Ecosystem or Echo-System? Exploring Content Sharing across Alternative Media Domains

This research examines the competing narratives about the role and function of Syria Civil Defence, a volunteer humanitarian organization popularly known as the White Helmets, working in war-torn Syria. Using a mixed-method approach based on seed data collected from Twitter, and then extending out to the websites cited in that data, we examine content sharing practices across distinct media domains that functioned to construct, shape, and propagate these narratives. We articulate a predominantly alternative media “echo-system” of websites that repeatedly share content about the White Helmets. Among other findings, our work reveals a small set of websites and authors generating content that is spread across diverse sites, drawing audiences from distinct communities into a shared narrative. This analysis also reveals the integration of governmentfunded media and geopolitical think tanks as source content for anti-White Helmets narratives. More broadly, the analysis demonstrates the role of alternative newswire-like services in providing content for alternative media websites. Though additional work is needed to understand these patterns over time and across topics, this paper provides insight into the dynamics of this multi-layered media ecosystem.

[1]  Samuel C. Woolley,et al.  Computational propaganda worldwide: Executive summary , 2017 .

[2]  Jonathan Fenby,et al.  The international news services , 1986 .

[3]  Jacob Ratkiewicz,et al.  Detecting and Tracking Political Abuse in Social Media , 2011, ICWSM.

[4]  Brendan Nyhan,et al.  Misinformation and Fact-checking : Research Findings from Social Science , 2012 .

[5]  Robert M. Mason,et al.  Characterizing Online Rumoring Behavior Using Multi-Dimensional Signatures , 2015, CSCW.

[6]  Dan Gillmor,et al.  We the media - grassroots journalism by the people, for the people , 2006 .

[7]  Christopher Paul,et al.  The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It , 2016 .

[8]  Kate Starbird,et al.  Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem Through the Production of Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter , 2017, ICWSM.

[9]  W. Nuland,et al.  Information operations and Facebook , 2017 .

[10]  Edward A. Fox,et al.  Research Contributions , 2014 .

[11]  Jean Pictet,et al.  The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross , 1979 .

[12]  Thomas Ambrosio,et al.  Insulating Russia from a Colour Revolution: How the Kremlin Resists Regional Democratic Trends , 2007 .

[13]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media , 1988 .

[14]  Jack Fuller,et al.  What Is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism , 2010 .

[15]  Narasimhan Ravi,et al.  Looking beyond Flawed Journalism , 2005 .

[16]  Fadi El-Jardali,et al.  Health workers and the weaponisation of health care in Syria: a preliminary inquiry for The Lancet–American University of Beirut Commission on Syria , 2017, The Lancet.