Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory

Disinformaation nähdään olevan ubiikki digitaalisissa ympäristöissä, etenkin nyt, uuden alan kehittyessä entisesti rehellisistä talkoistamis (crowdsoursing) hankkeista. Nämä crowdturfing kampanjat myyvät astroturfattuja työntekijöitä tekemään mitä tahansa disinformaatiota asiakas haluaakaan. Analyys...

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Päätekijä: Kauppila, Santtu
Muut tekijät: Informaatioteknologian tiedekunta, Faculty of Information Technology, Informaatioteknologia, Information Technology, Jyväskylän yliopisto, University of Jyväskylä
Aineistotyyppi: Pro gradu
Kieli:eng
Julkaistu: 2020
Aiheet:
Linkit: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/72671
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author Kauppila, Santtu
author2 Informaatioteknologian tiedekunta Faculty of Information Technology Informaatioteknologia Information Technology Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_facet Kauppila, Santtu Informaatioteknologian tiedekunta Faculty of Information Technology Informaatioteknologia Information Technology Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä Kauppila, Santtu Informaatioteknologian tiedekunta Faculty of Information Technology Informaatioteknologia Information Technology Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_sort Kauppila, Santtu
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description Disinformaation nähdään olevan ubiikki digitaalisissa ympäristöissä, etenkin nyt, uuden alan kehittyessä entisesti rehellisistä talkoistamis (crowdsoursing) hankkeista. Nämä crowdturfing kampanjat myyvät astroturfattuja työntekijöitä tekemään mitä tahansa disinformaatiota asiakas haluaakaan. Analyysimme aiheessa tehtiin kolmen tutkimuskysymyksen ympärille: ”Miten tavalliset talkoistamisesta kiinnostuneet työntekijät liittyvät digitaalisiin disinformaatio kampanjoihin?” ja ”Mitkä ovat ne ulottuvuudet missä tavallinen työntekijä voi suorittaa digitaalisen disinformaation tekoja?” Näitä kysymyksiä tutkiaksemme, toimme mukaan neutralisaatio teorian, jotta pystymme paremmin tutkimaan ilmiötä, ja kolmanne kysymyksemme: ”Mihin pisteeseen asti neutralisaatio teoria pystyy selittämään digitaalisen disinformaation tekojen suorittamista?” Tässä Maisterin Teesissä tutkimme aihetta vignette pohjaisilla haastatteluilla, missä kysyimme kuinka uskottavana jokainen haastateltava piti jokaista neutralisaatio tekniikkaa. Kysymyksenä oli kuinka todennäköisenä he pitivät jokaisen neutralisaatio tekniikan käyttöä kontekstissa. Nämä haastattelut antavat meidän nähdä kuinka todennäköisinä ja realistisina kukin neutralisaatio tekniikka nähtiin. Testasimme jokaista neutralisaation tekniikkaa useasta näkökulmasta. Näistä keskusteluista voimme hypotesoida että Bryant et al.'n lisäykset 'hyvään luonteeseen vetoaminen' ja 'viktimisaatio' ovat liian kärjistettyjä ja ulkopuolisia digitaalisiin disinformaatio konteksteihin. Tähän liittyen, näemme myös kuinka mitä itsekkäämpänä haastateltava näki työläisen motiiviin, sitä realistisempana tämä piti tätä motiivia. Haastateltavat näkivät digitaalisiin disinformaatio kampanjoihin liittymisen lähes täysin itsekkäänä toimintona. Lopuksi, ja ehkä tärkeimpänä, olemme hämmentyneitä siitä määrästä haastateltavista ketkä pitivät näitä kampanjoita laillisina ja sallittuina sosiaalisen media alustojen silmissä. Tämä saattaa johtua pelkästään tietämättömyydestä, mikä voi olla yksi avaintekijöistä miksi normaalit työntekijät liittyvät crowdturfaamiseen. Tämän lisäksi lähes kaikki haastateltavat puhuivat digitaalisesta kanssakäymisestä ja nettimediasta halveksuvalla pessimismillä. Mikä on tämän lopullinen seuraamus digitaaliselle maailmalle, jää nähtäväksi. Disinformation is thought to be ubiquitous in digital space, especially now that a booming industry is beginning to evolve from previously honest crowdsourcing enterprises. These crowdturfing projects sell astroturfed workers to act out whatever disinformation their customer demands of them. Our analysis on the topic spanned three research questions: ”What drives these ordinary people interested in crowdsourcing projects to join digital disinformation campaigns?” and ”What are the dimensions in which an individual worker can perform digital disinformation acts?” To explore these questions, we brought in neutralization theory in order to better explore the phenomenon and imposed another question alongside it in: ”To what extent can neutralization theory be used to justify participating in digital disinformation acts?” In this Master's Thesis we set out to study the possibilities with vignette-based interviews where we asked each of the participants to judge each 'excuse' of a neutralization technique for how likely they believed it to occur. From these discussions we determine the perceived plausibility of each neutralization technique through various angles and excuses. From this, we hypothesise that Bryant et al.'s additions of appeal to good character and victimisation, in particular, are too extreme or detached for digital disinformation contexts, failing to produce satisfactory results. In relation to this, we find that the more selfish an interviewee determined the motive of a participant to be, the better the overall plausibility of that particular excuse. It was generally thought that participation in digital disinformation campaigns was a purely selfish exercise. Finally, and maybe most importantly, through the discussions we find that many of the interviewees thought that these digital disinformation campaigns were both legal in the eyes of legislation and allowed by the social media platforms. This may stem from a simple lack of knowledge, which is likely a key reason as to why ordinary workers participate in crowdturfing. In addition, to this, nearly all of the interviewees spoke with contemptible pessimism about digital discourse and online media. What ramifications this has for digital spaces as a whole, remains to be seen.
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spellingShingle Kauppila, Santtu Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory crowdturfing neutralization theory Tietojärjestelmätiede Information Systems Science 601 sosiaalinen media disinformaatio Internet vinjetit valheet social media disinformation vignettes lies
title Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_full Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_fullStr Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_full_unstemmed Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_short Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_sort unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
title_txtP Unraveling the reason of participation in crowdturfing campaigns using neutralization theory
topic crowdturfing neutralization theory Tietojärjestelmätiede Information Systems Science 601 sosiaalinen media disinformaatio Internet vinjetit valheet social media disinformation vignettes lies
topic_facet 601 Information Systems Science Internet Tietojärjestelmätiede crowdturfing disinformaatio disinformation lies neutralization theory social media sosiaalinen media valheet vignettes vinjetit
url https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/72671 http://www.urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202011196686
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