Participatory Propaganda in Seven Simple Steps

3. Inject Inflammatory
Content into Echo
Chambers.
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The online world is a crowded market space.
It isn’t enough to simply create content that
resonates with an audience; it must be delivered
directly to them. In a Digital Age, propagandists
can reach you through the Facebook pages you
follow, your social media feeds and networks,
trending topics on Google, and traditional media.
Step Three then is to inject this deliberately
provocative content into echo chambers identified
through audience analysis. The key here is to have
a desired actionable outcome from the content –
whether that be to share it, sign up for a mailing
list, or troll the comments section of news sites.
An online echo chamber is a digital space
where content reflecting a specific point of
view reverberates, exposing those within it to
only that one prevailing perspective. Digital
technologies enable the creation of echo chambers
or filter bubbles. In fact, it only takes a matter of
days to become part of a filter bubble, as two
German journalists discovered in a recent online
experiment. 60 Once inside an echo chamber, a
user is fed content fitting pre-existing views and
preferences, such as political party affiliation. 61
Echo chambers are created in part by algorithms
that sort information, 62 but more so by the choices
63 64
individuals make about content consumption.
Echo chambers identified during the 2016 election
were strengthened by a growing animosity
between political camps, 65 as well as a lack of media
trusted by both Republicans and Democrats 66 and