Our website

Our final feature, which began with this blog, is now live here at Always Greener.

Astroturfing in China

A great short segment from ABC’s Hungry Beast about the Chinese Communist Party’s astroturfing policy…

Surfing for Astroturfing

Social media strategy

@astrosurfnturf 

Aim:

To initiate, in a somewhat ironic sense, our own grass-roots community that is ‘astroturf savvy’ via twitter. Our twitter account aims to engage the audience of our feature website by inviting them to participate in spotting astroturfing online. The group will draw attention to suspected cases of astroturfing on the web regarding politics, consumer products and social movments by linking to them and using the #astroturfing and #gotcha hashtags. In doing so, we hope to create an online community of anti-astroturfers that will cooperatively work to enhance their collective web literacy. The account will also lead back to our website’s astroturfing gallery which will break down the reasons that we might suspect astroturfing in this case.

Why Twitter?:

We believe that Twitter is the most appropriate platform from which to build this community as it allows anyone to join the conversation and is able to simply link back to our feature website if an audience member would like further information on the topic.

Methods:

o   Follow appropriate commentators, media outlets and consumer groups

o   Retweet and comment on others’ suspicions

o   Direct people to the upcoming feature website/blog

o   Tweet our own discoveries of online astroturfing

o   Tweet updates about the development of the site

o   Direct message commentators for input

o   Use of #astroturfing and #gotcha as a gathering point for the community

o   Ask the opinions of relevant consumer groups if an instance occurs during the campaign

Planning:

The aims of our social media campaign and the demand for timeliness in our news values means that tweets and retweets cannot be specifically planned. It is the role of Marnie, Andrew and Stephanie to surf the web as well as monitor the #astroturfing hashtag in order to pick up on relevant events or commentary. This includes articles in the media in which we can tweet questions to a journalist as well as ask for the opinion of an organisation that might be negatively being astroturfed. The rest of the group will also have a less pivotal role in tweeting any relevant material that they might come across during their research.

KPIs:

o   Three #astroturfing or #gotcha tweets per week

o   Two retweets or comments on stories per week regarding #astroturfing

o   Accrue 50 followers to form our own online spotting community

o   4-5 user contributions to the twitter community by the time the website is up and running.

Conclusion:

A write-up of the campaign will document our level of success and will be part of the feature website on its launch day. The Twitter feed will also be a part of the main website in order to direct our audience to a platform where they can become involved.

We are aware of some of the potential risks of our approach, as some companies might see the campaign as a witch-hunt. However, we would defend against this by linking back to our feature website so that we might defend our suspicions with more detail using some of the research we have conducted on reasons one might suspect a case of astroturfing. 

Laying the astroturf

Now that I'm at my final blog, it sure is getting more difficult to come up with new puns and takes on the word 'astroturf' for blog titles.

One of the major difficulties I am facing is how to write a longer form article on astroturfing that touches on all the elements we have discovered about it. We need to place astroturfing inside a Web 2.0 context: issues of authenticity online as well as Lessing's culture of sharing. We also need to explore it's relevance to the field of PR: While some suggest it is just part and parcel of tactical PR, others suggest it is entirely unethical. Finally we need concrete examples, and most importantly, an interview or two with people who have astroturfed. 

Geoffrey Emerson from agency The Prosperty Principle offers a service called Trusted Avatar.

He's also the man who was interviewed on ABC Radio National, and will be the first person we approach to contact for a more positive perspective on astroturfing. 

Finally, the feedback from our presentation was to determine exactly who would host our web feature.

I feel that Mumbrella is the most appropriate platform. As I discussed last week, it has a history of catching out astroturfers in its comments. It's style is democratic and accessible, yet the audience is largely media literate. This would also improve our social media interactions through gaining exposure for the project.

One other suggestion was Triple J Hack. However, since they are mostly radio-based, I feel that the astroturfing topic won't translate as well online without evidence and the ability to link directly to other web pages. I'd like to aim for the tone of Crikey and UTS's joint project, Spinning the Media. This project is hosted by Crikey and is entirely self contained. It includes longer form articles, key interviews and findings from investigative research. These three content approaches position Spinning the Media as a useful project upon which we can base our project

In Defence of Astroturfing

Major Hollywood studios have concocted astroturfing campaigns to protect their interests.  CBS, NBC, FOX and Warner Bros. were just some of the studios behind the “CreativeAmerica” astroturf campaign. Universal Music Group created a faux- grassroots campaign called “MusicRightsNow”. The main purpose of both of these was to create support for the passing of the PROTECT IP censorship bill.  

TechDirt puts forward a particularly persuasive argument on the laziness and laughability of these campaigns. But there are two sides to every story. Such companies are losing huge amounts of revenue due to the subversive activities of the general public. Hollywood corporations have started to fight fire with fire. 

TechDirt argues that there is more music than ever. No one can disagree with the fact that the internet is a huge platform for emerging artists. But I know that I’ve spent less money on music and movies since I’ve had access to broadband. I suspect you’re the same. We're consuming more entertainment than ever, but we're paying almost nothing for it.

Justin talked about the 'Four Minute Men' in his blog post. You can liken astroturfing to a virtual version of Brand Power.

"Under the guise of being an independent body, they take cash from brands and ad agencies and produce  infomercials but pretend to be “editorial” (i.e. not associated with the brand, and are there to empower consumers through customer advocacy)."

Good astroturfing, like cash for comment and product placement, requires an attuned eye to be able spot. If you have enough web literacy  to download a movie illegally online, do you deserve to be subjected to astroturfing by the film companies you exploit?

I don’t think so, but it’s good to get into that headspace, and consider alternative attitudes towards astroturfing. Are there times when it can justified?

Astroturfing: Strategic or Tactical Media?

A study of Graham Meikle’s required reading “Turning Signs into Question Marks” offers up some some interesting ideas in relation to our web feature on astroturfing.

Miekle draws distinctions between strategic media and tactical media. The former, he asserts is “about exploiting place- a business, for instance, that defines its territory and then uses this as the basis for its relations with its customers, works from the privileging of a place over time. It’s about claiming turf and expanding it, and about using this to create and shape relations with others” (119).

It is easy to see the way in which astroturfing fits as strategic media. A large proportion of astroturfing is business simply seeking to expand its turf. However, the means in which that turf is claimed has parallels with Miekle’s definition of tactical media.

“Tactical media,” writes Miekle, “is about mobility and flexibility, about diverse responses to changing contexts” (119). “A tactic exploits time- a moment of opportunity and possibility made possible as cracks appear in the evolution of strategic place” (121).

Astroturfing is a subversive practice, as is much tactical media. However, Miekle asserts in his reading that tactical media is largely created by those outside the circle of mainstream power. The political parties and commercial enterprises engaged in astroturfing that we have come across in our research are definitely not powerless (the US government, anyone?) Miekle also argues that profit is not the primary motive of a lot of tactical media. Again this is a contrast with astroturfing, which has money on its mind. 

So then, is astroturfing strategic or tactical media? Perhaps it exists in a new space between both concepts. Interestingly, the powerful who astroturf have had to engage in the practices of the powerless. Such is the democratic nature of the internet.

Miekle’s reading, written in 2002, shows its age. This serves to reflect the transient nature of web theory. However, applying our readings to astroturfing gives us a more theoretical framework; it shows us the nuance of internet practices and helps give us a detailed context as we undertake our web feature.

Buried alive

Is astroturfing burying companies and interest groups on the internet? Is using astroturfing ourselves the only way to fight the astroturfers? 

Earlier this year, the technology startup Pixate had an idea: create software that would allow developers to mess around and customise user interfaces on their smartphones. In our techno-world, anyone with a webcam and bright idea can put their pitches out there.

So, Pixate decided to hit up Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform that allows creators to raise money for their projects by appealing to the masses on the web. The project managed to hit its goal of US$25,000 - throw in a few dollars, all for a good cause, right? Users didn't know that the fundraising had already been given a massive boost from an affiliated corporate sponsor. 

This is astroturfing at its most subtle. It doesn't need a flood of positive comments to look good. It is faceless and speechless. Seeing that there has already been thousands of dollars worth of support gives you a bit of confidence in the project. Like how buskers leave some loose cash in their guitar case so you don't feel odd dropping the first coin in.

Astroturfing has become the ultimate evil: lying to make yourself look good when in reality you're probably pretty awful. But astroturfing has become a reality. A technique rather than a taboo. Our investigation aims to give people a guide to catching astroturfers out. Technology like persona management software and bots make the onslaught of astroturfers endless. Perhaps the only way to fight back is with our own bots?

George Monbiot, blogger for The Guardian Online stresses that we have to fight astroturfing. It's an enemy infecting the chat forums, Facebook pages, and comment threads of all legitimate companies. According to him, astroturfing has become a matter of bipolar ethics: good versus evil.

Is it a necessary evil? Or, will the moral panic die down? In the near years, we might see astroturfing as just another obvious PR tactic. Like the balloon-headed photos of politicians on posters, or the Labor Party onslaught on the front page spreads of the Telegraph or Australian.

Let's look back to the roots of PR and advertising. During World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson sent out a team of what he called 'Four Minute Men'. The group of suited men would get up between the four-minute reel changes at the cinemas and give a spiel hailing the PotUS and the country's war efforts.

The 'Four Minute Men' give a speech to the American public

Was this PR effort a good or an evil? Or was it simply something the President's PR team had to do to get their message out? We've got the internet now, so maybe we're a bit more skeptical - a shady group of men sitting in front of hundreds of flickering computer screens, slapping away at keyboards overnight, churning out fake Facebook profiles and floods of tweets. If the astroturfers got up in front of us with suits and moustaches, maybe we might just believe what they were saying.