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'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Negative Buzz Amplified By Russian Trolls, Study Finds (hollywoodreporter.com)
bestweasel writes: The Hollywood Reporter highlights an academic paper which finds that half of the criticism aimed at director Rian Johnson over Star Wars: The Last Jedi was politically motivated. From the report: [Researcher Morten Bay's paper] titled Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation, examines the online response to the movie that has come to be considered controversial amongst the larger fanbase of the franchise. Bay suggests that reputation may not be earned, and instead "finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments." He continues, "The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation."
The paper analyzes in depth the negative online reaction, which is split into three different camps: those with a political agenda, trolls and what Bay calls "real fantagonists," which he defines as genuine Star Wars fans disappointed in the movie. His findings are fascinating; "Overall, 50.9% of those tweeting negatively [about the movie] was likely politically motivated or not even human," he writes, noting that only 21.9% of tweets analyzed about the movie had been negative in the first place. "A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls," Bay writes of the negative tweets. In response to a tweet announcing the release of the paper, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson shared the tweet, adding, "Looking forward to reading it, but what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online."
The paper analyzes in depth the negative online reaction, which is split into three different camps: those with a political agenda, trolls and what Bay calls "real fantagonists," which he defines as genuine Star Wars fans disappointed in the movie. His findings are fascinating; "Overall, 50.9% of those tweeting negatively [about the movie] was likely politically motivated or not even human," he writes, noting that only 21.9% of tweets analyzed about the movie had been negative in the first place. "A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls," Bay writes of the negative tweets. In response to a tweet announcing the release of the paper, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson shared the tweet, adding, "Looking forward to reading it, but what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online."
I hate Star Wars. Star Wars can eat a bag of dicks. I am not a Russian, nor any other flavour of Slav.
Not the fact the movie was shit and just happened to piss all over one if the franchises most beloved characters, totally wasting any opportunity to use Luke Skywalker in any interesting capacity before unceremoniously killing him off.
Not interested in Disney's fanfic anymore. Made the mistake of seeing The Force Awakens. The plot was just a fan-service rehash of the original Star Wars and Rey was an annoying Mary Sue. So I just stopped giving Disney my money after that. Didn't make a YouTube video bitching about it or anything. I just stopped buying their toys and seeing their movies. Problem solved.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Is there anything we can't blame them for?
"The paper concludes that while it is only a minority of Twitter accounts that tweet negatively about The Last Jedi..." Oh so everyone else's opinion is valid then. It was a crap movie.
"more than half are bots, trolls/sock puppets or political activists using the debate to propagate political messages supporting..."
Yeah I know, I've been flooded with posts of FeministComicNerd, GenderFluidMovieRanter, and MarySuePenisHater about how Last Jedi is the greatest movie ever and
that Asian chick is important to the story and not at all to pander to Chinese audiences.
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
The main thing that really bothers me about The Last Jedi, is that all the hate and trolling has managed to pretty much taint any and all actual criticism of the movie. You're now no longer allowed to be critical of anything in the film, without being labeled a misogynist, part of the "toxic masculinity", or whatever the trigger words are these days. Heck, I've even heard that some characters were written in such a way that you'd automatically labeled "part of the problem" if you don't like them.
Do I think the movie had issues? Of course I do. Are there characters I didn't like? Yes. Did I at least somewhat enjoy watching it? Also yes.
But do I think it was a terrible pile of garbage that everyone involved should be ashamed of and harassed endlessly over? Absolutely not.
But I now somehow feel awkward and uncomfortable actually expressing any criticism.
yeah, they present no actual evidence. This is literally the "Everyone I Disagree With Is A Russian Bot" mentality.
The Last Judi sucked ass. The box office reflected that only a little bit, because everyone had to see it for themselves. It had far fewer people seeing it multiple times, however.
The sales figures for the bluray (absolutely awful) reflect it.
The sales figures for the toys (absolutely awful) reflect it
The sales figures for Solo (absolutely awful) reflect it.
The sales figures for the Solo bluray (absolutely awful) reflect it.
If there's someone sewing discord in America it's people like Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson. These shitlords actively attacked fans and customers. They continue to double down on alienating the people who give them money when it doesn't work. Oh, the movie did poorly because we didn't listen to the fans and their concerns? Time to call our fans racist, sexist, etc. Time to say "the Force is female" and literally say we don't need male fans. Time to insult people for not "getting" that the new animated show (at a 10PM time slot) is shallow, bland shit because it's for kids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Disney doesn't understand Star Wars. They got a freebie with The Force Awakens because people wanted new Star Wars. They got a crappy ripoff of the original with major plot holes (who the fuck is making this map and why does R2 have a missing piece of it and if you have a portion of some map/tracking data why not just start searching in in the blank areas?). Adam Driver is a bad actor. Emo Darth Vader is a terrible character. Daisy Ridley is a plank of wood. Rey isn't a terrible character, but that's only because she isn't even a character. She's a foil, at best. A fucking Milhouse.
I won't see Episode IX in the theater. I'll wait for Redbox.
Yes, they are.
Now, define "they".
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I thought it was pretty darn clear from TFS. I suppose our ruling class does it too now that you mention it.
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I agree with sexconker.
This is a blatant case of "Russian bot delusion".
Twitter found less than 50 identifiable "Russian bot" accounts out of 200 million. And then it suspended a couple of million people for supposedly being "bots".
That alone should tell you that the Russian bot thing is nothing but BS conspiracy theory.
I should have clarified to start.
Being a "Russian bot" today is kind of like being a "literal Nazi" or a "racist".
You're not one, but you disagree with the Left.
Their attempts to label everyone they don't like under a few hateful labels gives away their agenda.
This is cute... first off $437 is more then enough to live on, if you don't live in a hyper inflated country (Russia actually pays it's debts), Second gays aren't killed in Russia by the state, read the Russian laws, it doesn't say anywhere at all gays must be killed, it says it no where... so a group of people might be doing it... hows the KKK doing? Oh wait we won't go there...
As far as I'm concerned, the cheap shots at Russia need to stop, we been on the look out for Russians since the 60's always with the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming, why doesn't the west be a grownup for once and stop blaming everything on everyone else? The West spends more money on war then on the walfare of its own citizens and for some reason when shit hits the fan, it's always the Russians.... seriously grow up, Starwars bombed because it was a shitty movie full of SJW bs, Hell even PETA got in on this movie. Here is a hint to all the clueless idiots out there... If you force your believes on everyone else their will be resistance, there always is, If I don't like something, do you really think I am going to pay money to see it? If I see something and I don't like it, do you really think I won't review it? You people need to open your eyes up and realize it's okay not to like something, its okay to disagree and have your own opinion. Stop attempting to ram SJW nonsense down everyones throat. Thats why people didn't like the movie, it wasn't because gravitys pull was the strongest that day, it wasn't the Russians, it wasn't the some magical event, the movie was shit, pure and simple.
No Russian Trolls
I notice you didn't throw specific criticism at Rogue One. I agree with you that Disney doesn't understand Star Wars, but I liked Rogue One anyway. It almost felt like Disney accidentally made a good one.
You kind of missed the bit where Russians are on average more into science fiction than Americans and thus proportionally would have been more put off by crap science fiction but of course if you are Russian and you hate something, express your opinion online you are a troll and of course if you are Russian and you like something, express your opinion online you are a troll and if you are Russian and you are indifferent to something and express your opinion online you are a troll.
To put it simply https://www.rbth.com/news/2015... and thus will use English language websites and they all are trolls, this is called rampant prejudice as is typical coming out of a very racist and prejudiced US, which is now also hugely sexually conflicted across multiple genders, I am going with Bunjil as my gender https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., in preparation for more SJW bullshit coming out of the US, that or other ;D.
American main stream media, please fuck off with your racism and prejudice, one thing I have noticed, it is funny in American media for white men to be raped in prison but not funny anywhere for women of any kind to be raped, why is that?!?
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
in this case, the trolls have it right.
Hear, hear!
I remember when I though Jar-jar was as bad as any SW character would ever get. Hell, I thought Disney would FIX things.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
the alt-right movement is just a bunch of guys who can't find good jobs and, as a result, women.
I odn't think it's as strongly causal as that. They're obnoxious and entitled which makes it a problem to find partners or jobs. Getting a job wouldn't make them magically couple up.
SJW n. One who posts facts.