To the vast majority of the mainstream media, conservatives (and especially Trump supporters) are nothing but little keyboard Kremlin apologists, scurrying about on social media sowing discord alongside their Russian counterparts.
So the media were ecstatic this week as they thought they snared an academic who would validate them. Entertainment and business outlets highlighted a study done by a USC-backed researcher which purportedly proved that Russian internet trolls stoked political opposition to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Sky News sported an Oct. 2 headline which read “Star Wars: Russian bots and trolls behind Last Jedi abuse, study finds,” while Wired featured an opinion piece called “Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Russian Trolls, and the Disintegration of Discourse.” Market Watch also entered the fray.
Surprisingly, an Oct. 3 Washington Post interview saw the study’s author walking back a lot of the media hype, claiming “There’s no evidence Russians did anything unusual or meaningful.” Morten Bay, the scholar, revealed that just around one fifth of his surveyed Twitter accounts had produced original Tweets panning the movie, and only half of that portion mentioned political gripes.
Even fewer were of Russian origin: the study suggested that less than two percent of the sample was “even potentially from such sources.” (Quoting from the Post.) Bay said that although right-wingers “tr[ied] to take this organic discussion and turn it into something where they could make their political point” he thought “very few of them were coordinated.” So basically, the debate over the flick was just like everything else in the Twittersphere.
Steven Zeitchik of Washington Post diagnosed why the media went berserk despite the lackluster numbers: a line in the study read, “Russian trolls weaponize Star Wars criticism … with the purpose of pushing for political change, while it is weaponized by right-wing fans to forward a conservative agenda.” Zeitchik explained that news outlets “could be forgiven” for latching onto this headline-grabber, which Bay actually used to “explain potential motivations.”
Zeitchik seems to be a pretty understanding guy, huh?
