Creating Chaos Online

Creating Chaos Online

By Asta Zelenkauskaite

With the prevalence of disinformation geared to instill doubt rather than clarity, Creating Chaos Online unmasks disinformation when it attempts to pass as deliberation in the public sphere and distorts the democratic processes. Asta Zelenkauskaitė finds that repeated tropes justifying Russian trolling were found to circulate across not only all analyzed media platforms’ comments but also across two analyzed sociopolitical contexts suggesting the orchestrated efforts behind messaging. Through a dystopian vision of publics that are expected to navigate in the sea of uncertain both authentic and orchestrated content, pushed by human and nonhuman actors, Creating Chaos Online offers a concept of post-publics. The idea of post-publics is reflected within the continuum of treatment of public, counter public, and anti-public. This book argues that affect-instilled arguments used in public deliberation in times of uncertainty, along with whataboutism constitute a playbook for chaos online.

The book is open access.

Asta Zelenkauskaitė is Associate Professor of Communication at Drexel University, US, and co-Chair of IAMCR's Audience Section.

The above text is from the publisher’s description of the book:

Title: Creating Chaos Online: Disinformation and Subverted Post-Publics
Author: Asta Zelenkauskaite
Published: 2022
Pages: 318
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

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