Assembling the Networks and Audiences of Disinformation

How Successful Russian IRA Twitter Accounts Built Their Followings, 2015–2017

Bibliographic Data

ID22693262
AuthorsYini Zhang (0000-0002-2957-1590, Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA, corresponding author), Josephine Lukito (0000-0002-0771-1070, School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA), Min-Hsin Su (0000-0002-7198-4874, University of Wisconsin–Madison), J Suk (0000-0003-4690-2395, University of Wisconsin–Madison), Yiping Xia (0000-0002-1483-2006, University of Wisconsin–Madison), Sang Jung Kim (0000-0001-5861-728X, University of Wisconsin–Madison), Larissa Doroshenko (0000-0001-6763-628X, Northeastern University), Caroline Wells (0000-0002-1126-9799, Boston University)
Year2021
Volume71
Issue2
Pages305-331
Publication date2021-04-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9916 • E-ISSN: 1460-2466
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/joc/jqaa042
OpenAlexW3123356687
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited51

This study investigates how successful Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) Twitter accounts constructed the followings that were central to their disinformation campaigns around the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Treating an account’s social media following as both an ego network and an audience critical for information diffusion and influence accrual, we situate IRA Twitter accounts’ accumulation of followers in the ideologically polarized, attention driven, and asymmetric political communication system. Results show that partisan enclaves on Twitter contributed to IRA accounts’ followings through retweeting; and that mainstream and hyperpartisan media assisted conservative IRA accounts’ following gain by embedding their tweets in news. These results illustrate how network dynamics within social media and news media amplification beyond it together boosted social media followings. Our results also highlight the dynamics fanning the flames of disinformation: partisan polarization, media fragmentation and asymmetry, and an attention economy optimized for engagement rather than accuracy.

Disinformation · Fake news · Ideology · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Social media · Sociology · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Social Media and Politics

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