⁴ Tillman Durdin, “China Transformed by Elimination of ‘Four Olds’’,’”* The New York Times,* March 19, 1971, https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/19/archives/china-transformed-by-elimination-of-four-olds.html.

Focus of Thesis

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the threat posed by an increase in offensive disinformation campaigns by Russia and China which aim to destabilize the international community and negatively influence domestic politics in the United States. This thesis provides information regarding the domestic systems that enable both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to exercise control over mass media with the goal of rewriting the narrative of current events to better advance their personal agendas. Through the use of publicly available information, this study will bring to light the growing 21st-century threat while offering suggestions for how the United States can best proceed in effectively combating it under the Presidency of President-elect Joe Biden.