The Evolution of Propaganda in the Digital Age

• In Event: Digital Politics and Entertainment in China: From Repression to Influencers

Abstract

Current understandings of state propaganda are rooted in the era of mass and broadcast media when the state disseminates propaganda to the masses through a top-down broadcast model. How does the state effectively disseminate propaganda in the digital age given the decentralized nature of social media and the fragmentation of audiences? In this paper, we show how digital propaganda has moved away from a top-down syndication model to a bottom-up mobilization model. The regime mobilizes tens of thousands of regime-affiliated organizations through flat-rate and tournament incentives to create and spread content and compete for attention. We come to this conclusion by analyzing a novel dataset of 5.7 million videos from over 20,000 regime-affiliated accounts on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, using computer vision and automated text analysis.

Authors

• Yingdan Lu, Stanford University

• Jennifer Pan, Stanford University

• Xu Xu, Princeton University

• Yiqing Xu, Stanford University