“Fake Elections”? Cyber Propaganda, Disinformation and the 2017 General Elections in Kenya

Maweu, Jacinta Mwende

doi:10.1080/23743670.2020.1719858

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The widespread adoption of social media during the 2017 presidential and gubernatorial elections has led to an increased interest in how social media are transforming political campaigning. Several researchers have examined a number of questions related to the use of social media for political communication purposes (Brinkman 2019;Maweu 2020;Mutahi and Kimari 2020). The main objective of this chapter is to examine, from the perspective of social media managers, how political parties and aspiring candidates operate in the "social media" environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics

Davis¹,

Taras²

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Today, political leaders and candidates for office must campaign in a multimedia world through traditional forums—newspapers, radio, and television—as well as new digital media, particularly social media. Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics chronicles how Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, email, and memes are used successfully and unsuccessfully to influence elections. Each of these platforms have different affordances and reach various audiences in different ways. Campaigns often have to wage different campaigns on each of these mediums. In some instances, they are crucial in altering coverage in the mainstream media. In others, digital media remains underutilized and undeveloped. As has always been the case in politics, outcomes that depend on economic and social conditions often dictate people’s readiness for certain messages. However, the method and content of those messages has changed with great consequences for the health and future of democracy. This book answers several questions: How do candidates/parties reach audiences that are preoccupied, inattentive, amorphous, and bombarded with so many other messages? How do they cope with the speed of media reporting in a continuous news cycle that demands instantaneous responses? How has media fragmentation altered the campaign styles and content of campaign communication, and general campaign discourse? Finally and most critically, what does this mean for how democracies function?

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics

Davis¹,

Taras²

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research on this area, which has increased rapidly since 2016, has focused to a great extent on the role that social media platforms and instant messaging apps have had in fuelling the growth of misinformation online and offline (Tandoc, 2019). The relationship between social media and misinformation behaviors has been identified at both global and national levels, with examples of the former including the COVID-19 pandemic (Sommariva et al, 2021) and the national elections in Kenya (Maweu, 2019) for the latter.…”

Section: Social Media and Misinformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relationship between social media and misinformation behaviors has been identified at both global and national levels, with examples of the former including the COVID-19 pandemic (Sommariva et al. , 2021) and the national elections in Kenya (Maweu, 2019) for the latter.…”

Section: Social Media and Misinformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online political engagement, cognitive skills and engagement with misinformation: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States

Ahmed

Madrid-Morales

Tully

2022

OIR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeInformational use of social media facilitates political engagement. Yet, there is also evidence of the perils of frequent political engagement in misinformation propagation. This study aims to examine the association between online political engagement, perceived exposure to misinformation, individuals’ cognitive characteristics and misinformation sharing.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, online surveys were conducted in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa (Study 1) and the United States (Study 2).FindingsStudy 1 finds that online political engagement is positively associated with perceived exposure to and sharing of misinformation. Mediation analyses suggest that the relationship between online political engagement and misinformation sharing is mediated by perceived exposure to misinformation. Further, the likelihood of sharing misinformation is found to increase at higher levels of online political engagement, but those with low need for cognition (NFC) are more vulnerable to such sharing. Study 2 explores cognitive ability in place of NFC. The results follow similar patterns as Study 1 – online political engagement is linked to misinformation sharing via higher perceived exposure to misinformation. The authors also find that the tendency to share misinformation increases with frequent exposure to misinformation but those with lower cognitive ability are more prone to such sharing.Originality/valueIn both contexts, the data show that perceived exposure to misinformation mediates the relationship between online political engagement and misinformation sharing and those with low NFC and cognitive ability are more vulnerable. Overall, the findings offer insight into the mechanisms of political engagement and sharing misinformation.

show abstract

“…Apart from the above, some relevant work in Asian and African contexts is also available (Bolsover & Howard, 2018; Maweu, 2020; Neyazi, 2019). For example, Neyazi (2019) examined the propaganda strategies of India during confrontation with Pakistan.…”

Section: Studies On Digital Information Warfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the State of Digital Information Warfare Between India and Pakistan on Twittersphere

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, we analyze the state of information warfare on Twittersphere between India and Pakistan in the wake of Pulwama attack in Kashmir region and the subsequent surgical strikes by Indian forces inside Pakistan. We selected two leading Twitter hashtags on the conflict from the two countries each. A total of 20,000 tweets were manually analyzed. Contrary to the existing scholarship on digital information warfare, we found citizens from both countries produced most of the content. Among the citizens, those Twitter handles that showed affiliations with the heads of governments that we consider as trolls were the leading contributors. Moreover, the study found that contributors from the two countries mainly posted on their own hashtags and did not engage in counter-arguments with the contributors from other country. This resulted in overwhelming support for the two countries in their own assorted hashtags and outright criticism in the hashtags originating from the other country.

show abstract

“Fake Elections”? Cyber Propaganda, Disinformation and the 2017 General Elections in Kenya

Cited by 20 publications

References 4 publications

Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics

Electoral Campaigns, Media, and the New World of Digital Politics

Online political engagement, cognitive skills and engagement with misinformation: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States

Analyzing the State of Digital Information Warfare Between India and Pakistan on Twittersphere

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About