Wow – I found the idea that social media has, in many ways, upended the traditional flow of propaganda / information in our society quite interesting. What in past decades and centuries amounted to a top-down flow from the government and social elites to the public, is now shifting to a bottom-up movement from grassroots origins to the public spotlight. I had not heard of the term ‘ampliganda’ but it perfectly describes this phenomenon we have all been observing online for the past many years. I thought it was especially interesting how in the Twitterverse and presumably elsewhere, algorithms are structured such that even users posting in opposition to a hashtag are still inadvertently propelling said tweet further into the spotlight. I am not very active on Twitter, but I would not have considered this if I were to actively oppose a trending movement on the platform (or elsewhere).

Wonder – While I think it is a good thing to have changed the long-held top-down flow structure and fundamentally altered the ‘us vs. them’ playing field, I can’t help but wonder, much like DiResta, if this new alternative is in fact better. There are many cases where crowdsourcing information can be very beneficial, but the extent to which the crowd can now influence and deliberately manipulate information streams seems dangerous. This environment is not encouraging independent thinking but rather facilitating the hive mind which latches onto something – hashtag, tweet, Facebook status, blog post, scholarly article, fleeting thought, etc – and causes it to snowball. Fast. And often with little regard for its origins or authenticity. As DiResta so eloquently put it, “The old top-down propaganda model has begun to erode, but the bottom-up version may be even more destructive.”

DiResta, R. (2021, October 9). It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda. The Atlantic.