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Cyberwar : how Russian hackers and trolls helped elect a president : what we don't, can't, and do know / Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: [New York, NY] : Oxford University Press, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Description: xiii, 314 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0190915811
  • 9780190915810
Other title:
  • Cyber war
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: US susceptibilities, troll and hacker synchronies, and my suppositions -- Part one: Who did it, why, and what research says about how it might matter. How do we know that Russian spies and saboteurs (aka hackers and trolls) intervened in the 2016 presidential election? ; A theory of communication that posits effects -- Part two: The prerequisites of troll influence. The first troll prerequisite: widespread messaging ; The second troll prerequisite: messages aligned with Trump's electoral interests ; The third troll prerequisite: mobilizing veterans, white Christians, demobilizing blacks and Sander's supporters, and shifting liberals to Stein ; The fourth troll prerequisite: persuasive appeals ; The fifth troll prerequisite: well-targeted content -- Part three: How the Russian affected the new and debate agendas in the last month of the campaign. The effect of Russian hacking on press coverage ; The effect of hacked content on the last two presidential debates ; The Russian effect on the media agenda in the last days of the election -- Part four: What we don't, can't, and do know about how Russian hackers and trolls helped elected Donald J. Trump. Afterword: Where does this leave us? -- Appendices: Evaluations of Clinton and Trump traits in October -- Appendix one: Changes in perceptions of Clinton and Trump in October -- Appendix two: Debate 2 and debate 3 exposure effect on candidate trait evaluations -- Appendix three: Association between perception changes and vote intentions -- Appendix four: Effect of traits on vote intention.
Summary: "The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over his presidency. In particular, were the 78,000 voters who gave him an Electoral College victory affected by the Russian trolls and hackers? Trump had denied it. So too has Vladimir Putin. Others cast the answer as unknowable. Drawing on path-breaking work in which she and her colleagues isolated significant communications effects in the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, the eminent political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used the hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects research to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States. In the process, Cyberwar tackles questions that include: How extensive was the troll messaging? What characteristics of the social media platforms did the Russians exploit? Why did the mainstream press rush the hacked content into the citizenry's newsfeeds? Was Clinton telling the truth when she alleged that the debate moderators distorted what she said in the leaked speeches? Did the Russian influence extend beyond social media and news to alter the behavior of FBI director James Comey? After detailing the ways in which the Russian efforts were abetted by the press, social media platforms, the candidates, party leaders, and a polarized public, Cyberwar closes with a warning: the country is ill-prepared to prevent a sequel" -- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 324.973 J32 Available 33111009286051
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over all of the many controversies that continue to swirl around him to this day. In particular, was his victory the result of Russian meddling in our political system? Up until now, the answer to that has been equivocal at best given how difficult it is to prove. Trump has vociferously denied it, as has Vladimir Putin himself. Even the famous intelligence reports establishing that the Russians interfered hold back from saying whether the interference tipped the scales in the outcome. In Cyberwar, however, the eminent scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who sifted through a vast amount of polling and voting data, is able to conclude with a reasonable degree of certainty that Russian help was crucial in elevating Trump to the Oval Office. Put simply, by changing the behavior of key players and altering the focus and content of mainstream news, Russian hackers reshaped the 2016 electoral dynamic. At the same time, Russian trolls used social media to target voting groups indispensable to a Trump victory or Clinton defeat. There are of course many arguments on offer that push against the idea that the Russians handed Trump his victory. Russia's goal was fomenting division, not electing Trump. Most of the Russian ads reportedly did not reference either the election or a candidate. Nor did they differ much from U.S.-based messaging that was already in play. Russian intervention did not surgically target Trump in key states. Finally, if WikiLeaks' releases of stolen email had truly affected the vote, Clinton's perceived honesty would have dropped in October. Jamieson, drawing from her four decades of research on the role of media in American elections, dispenses with these arguments through a forensic tracing of both Russian hackers' impact on media coverage as well as the ebbs and flows of Trump's polling support over the course of the campaign. To be sure, it is impossible to prove with absolute certainty that the Russians handed the election to Trump because there is too much that we don't know. That said, the lessons of a half century of research on the role of media framing in elections strongly suggests that many voters' opinions were altered by Russia's wide-ranging and coordinated campaign-including at least seventy eight thousand votes in three key states. Combining scholarly rigor with a bracing argument, Cyberwar shows that we can now be reasonably confident that Russian efforts helped put Trump in the White House.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-303) and index.

Introduction: US susceptibilities, troll and hacker synchronies, and my suppositions -- Part one: Who did it, why, and what research says about how it might matter. How do we know that Russian spies and saboteurs (aka hackers and trolls) intervened in the 2016 presidential election? ; A theory of communication that posits effects -- Part two: The prerequisites of troll influence. The first troll prerequisite: widespread messaging ; The second troll prerequisite: messages aligned with Trump's electoral interests ; The third troll prerequisite: mobilizing veterans, white Christians, demobilizing blacks and Sander's supporters, and shifting liberals to Stein ; The fourth troll prerequisite: persuasive appeals ; The fifth troll prerequisite: well-targeted content -- Part three: How the Russian affected the new and debate agendas in the last month of the campaign. The effect of Russian hacking on press coverage ; The effect of hacked content on the last two presidential debates ; The Russian effect on the media agenda in the last days of the election -- Part four: What we don't, can't, and do know about how Russian hackers and trolls helped elected Donald J. Trump. Afterword: Where does this leave us? -- Appendices: Evaluations of Clinton and Trump traits in October -- Appendix one: Changes in perceptions of Clinton and Trump in October -- Appendix two: Debate 2 and debate 3 exposure effect on candidate trait evaluations -- Appendix three: Association between perception changes and vote intentions -- Appendix four: Effect of traits on vote intention.

"The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over his presidency. In particular, were the 78,000 voters who gave him an Electoral College victory affected by the Russian trolls and hackers? Trump had denied it. So too has Vladimir Putin. Others cast the answer as unknowable. Drawing on path-breaking work in which she and her colleagues isolated significant communications effects in the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, the eminent political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used the hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects research to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States. In the process, Cyberwar tackles questions that include: How extensive was the troll messaging? What characteristics of the social media platforms did the Russians exploit? Why did the mainstream press rush the hacked content into the citizenry's newsfeeds? Was Clinton telling the truth when she alleged that the debate moderators distorted what she said in the leaked speeches? Did the Russian influence extend beyond social media and news to alter the behavior of FBI director James Comey? After detailing the ways in which the Russian efforts were abetted by the press, social media platforms, the candidates, party leaders, and a polarized public, Cyberwar closes with a warning: the country is ill-prepared to prevent a sequel" -- Provided by publisher.

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