Manufacturing Consensus
Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity

Name: Manufacturing Consensus
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Samuel Woolley
ISBN: 9798212241977

Author: Samuel Woolley

Narrator: Lloyd James

Unabridged: 6 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 01/31/2023

Categories: Nonfiction, Political Science, Propaganda

Synopsis

An in-depth exploration of social media and emergent technology that details the inner workings of modern propagandaUntil recently, propaganda was a top-down, elite-only system of communication control used largely by state actors. Today, as Samuel Woolley argues, social media has democratized propaganda, allowing nearly anyone to launch a fairly sophisticated, computationally enhanced, propaganda campaign. Woolley shows how social media, with its anonymity and capacity for automation, allows political groups to create the illusion of popularity through computational tools (such as bots) and human-driven efforts (such as sockpuppets—real people assuming false identities online—and partisan nano-influencers) and then either create a bandwagon effect by bringing the content into parallel discussions with other legitimate users, or mold discontent for political purposes. Drawing on eight years of original international ethnographic research among the people who build, combat, and experience these propaganda campaigns, Woolley presents an extensive view of the evolution of computational propaganda, offers a glimpse into the future, and suggests pragmatic responses for policy makers, academics, technologists, and others.

About Samuel Woolley

Dr. Samuel Woolley is a writer and researcher specializing in the study of automation/AI, emergent technology, politics, persuasion, and social media. He is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and program director for computational propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement, both at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UT, Woolley founded and directed the Digital Intelligence Lab at the Institute for the Future, a 50-year-old think tank based in the heart of Silicon Valley. He also cofounded and directed the research team at the Computational Propaganda Project at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He has written on political manipulation of technology for a variety of publications including Wired, the Atlantic Monthly, Motherboard/VICE, TechCrunch, the Guardian, Quartz and Slate. His research has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal and on The Today Show, 60 Minutes, and Frontline. His work has been presented to members of NATO, the US Congress, the UK Parliament, and to numerous private entities and civil society organizations. His PhD is from the University of Washington. He tweets from @samuelwoolley.

About Lloyd James

Sean Pratt is a professional narrator, actor, and voiceover artist who has over twenty-five years of experience. He has recorded over seven hundred audiobooks and has received numerous Earphones Awards and Audie Award nominations. For the last ten years, he has been helping actors, both students and professionals, to understand the complexities of the business as well as reinvigorate and refocus their careers.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ellie on October 01, 2024

there was a lot of good in this. the problem with books like these is the content is so dense and there is so much you can talk about and at times i felt like he was trying to tackle too much without fully delving into anything in particular. the conclusion of the book was extremely strong though an......more

Goodreads review by Catherine on June 22, 2023

I wanted to like this book so much. This book had valuable information about bots and how social media is impacted by it. The information was valuable for me as an organizer to think about how the information leaders are getting and what information is created to get people to agree or disagree. The......more

Goodreads review by Mohamed on December 18, 2023

This book extends our understand of propaganda to the new era of social media; a phenomenon the author calls computational propaganda. The general gist is that technology has changed propaganda in a number of ways, mostly notably it has decentralised it. Whereas it used to be top-down from the polit......more

Goodreads review by Zak on February 14, 2023

The descriptions of his interviews with computational propagandists are invaluable. But other than that, this book didn't add much to my understanding as a digital rights researcher. It seems to straddle a weird line between being high academic - with long lists of questions, mentioning previous the......more

Goodreads review by Liu on November 04, 2024

Political bots are something that very interesting to start with when thinking about today propaganda. I particularly like author’s efforts to re-conceptualize propaganda from a top-down to a “democratized” perspective. However, the scale of propaganda is not considered, and media-politics interdepe......more

Quotes

“We are introduced here to a dazzling array of systems of manufacturing consensus in the digital communication age, with an astonishing variety of actors—and ominous implications.” Noam Chomsky

“This lucid, eye-opening book illuminates the many (sometimes sinister) ways that bot-based influence campaigns operate in the digital world.” Meredith Broussard, author of More Than a Glitch

“This book is for anyone wanting to understand the complex landscape of online propaganda, including the role of states, algorithmic tools, and social media companies.” Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI