Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

03/28/23 • 43 min

One of the things that we see happening online is sort of a democratization of propaganda.
Samuel Woolley
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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.
Samuel Woolley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and the project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement. His most recent book is Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity.
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:43
Background on Technology (including Bots) - 3:00
Artificial Intelligence - 10:17
Democratization of Propaganda - 20:44
The Legitimation of Ideas - 30:48

Key Links
Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity by Samuel Woolley
"Digital Propaganda: The Power of Influencers" in the Journal of Democracy by Samuel Woolley
Center for Media Engagement
Democracy Paradox Podcast
Richard Wike Asked Citizens in 19 Countries Whether Social Media is Good for Democracy
Ronald Deibert from Citizen Lab on Cyber Surveillance, Digital Subversion, and Transnational Repression
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03/28/23 • 43 min

Democracy Paradox - Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

Transcript

Democracy depends on space for contentious discussion and debate. This is what made the internet and social media seem as though it was such a perfect complement for democratic politics. Unfortunately, the very attributes that elevated new political voices also included more nefarious actors including propagandists.

Samuel Woolley has studied propaganda in the digital age. Sam has found digital propaganda shares a lot with older more traditional forms of propaganda, but it also has some

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