Hacking Hybrid Media Power and Practice in an Age of Manipulation

The contemporary public sphere is rife with problematic information, but on what terms are manipulators able to garner attention in the hybrid media system? In Hacking Hybrid Media, Stephen R. Barnard examines how networked media capital is changing the fields of politics and journalism. With a focus on the messaging strategies employed by Donald Trump and his most vocal online supporters, Barnard provides a theoretically oriented and empirically grounded analysis of the ways today's media afford deceptive political communication. Analyzing data from prominent political events, Barnard shows how members of Trump's "digital army" use Facebook groups, Reddit forums, Twitter hashtags, YouTube channels, mass media, and more to shape the flow of disinformation in American media.

From the structures of social media platforms to the practices of political actors, Barnard offers a critical appraisal of media power and the capital required to wield it. He reflects not only on the tools and techniques of manipulative media campaigns, but also on the implications they hold for the future of journalism, politics, and democracy in the US and beyond. In striking a balance between social theory and empirical research, Hacking Hybrid Media shows how the emergent structures and practices of the contemporary media system shape how information flows, how meaning is made, and ultimately, how networked social influence works.

Stephen R. Barnard is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. His work examines the role media and communication technologies play in relations of power, practice, and democracy. He is the author of Citizens at the Gates: Twitter, Networked Publics, and the Transformation of American Journalism, and co-author of All Media are Social: Sociological Perspectives on Mass Media. His scholarship has been published in New Media & Society, Journalism, Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, Hybrid Pedagogy, and in several edited volumes.

Preface
Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

2. Power and Problematic Information in an Era of Hybrid Media

3. Channels of Distortion: The End of the Fairness Doctrine and the Resurgence of (Domestic) Information Warfare

4. What are Platforms For? Profit, Persuasion, and (Dis)Information

5. Hacking Meaning and Influence in the (Dis)Information Age: The Acosta 'Assault' Case

6. We Are Trump's Digital Army! Capital and Practices of Manipulation on The_Donald

7. Trouble with Power, Practice, and Information in the Hybrid Media System

Notes
Bibliography
Index