1 research outputs found
The Influence and Deception of Twitter: The Authenticity of the Narrative and Slacktivism in the Australian Electoral Process
It is uncertain how many discreet users occupy the social media community. Fake tweets, sock puppets, forceāmultipliers and botnets have become embedded within the fabric of new media in sufficient numbers that social media support by means of quantity is no longer a reliable metric for determining authority and influence within openly expressed issues and causes. Election campaigns, and their associated political agendas, can now be influenced by nonāspecific virtual presences that cajole and redirect opinions without declaring identity or allegiance. In the lead up to the 2013 Australian Federal Election, the open source Twitter activity for the two major party leaders was examined in order to establish patterns of information diffusion. The results showed fake online personas, fake bots deploying automated Twitter dissemination, and deceptive Twitter strategies. New media tolerates slacktivism, where Twitter users mistake autoānarrative for genuine political sentiment. This study demonstrates the need to increase legitimacy and validity in microāblogging forms of new media