Monitoring Social Media: Lessons for Future Department of Defense Social Media Analysis in Support of Information Operations

Marcellino, William; Smith, M. Mitchell; Paul, Christopher; Skrabala, Lauren

doi:10.7249/rr1742

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, these algorithms are as yet unable to detect the nuanced use of verbal and non‐verbal (e.g. images or video) content (Marcellino et al., 2017), nor adequately analyse the cultural contexts of posts (Farkas & Neumayer, 2018); hence, human scrutiny and judgement is required.…”

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whole societies as well as individuals are vulnerable (Pantazi et al., 2021) therefore, when social groupings are targeted by such techniques we refer to this as ‘social cognitive hacking’. Although machine algorithms may be capable of detecting overt threats from social cognitive hacking within content (Zhang et al., 2018; Zhou & Zhang, 2008), some attempts are so subtle that human scrutiny is required (Marcellino et al., 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lifting the lid on manipulative website contents: A framework mapping contextual and informational feature combinations against associated social cognitive vulnerabilities

MacLean,

Cahillane,

Smy

2024

Social & Personality Psych

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Website contents can be designed to influence individual and group decision‐making for social, political or financial gain. A novel working theoretical framework was developed to provide insights into where website contents have been designed to exploit common cognitive vulnerabilities (CVs) amongst audiences; a form of social cognitive hacking. A literature synthesis on CVs, website content design and credibility identified features on a context credibility (CC) dimension that were mapped against features on an information validity (IV) dimension. Alignment of CC and IV feature pairings with CVs enables evaluation and interpretation of nuanced website content for identification of attempted influence undetectable by machine algorithms. Subjective responses to prompts about features on each dimension generate pairs of numerical values. The value pairs indicate within a quad‐graph the possible presence and extent of CV exploitation. Each value pair can be traced to the underlying CC‐IV features and CVs being targeted. External prima facie assessment suggests the framework can form the basis for standardised human analysis of website contents. Application of the framework provides insights into what and how feature combinations may be manipulated for CV exploitation. It has potential for application in fields such as intelligence analysis, education, and marketing.

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Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifting the lid on manipulative website contents: A framework mapping contextual and informational feature combinations against associated social cognitive vulnerabilities

MacLean,

Cahillane,

Smy

2024

Social & Personality Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The military, as with other social institutions, operates through established organizational structures and hierarchies; social media use by military personnel may complicate social networks, and potentially undermine otherwise regulated interactions (Marcellino et al, 2017). Few studies have explored social media use among U.S. military personnel.…”

Section: Social Media In the Militarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Military Sexual Violence by Proposing a Social Media Influencer Model

Cancio

2021

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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Military sexual violence (MSV) is a prevalent issue that uniquely affects mission readiness. Although research on MSV and social media is growing, examinations of possible interventions like those employing social media in this population are scant. Given the growing interest in targeting MSV, the present systematic review was conducted. The PRISMA framework was used to conduct a systematic review of MSV and social media ( N = 71). Queries were limited to articles published between 2010 and 2020. SAGE Journals, PubMed, and JSTOR were utilized. Terms and potential combinations were entered into the databases in varying Boolean combinations. Additional recorders were identified for inclusion via the reference sections of relevant records. After removing duplicates from the query results, we selected records of suspected relevance by title and screened abstracts. Finally, articles with relevant abstracts were reviewed thoroughly to determine whether they met inclusion criteria for the review. The employments of military leaders in a social media intervention puts into practice the military’s central values and development of its leadership core. This intervention promotes group solidarity while maximizing conversations around meaningful messages. Findings in this review suggest military leaders could feasibly employ a cost-effective global intervention using social media, as a tool to help actively address MSV.

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“…Identifying and dealing with shortcomings in technological infrastructure also cannot be overlooked in that it can fall outside the technological capacity of a given organization in charge; an internet outage can completely impede the use of social media in disasters. In addition to ensuring data quality, another challenge for use of social media data in disaster response is to address ethical, legal, and regulatory issues relating to privacy and data security, ownership and security of data sharing, and accountability and responsibility for monitoring online data (Marcellino et al, 2017).…”

Section: The Use Of Social Media For Situational Awareness Can Be Cha...mentioning

confidence: 99%

U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Response and Disaster Operations: Using Social Media for Situational Awareness

Yeung¹,

Nowak²,

Amiri³

et al. 2020

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Researchers from the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) conducted a research study on the feasibility of using social media information to aid U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) response operations. The aim of this project was to contribute to the mission of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure resilience to disasters by helping DHS understand whether and how social media might be better leveraged to improve situational awareness during response operations. The HSOAC team found that, for decades, the USCG and other boaters have relied on communication channels that are intended specifically for maritime safety. As such, these channels provide specific information that can be used to locate mariners in distress. Yet we also found that a significant proportion of distress calls now come to the USCG through other means, such as cell phones and, indirectly, from 911 calls. This raises several concerns about potential hindrances to the USCG's search-and-rescue mission, including lack of location information, uncertainty about overwater cell coverage, and lack of organizational capacity to collect and analyze social media information. Informed by these findings, we recommend that DHS develop policies and procedures to facilitate sharing cell phone distress location data with the USCG, that the USCG work to ensure that an organization-itself or another-assumes responsibility for understanding cell coverage over water, and that the USCG identify other missions in which social media information could help increase maritime safety and security and enhance environmental protection and response operations. Although the primary focus of this research iv U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Response and Disaster Operations was response operations of the USCG, we anticipate that the findings and recommendations could hold benefits for other mission sets of the USCG, such as prevention-oriented missions. Additionally, we anticipate benefit for other components of the DHS enterprise that conduct response operations-principally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Secret Service.

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Monitoring Social Media: Lessons for Future Department of Defense Social Media Analysis in Support of Information Operations

Cited by 9 publications

References 19 publications

Lifting the lid on manipulative website contents: A framework mapping contextual and informational feature combinations against associated social cognitive vulnerabilities

Lifting the lid on manipulative website contents: A framework mapping contextual and informational feature combinations against associated social cognitive vulnerabilities

Addressing Military Sexual Violence by Proposing a Social Media Influencer Model

U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Response and Disaster Operations: Using Social Media for Situational Awareness

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