5 F's of conservatism & the right in social media
5 F's of conservatism & the right in social media
Ever heard of the five F’s of conservatism? In an interview this week Francesca Tripodi explained what led her to this formulation, the first of seven steps she outlines in The Propagandists’ Playbook.
I asked people to describe what they mean by ‘conservatism,’ and their definitions centered around these concepts over and over again, and these concepts were also central to the news and information that they were reading. So the five F’s that I describe are faith, family, the armed forces, firearms, and a free market.
In the interview, Francesca brought up the conservative media’s pushback against Black Lives Matter (BLM).
What’s fascinating is that you can see, using Google Trends data, that a way to respond to Black Lives Matter was to create alternative hashtags that could compete with it…Then that turned into #BlueLivesMatter, a catchphrase created to support the police and the armed forces, and not only did that activate the five forces of conservatism, but it also began to trend.
Deen Freelon and his colleagues released an article this week examining social media activity and protest mobilization during the summer of 2020 and in the context of the BLM movement. They provide evidence that right-leaning sources gain more visibility on social media.
Publications and appearances
“In the end, the authors propose that those worried about disinformation on social media should spend more money on those platforms to run ads to protect against disinformation. In many ways, that is wholly unsatisfying for basically all stakeholders except the platforms.” Shannon McGregor spoke to NBC News on social media platforms experimenting with the idea of “pre-bunking”.
Coming soon
September 13, 5:30pm ET: Can We Talk?: Student Thoughts on Free Expression at UNC
September 13, 3:30-4:30pm CDT: University of Wisconsin Event: Campaign Fiance & Election Misinformation. Daniel Kreiss is one of the panelists!
September 16, 10-11am ET: UNC’s School of Information and Library Science’s 2022 Henderson Lecture: A Conversation with David S. Ferriero, the 10th Archivist of the United States.
September 21: The Center for Media Law and Policy’s First Amendment Day. The CITAP panel starts at 4:00pm.
September 22, 3-4:30pm: Francesca Tripodi presents The Propagandists’ Playbook at UNC’s Freedom Forum Conference Center.
September 23, 11am-12pm: The CITAP fall speaker series begins with a talk from Victor Ray, author of On Critical Race Theory. Details and RSVP to follow.
Rest of Web
💼 The Polarization Lab at Duke University is hiring for a Postdoctoral Associate and Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy is hiring for an assistant or associate professor for ethics and public policy (with a focus on tech ethics).
Watch Francesca Tripodi discuss the research and findings presented in her book.
