Digital Propaganda and Emotional Micro-Targeting

Abstract

People are encouraged to express things that are very homophobic, that are very racist, that are very against women. And there is this spiral of imitation and contagion that is very emotional. And that connects also with reactions: reactions as a key logic of social media. Politics has always been emotional, but it’s now emotional in new ways—ways that are specific to social media. Specific to this weird social experience is that it simultaneously targets us in terms of our individual experience, while also as a collective fantasy. The experience is individualized, in front of a screen, often by oneself. But at the same time the phenomenon is social, happening in public, with us witnessing what other people are doing, what they are “liking,” how other people are co-reacting as one react to contents. Gender and racial dimensions are very much present in all social media politics.