This study examines how new media has facilitated sweeping changes across the entire spectrum of propaganda, ranging from production and dissemination to reception. Drawing on Actor Network Theory, an alternative view to traditional conceptualizations of the processes involved in the making of propaganda is presented. The applicability to Internet of the traditional unidirectional model of propaganda as Sender, Message and Receiver is questioned, and juxtaposed to the nondeterministic perspective that an Actor Network model offers. The online propaganda and counterpropaganda campaigns currently being waged by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the US State Department are presented and contrasted as examples of the old and new models of propaganda.
Methods:Drawing on works from Science and Technology Studies, especially the works of Bruno Latour (1987, 1991, 2005), the study takes into account factors such as, decentralization of sources, democratization of actors, flexibility of the network with its focus on the entire propaganda making process. In contrast to the functionalist understanding, which considers the Internet as a ‘tool’ used by human beings in disseminating the messages, it regards the Internet as an actual ‘actor’ in the design and shaping of propaganda. That is to say, it is Internet that is the main actor in transforming the nature of terrorist propaganda.
Results:This work-in-progress paper suggests that Internet has not only vastly increased the ease of access and extent of dissemination but more importantly, due to the inclusion of myriad actors, it has radically transformed the way propaganda is being made. Through an analysis of the social media campaigns being waged by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the US State Department, we argue that the Internet has brought about a shift in the field of propaganda.
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