The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model

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by Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews at the Rand Corporation

http://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html

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Since its 2008 incursion into Georgia (if not before), there has been a remarkable evolution in Russia's approach to propaganda. The country has effectively employed new dissemination channels and messages in support of its 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, its ongoing involvement in the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and its antagonism of NATO allies. The Russian propaganda model is high-volume and multichannel, and it disseminates messages without regard for the truth. It is also rapid, continuous, and repetitive, and it lacks commitment to consistency. Although these techniques would seem to run counter to the received wisdom for successful information campaigns, research in psychology supports many of the most successful aspects of the model. Furthermore, the very factors that make the firehose of falsehood effective also make it difficult to counter. Traditional counterpropaganda approaches will likely be inadequate in this context. More effective solutions can be found in the same psychology literature that explains the surprising success of the Russian propaganda model and its messages.

Recommendations:

Forewarn audiences of misinformation, or merely reach them first with the truth, rather than retracting or refuting false "facts."

Prioritize efforts to counter the effects of Russian propaganda, and focus on guiding the propaganda's target audience in more productive directions.



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1. the bot gish gallop

[LongTomH]

2. For those not familiar with "The Gish Gallop"

The Gish Gallop at the Rational Wiki:

The Gish Gallop (also known as proof by verbosity or the Trump tirade) is the fallacious debating tactic of simply drowning your opponent in a torrent of small, interlocking arguments intended to prevent your opponent from being able to rebut your conclusions in real time. The Gish Gallop is thus essentially a belt-fed cousin of the on the spot fallacy, as it's unreasonable for anyone to have an answer immediately available to every single argument presented in the gallop. It is named after creationist Duane Gish.

Although it takes a trivial amount of effort on the galloper's part to make each individual point before skipping on to the next (especially if they cite from a pre-concocted list of gallop arguments), a refutation of the same gallop may likely take much longer and require significantly more effort (per the basic principle that it's always easier to make a mess than to clean it back up again).

The tedium inherent in untangling a gish gallop typically allows for very little "creative license" or vivid rhetoric (in deliberate contrast to the exciting point-dashing central to the galloping), which in turn risks boring the audience or readers, further loosening the refuter's grip on the crowd.

Please note that The Rational Wiki has a page on Donald Trump.

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3. Thanks Long.