'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."

Comments

Re:BRACE FOR IMPACT

[Anonymous Coward]

It's in the summary.

"propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society"

Do you have any issues with the paper itself or is it just bad, because the summary (you didn't read) sounds "fishy" to you?

Re:BRACE FOR IMPACT

[Narcocide]

They're trying to polarize both like and dislike for the movie and then cause both camps to draw an assumption about the political affiliation of the other camp. They're doing this with every element of pop culture that people disagree on. Like the summary says, the overarching goal is primarily to foster the public perception of increased social dysfunction from within and without.

Re:Just do what I did: Don't go to see it

[Mike Van Pelt]

Rey is overpowered, definitely, but I didn't really have a huge problem with that. Kylo Ren is way overpowered, too, and way too deserving of the title "Darth Emo", though he was better in The Last Jedi.

That ridiculous Leia doing the Kryptonian sleep-flying back to the ship after getting explosively decompressed, modulo some blast damage from the weapons that tore the bridge apart... What were they thinking?

The utter stupidity of *dropping* bombs *in space*... *were* they thinking? Seems unlikely.

On the whole, I like the actors. But their performances were ill-served by the writing and directing. The whole thing was completely disjointed. It just felt sloppy, beyond the above stupidities. (None of which were the actors' fault.)

"But.... Russians!!" is the last refuge of the compleat idiot.

It's really just one thing

[rsilvergun]

they're trying to sow discord in American society in order to weaken us politically. That's it. Nothing else.

And you know what? It's working. Not that we needed very much, given how Balkanized we are, but it's like a vial of blood in a shark pool...

They're not

[rsilvergun]

the alt-right movement is just a bunch of guys who can't find good jobs and, as a result, women. It's not really a movement. It's what happens when you don't have enough decent paying work for men to have and raise families. Those men are being taken advantage of by what can only be called the American Aristocracy and a right wing propaganda machine. The goal is to talk them into supporting candidates who'll do the classic alt-right economics (trickle down economics, free trade, outsourcing, etc).

So far it's working. Donald Trump, who's essentially the lead for the movement, has staffed his admin with the same Goldman Sachs folks Obama, Bush Jr and Clinton did. Trump now supports all the provisions of the TPP (but he doesn't support "the" TPP) and he's busy deregulating Wall Street while giving them massive tax cuts (another $3.5 Trillion just passed the House while we were distracted by his SCOTUS nominee's scandals).

Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren are doing their best to reach out to them, but it's tough. There's a giant propaganda machine out to get them. Also the Dem's don't have Reagan's Eleventh Commandment so they eat their own (re: Al Franklin). Meanwhile the GOP is happy to give those angry guys any number of enemies to rail against (feminists, SJWs, basically "social" enemies that distract from economic issues). Not sure if Bernie & Liz are going to succeed, but they're definitely trying.

Re:Movie criticism has been tainted

[roc97007]

> 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.

Hm. It's almost like that was the intention.

Re:BRACE FOR IMPACT

[Tom]

Because our perception of social disfunction is caused by disagreement over a movie.

And not, say, a broken healthcare system, a broken pension system, corrupt and stupid politicians, the church abusing small kids and then covering it up, the media actively, openly and much more aggressively reinforcing the split of society into camps, the economy being plundered by banks and the super-rich or everyone with a buck to make denying or opposing climate change.

Or any of the other issues of the day that nobody, least those whose fucking job it is, taking care of.

Sure, of all the real issues that divide and threaten society, a paid army of trolls picks movie reviews as their choice weapon to destabilise western society.

Not true

[rsilvergun]

there is a small core of genuine populist Democrats. Bernie, Liz, Orcasio-Cortez and the "Justice" Democrats. Their defining feature is that they refuse all corporate donations (you can't serve two masters after all). Yeah, there's also a lot of Pelosi style "blue dogs" but even they've been forced towards populist ideas by an increasing number of primary challengers.

I don't know any equivalent on the Republican side; e.g. a movement in their party to stop taking corporate cash. Dems also support Net Neutrality, Single Payer health care, the "New New Deal" (e.g. infrastructure spending and a jobs guarantee), free college, etc. There's solid policy there and not just more "Lets cut taxes and see what happens, and by the way no Medicare for anyone under 55".

There _are_ differences between the parties. Substantial ones. And when it comes to a party that can potentially be bent to serve the will of the people the Dems are the best chance. For the reasons I stated above that's just objective fact.