How social media disrupts institutions: Exploring the intersection of online disinformation, digital materiality and field-level change

Abstract

The diffusion of disinformation via social media has become a pressing societal concern for business leaders and policy makers. In recent years, online disinformation has been implicated as a source of field-level institutional change across a variety of societal contexts. To better understand how online disinformation changes institutional issue fields, we explore how digital materiality affords users opportunities to create and propagate disinformation. We introduce and define three social media material features: modular content, content flow, and manifold network structures. From these digital materiality elements, we articulate three disinformation affordances: crafting, amplifying, and partitioning. We rely on several vignettes – far-right political conspiracy group, QAnon, anti-vaccination (i.e., anti-Vaxxers), and flat Earth beliefs – to illustrate how social media users exploit digital materiality and enact disinformation affordances. Our theoretical development also contributes to our understanding of how online disinformation disrupts institutional issue fields. In particular, we highlight several potential changes to institutional issue fields regarding power centralization, subfield structures, and institutional infrastructure. We conclude by offering recommendations for future research and social media policy.