While the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign was the first where digital technology played a significant role (and contestants had dedicated teams for this purpose), it was the very first major political event in which digitally distributed information and narratives played an equal, if not a prime, role in the formation of public opinion (as compared to ‘traditional’ media) and, possibly, consequently also affected voting and electoral behaviour.
Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 are often attributed to clever use of social networks by the candidate and his political team. For the 2012 campaign, social media was the tool that drove voters to traditional media and campaign events. assisted mobilisation and rectification of campaign messages […], while, in 2016, social media became a central battlefield. Americans (and some malign foreign actors) turned to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as collective communication tools like Reddit, 4Chan and other similar instruments, in an attempt to determine the outcome of the presidential elections.
– ‘Conspiracy theories and fake news’, in Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories (2020), p. 514
Курсивъ мой. Также съ нѣкоторой оторопью смотрю на имена авторовъ. Да, въ этомъ сборникѣ турки тоже развиваютъ теоріи заговора непосрѣдственно въ текстѣ, и повѣствованія объ Италіи, странѣ, десятилетіями управляемой совмѣстно сицилійской мафіей, ЦРУ, КПСС, неофашистами, масонской ложей P2 и Банкомъ Ватикана неизбѣжно сводятся къ тому же, потому что жизнь – борьба, но – въ отличіе отъ этихъ отечественныхъ антропологовъ (къ Кирилу Аврамову не относится) – не ради лизоблюдства. А пріятно, навѣрное, чтобы русскій ученый самъ, своими руками написалъ статью о понятіи, не существующемъ антропологически за пределами антирусской медіа-пропаганды, и еще радовался, что напечатали?