As we learned, social change research refers to when the researchers are taking active part in changing something in their social situation. One form of this which has a huge impact on our society and politics is activist research. This is a form of research where the researcher is more than just vested in the outcome, they are in fact pushing an agenda. One famous example of this is the advertising campaign the dairy companies ran for milk. Slogans such as “got milk?” and “milk – it does a body good” were based on dairy industry research sponsored by major dairy companies. This could be applied to politics as well in the form of “astroturfing.”
In “Online Astroturfing: A Theoretical Perspective,” Jerry Zhang and his peers define astroturfing as follows: “online astroturfing refers to the coordinated campaigns where messages supporting a specific agenda are distributed via the internet.” The important part is that astroturfing uses deception “to create the appearance of being generated by an independent entity. Basically it is large corporations pushing agendas from what appears to be a grassroots movement. One example of this would be a politician’s communication team making fake Twitter or Facebook accounts that push their political agenda.
I’m not sure if many people know about this practice, but I am just learning about it now from doing my own research. From a psychology standpoint, I think that people’s beliefs can be sttrengthened if they see there are many others who have the same opinion. So we can immediately see the danger of such a practice. It is effectively manipulating the psyche of people to subconsciously manipulate them. I think in the realm of politics, there is a lot of this behavior going on. In the last few elections, everyone saw the power of online chatter and the shift in the public to seek out their own information in addition to consuming news media.
Another form of astroturfing can be done through TV commercials. The commercials will make an organization started by regular people in order to solve a problem or take down a corporation. One example of this is “Americans Against Food Taxes,” which is a front group of the food and beverage industry. After watching the commercial on YouTube, I can immediately see how this also plays into the viewer’s psyche. The commercial predicts a mom unpacking groceries from an SUV – something very “folksy” that is intended to make the viewer thing “she is just like me, so I should have the opinion she wants me to have.” As Zhang states, “the perfect online astroturfing campaign relies on both skillful deceivers and vulnerable receivers” (Zhang, 2013).
I found all of this very interesting, but at the same time it can be dangerous. One disturbing outcome is that “once an astroturfing campaign gains traction, the fraudulent information will likely be redistributed by the manipulated users and become indistinguishable from other user-generated content” (Zhang, 2013). I hope that more people find out about this practice and make sure to have an open mind and do thorough research if anyone is trying hard to convince you of something.
Resources
Applied Social Psychology – Lesson 13 Module (PSYCH 424). Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2110187/modules/items/30953786
Zhang, J. & Carpenter, Darrell & Ko, M.. (2013). Online astroturfing: A theoretical perspective. 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2013 – Hyperconnected World: Anything, Anywhere, Anytime. 4. 2559-2565. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286729041_Online_astroturfing_A_theoretical_perspective