The Russian connectionFlooding the zone: “Junk news” targeted key U.S. swing states in run-up to 2016 U.S. election
Russia’s use of social media to sow discord, discredit U.S. democracy, and help Donald Trump win the 2016 election was more sophisticated and targeted than initially thought. Oxford University researchers found that voters in key swing states were exposed to larger amounts of “junk news” in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election last year than voters in non-swing states. The researchers say this type of content – most of it deliberately produced false reporting — uses divisive and inflammatory rhetoric, and presents faulty reasoning or misleading information to manipulate the reader’s understanding of public issues and feed conspiracy theories. Arizona was the swing state with the highest junk news concentration, followed by Missouri, Nevada, and Florida.
Voters in key swing states were exposed to larger amounts of “junk news” in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election last year, new research has shown.
Analysis by Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute found that although nationally the ratio of professionally produced news content to junk news was one to one, the level of “polarizing” content – from Russian, WikiLeaks, and junk news sources – shared in battleground states was both higher than the national average and higher than the average in less competitive states.
The researchers say this type of content uses divisive and inflammatory rhetoric, and presents faulty reasoning or misleading information to manipulate the reader’s understanding of public issues and feed conspiracy theories.
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Oxford says that of the sixteen swing states identified as such by the non-partisan National Constitution Center in November 2016, eleven had levels of junk news higher than the national average, based on the researchers’ calculations. Arizona was the swing state with the highest junk news concentration, followed by Missouri, Nevada, and Florida. States that were not hotly contested had, on average, lower levels of junk news.
Many of the swing states receiving highly concentrated doses of polarizing content were also among those with large numbers of votes in the Electoral College. For example, Florida, Arizona, and Missouri all featured in the top 12 states ranked according to the researchers’ junk news index.
The analysis was based on more than 7 million tweets collected between 1-11 November 2016 that contained evidence of physical location and used hashtags relating to politics and the election in the United States.
Junk news, as defined by the researchers, can include fake, hyper-partisan, or emotionally charged news content, much of which is deliberately produced false reporting. The study also took into account content from Russian sources and WikiLeaks.
Senior researcher Professor Philip Howard from the Oxford Internet Institute said: “We were surprised to find that the ratio of professionally produced news to junk news on Twitter was around one to one. Adding in content from Russia Today and unverified WikiLeaks rumors means that a really large portion of the political news and information being shared over social media was misleading.”
Study co-author Lisa-Maria Neudert from the Oxford Internet Institute added: “Social media is increasingly becoming a center of attention of public life. Worldwide political actors and governments have been deploying a combination of algorithms and propaganda – computational propaganda – to manipulate opinion during pivotal moments of public life such as elections and referenda.
“The World Economic Forum recently identified the spread of misinformation online as one of the top ten threats to society. At the same time social media is emerging as a prominent source of news among users worldwide. This study substantiates that during the 2016 U.S. election polarizing content was frequently shared on social media.”
— Read more in Philip N. Howard et al., Social Media, News and Political Information during the U.S. Election: Was Polarizing Content Concentrated in Swing States? (The Computational Propaganda Project, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, 28 September 2017)
