Tools - Subjectio - An online storytelling project about the influence of Russian and Western powers on the perception of reality.

Subjectio.org experiments with its digital tool, exploring propaganda mechanisms on social media used by Russia and the West. Subjectio's Python Developer has created a digital tool, an application, to disseminate content through a Twitter account: @subjectio_relay .

Each Payload on the application includes a photograph from Subjectio’s image collection followed by a text, a brief explanation of an event. Photographs taken in the nine countries and states of interest do not always illustrate this event directly. The connection between the factual text and the image is mostly metaphorical. Subjectio’s posts are an experimental combination of diverse components resembling an ordinary tweet.

Although the text relating to each photograph is factual in content, visual creativity can provoke a strong reaction. The heart of the project is its geopolitical orientation. The timing of each publication may lead to social media tension and unrest in the nine countries that form the project as a whole. Each tweet distributed by Subjectio’s digital workflow relates to a specific political or social event and can be complicated to say the least. As an example, the way of spelling toponyms matters here and this is a case in point: “Macedonia” or “North Macedonia”, “Transnistria” or “Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”, “Belarus” as opposed to “Belorussia”.

Subjectio’s image collection is diverse in its scope and heavily influenced by the West and Russia in South-East and Eastern Europe. These influences are exercised in the fields of history, diplomacy, military, politics, education, architecture, economy, culture and religion.

Subjectio’s digital tool functions in a semi-automatic mode. A list of keywords is created in English, Serbian, Albanian, Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian, identifying Twitter algorithms to answer tweets.

Examples of keywords in Twitter advanced search queries:

Belarus:

(Belarus OR Беларусь OR Белоруссия OR Lukashenko OR Lukashenka OR Лукашэ́нка OR Тихановская OR Tikhanovskaya OR Ціхано́ўская OR Kolesnikova OR Kalesnikava OR Колесникова OR Калесникава OR Европа OR белорусы OR беларусы OR Цепкало OR Цапкала OR photojournalism OR Россия OR Russia OR Latvia OR Lithuania OR Латвия OR Литва) min_faves:100
Kosovo:

(Kosovo OR Balkans OR Балканы OR Косово OR Сербия OR Балкан OR НАТО OR Србија OR Evropa OR Ballkan OR Kosova OR косовские OR албанцы OR Kosovë OR UCK OR KLA OR Thaci OR Hague OR photojournalism OR Vucic OR Putin OR Путин OR Россия OR Russia OR Biden OR Clinton) -FC -football -sport -transfer -travel -food -lottery -loto -eurovision -lotto -competition -goal -league -vs -UEFA min_faves:100
Ukraine:

(Donbas OR Donetsk OR Luhansk OR Украина OR Донбасс OR Донецк OR Луганск OR ЛHP OR ДHP OR Евромайдан OR Euromaidan OR Зеленский OR Майдан OR Верховная OR Донецкая OR Луганская OR Zelensky OR Зеленський OR Зеленский OR photojournalism OR Putin OR Путин) -Shakhtar -FC -football -sport -zorya -eurovision -UEFA -goal -league -transfer -Allahyar -Sayyadmanesh min_faves:100

Twitter advanced search queries contain proper names and toponyms and this allows @subjectio_relay to answer tweets posted by Twitter accounts of various media, organizations and personal accounts. The search queries embedded in the Payload identifies a list of tweets, generating a queue. A Payload is manually activated on the application. Subjectio’s digital tool replies to each of the tweets identified by the query and placed in the queue.

Repeated exposure of content (Pamment et al. 2018) may justify it to the eye of the reader. Previously encountered information “feels more familiar and therefore accurate” (Kiparoidze 2019). Neutral text in combination with actual facts and, in combination with the creative part (the photographic image) may also transform the reader’s framing and perception (Scheufele, Dietram 1999) or expand the context of the original statement. With no intention to mislead nor to attack, Subjectio’s digital tool leaves room for conversations and replies.

Events created by social tension may be characterized as polarized. According to a recent study by Kũssen Strembeck the combined positive and negative emotion produced adds concerns for both human Twitter and bots’ users alike. This may be true for semi-automatic applications like Subjectio’s digital tool. The reactions and cognitive perceptual patterns are then observed, collected and analysed by Subjectio’s team. This survey aims to help understand the social role of digital tools in the present day.

The work of Subjectio’s digital tool can be monitored on @subjectio_reply “Tweets and replies”. This lets you see all the tweets Subjectio’s digital tool is replying to. Although a hashtag #subjectio shows all previous Twitter posts from the main account of the project @subjectio2020 along with all replies posted by @subjectio_relay.

Bibliography:

Kiparoidze, Mariam, 2019. “Disinformation matters”, Coda Story.

Kũsen, Ema; Strembeck, Mark, 2018. “Why so Emotional? An Analysis of Emotional Bot-generated Content on Twitter”, Complexis, 3rd International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk.

Pamment, James; Nothhaft, Howard; Agardh-Twetman, Henrik; Fjällhed, Alicia. 2018. Countering Information Influence Activities: The State of the Art, version 1.4. Department of Strategic Communication, Lund University.

Scheufele, Dietram A. 1999. “Framing as a Theory of Media Effects.” Journal of Communication 49 (4): 103-122.

DOCUMENTATION

Find more information on Subjectio's storytelling digital tool here.