Participatory Propaganda in Seven Simple Steps

Pro-Trump & Media Facebook Page Network
The blue islands at the bottom left are left-leaning media pages.
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69
page categories within the conservative-leaning
media network. Similar to the pro-Trump page
network, though, 9.88% of the conservativeleaning
media network pages are labelled
“Community.” And therein might lie the key
difference in how liberal- and conservative-leaning
media operate.
Only half of the Facebook pages in the liberalleaning
media network allow users to post to
them, whereas 77% of the conservative-leaning
media network and 70% of those in the pro-Trump
network enable followers to engage this way.
Arguably pages such as InfoWars and Breitbart
are community builders, meaning they don’t just
push content to their audiences in a one-sided
affair as, say, CNN or Anderson Cooper 360 who
do not allow users to post to their pages.
Indeed, the conservative-leaning media network
contains 2.53 times as many nodes than the liberalleaning
group, with 4.22 times the number of edges
and 3.26 times the number of strong connections.
Likewise, the conservative-leaning network enjoys
a higher average weighted degree (9.01) than the
liberal-leaning one (5.40) meaning it has a greater
average number of edges that touch nodes in the
network. In short, the conservative-leaning media
network is more of an ecosystem that stretches
beyond news outlet borders, blending into each
other and pages beyond just media and journalists,
into communities.
The media landscape is changing in a Digital Age.
While traditional coverage continues to play an
important role in terms of exposure for a politician,
there is clearly more happening between some
newer outlets and their audiences than simple
media consumption, whether it be in tracking
audiences through cookies, supporting echo
chamber development, spreading inflammatory
content, or mobilising followers to action.