Astroturf Is Destroying Our Ability to Believe

Jeannie Golden

jg488519@ohio.edu

I would have thought that astroturfing was as foreign to me as another language would be but, the more I learn, the more I realize that it has been around for quite some time. I just didn’t know that it had a name. To understand astroturfing, I think it's important to first understand the meaning of a grassroots movement. 

Encyclopedia Britannica defines grassroots as a “type of movement or campaign that attempts to mobilize individuals to take some action to influence an outcome, often of a political nature.” It is a simple enough concept. Find something that is worthwhile, rally the people, and take action. Take for instance the One Fund Boston campaign that began as a show of support for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing incident that occurred on April 15, 2013. The campaign had the goal of raising funds for the victims using Twitter and the hashtag #bostonstrong. The hashtag was used more than 1.5 million times, raising more than $72 million for the victims and their surviving families.

Non-Profit Spotlight: The One Fund Boston

Grassroots campaigns sound amazing, right? I mean who wouldn’t want to be a part of something so powerful and in the case of One Fund Boston, so vital to helping out those in need. So, what is astroturfing? Well, astroturfing, a clever play on words to ‘grassroots’, as defined in a 2012 article for The Guardian by Adam Bienkov titled, Astroturfing: what is it and why does it matter? as “the attempt to create an impression of widespread grassroots support for policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists.” When I read that definition, I understand it to be fabricating the truth. Lying.

One of the simplest forms of this could be PR Professionals pretending to be legitimate online commenters. Enter politics. It’s an election year so, no one of voting age is immune to the often contentious and almost comical advertisements, articles, blogs, and more, extolling the greatness of one candidate or the debauchery of another. Many times, there are places to leave comments with these well-crafted plugs and in reading them, I surely cannot be the only one to think, “don’t these comments look similar?”, or “they all sound like a broken record.” Or perhaps I have read an article and looking at the photos, thought, “that looks kind of staged.” In fact, I may not be far off in that assessment.

In a fascinating article by Samuel Woolley for Quartz titled Say goodbye to grassroots politics. The future is made of Astroturf, in which he describes the goal of communication strategies as being used to “amplify or suppress political information through lies and confusion.” That is a strong statement and one that I don’t disagree with. He provides the example of conservative strategist Patrick Ruffini using one of several hundreds of accounts to attack Ted Cruz on behalf of Donald Trump. According to Woolley, the account @DyanNations was used to tweet pro-Trump messages, Russian memes, and ads for fake followers.

Courtesy of Samuel Woolley, Quartz; screen capture from @DyanNations 

Astroturfing today is more frightening than just a strategist managing hundreds of accounts to sway voters. There is software marketed to auto-generate personas from all walks of life to do it for you. You simply plug in the demographic you want and the programs spit out everything you could possibly thing to post or print on the fake person’s behalf. If TRUTH is the guiding tenant to every aspect of journalism, then it is more important than ever for PR Professionals to hang on tight to their ethical obligations. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to read an article, a tweet, a comment, a blog, or even see a picture and believe that it is a legitimate cause worth believing in?