Participatory Propaganda in Seven Simple Steps

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Why Participatory
Propaganda Matters?
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Americans are at the vanguard of these changes
the first quarter in 2016, the average American
– and as such are among the most vulnerable
was consuming 10:39 hours 135 of media across
populations to information warfare, be it in the form
of participatory propaganda, social engineering or
devices each day. These rates are only expected to
soar. The situation in most other nations with high
cyber-attacks.
internet-penetration rates is either similar already
In 2014, the World Economic Forum listed “the
spread of misinformation online” as one of the top
10 trends facing the world. 127 By 2016, Reporters
Without Borders declared that we “have reached
the age of post-truth, propaganda, and suppression
of freedoms – especially in democracies.” 128
what happens online doesn’t just stay online, it is
interwoven into our daily experience, and we will
become increasingly dependent on ICTs as we
move into a new era of, what Floridi has outlined
as, “hyperhistory”.
The problem is, we aren’t really prepared for this
Americans have long been heavy consumers of
mass media. By 1940 most households had a
radio and listened to it on average between four to
five hours each day. 131 Television enjoyed similar
rates of adoption, with the average viewer tuning
in five hours per day in 1960, 132 and a little more
or will become so in the very near future.
Unlike radio and television before it, the internet
has people constantly connected to information.
And if people are choosing what they want to
consume, not based on fact or reality, it makes
them highly susceptible to manipulation.
Unfortunately, general understanding of the
always-on life. For example, in Canada, the U.K.,
than six hours daily by 1975. 133
changes brought by the internet and related
technologies is still rather weak. Simply put,
thinking has not caught up to our current reality.
The digital space – or the “infosphere” as Oxford
professor Luciano Floridi describes it – is rapidly
becoming far more integral to our daily lives than
something we log on and off of at will. As Floridi
and U.S., where internet penetration is 84% or
higher, 130 nearly half of those populations finished
high school before the web was even invented.
Unless someone works with online algorithms,
social networks, or behavioural psychology, what
could the average person possibly understand
about how being plugged in constantly can affect
The internet has only increased American
consumption of media. As of 2015, 21% of
American survey respondents indicated they
were online “almost constantly”. 134 By the end of
explains, we are living “onlife”. 129 In other words,
their perception?