Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know

by Kathleen Hall Jamieson Narrated by Emily Durante

Overview

The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over his presidency. In particular, were the 78,000 voters who gave him an Electoral College victory affected by the Russian trolls and hackers? Trump has denied it. So too has Vladimir Putin. Others cast the answer as unknowable.



Drawing on path-breaking work in which she and her colleagues isolated significant communication effects in the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, the eminent political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used the hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects research to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States.



In the process, Cyberwar tackles questions that include: How extensive was the troll messaging? What characteristics of the social media platforms did the Russians exploit? Why did the mainstream press rush the hacked content into the citizenry's newsfeeds? Was Clinton telling the truth when she alleged that the debate moderators distorted what she said in the leaked speeches? Did the Russian influence extend beyond social media and news to alter the behavior of FBI director James Comey?

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyberattacks by hackers and trolls were decisive." - Jane Mayer, The New Yorker

"In her breakthrough new book Cyberwar, Kathleen Hall Jamieson applies her legendary skills to a forensic examination of the Russian hackers, trolls and bots who reshaped American public opinion through social media platforms, using data analytics to achieve maximum impact. Her masterful study provides a compelling answer to the question of whether Russia likely helped elect an American President." -- Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, MSNBC Anchor

"Kathleen Hall Jamieson has performed a great service not just for politicians, journalists and curious citizens, but most important, for American democracy, by taking a scholar's approach to answering one of the most urgent and gnawing questions of our time: how did Russia try to influence the U.S. elections of 2016 and how much difference did that make? This is a must read for everyone who cares about the future of the American electoral system." -- Judy Woodruff, Anchor and Managing Editor, The PBS NewsHour

"Kathleen Hall Jamieson mounts a strong challenge to the conventional wisdom that the Russia interference in the 2016 presidential race did not affect the outcome. Drawing on her expertise in presidential elections and how messages are received, she shows how the hacked emails influenced the media's focus and traces the powerful synergies between what the trolls were saying and what voters were ready to believe. It is hard to imagine a better application of careful scholarship to a central question for our country and deserves a wide readership." -- Robert Jervis, Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics, Columbia University

"Offers a detailed and compelling case" -- The Washington Post

"Jamieson's illuminating, timely Cyberwar is a major step forward in trying to understand the 'new' media order -- and how open this digital landscape is to malicious exploitation." -- Nature

"Necessary reading for those interested in the democratic process and its enemies." -- Kirkus

"In her breakthrough new book Cyberwar, Kathleen Hall Jamieson applies her legendary skills to a forensic examination of the Russian hackers, trolls and bots who reshaped American public opinion through social media platforms, using data analytics to achieve maximum impact. Her masterful study provides a compelling answer to the question of whether Russia likely helped elect an American Presiden

"Jamieson's expertise in US political communications allows her to unfold what issues were raised, made important, gained traction, and mattered in the back and forth between candidate messaging, media coverage, and voter engagement. Her very title announces the severity and malign intention of the activities she describes." --Katherine Voyles, Public Books

Kirkus Reviews

2018-09-24

Of partisans, trolls, and spooks: a stern dissection of the 2016 election.

Exactly who planned and executed the Russian hacking of the 2016 election is not yet wholly known outside cybercrime circles, but it's clear that the beneficiary was Donald Trump. As Jamieson (Chair, Annenberg Public Policy Center/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Electing the President, 2012: The Insiders' View, 2013, etc.) writes, if you were to war-game out that cybercrime, you'd wind up with numerous scenarios. Only one is truly negative to the Russians: "The cyberattackers are unmasked by a vigilant intelligence community, condemned by those in both major political parties…the Russian messaging…blocked or labeled a Russian propaganda," sanctions put in place, and so on. That did not happen. Characterizing the hacking not as "interference" or "meddling" but as an act of cyberwar demanding proportional response, Jamieson surveys the damage: Millions of Americans swallowed Russian-generated lies and went at each other even as the "electoral systems of twenty-one states by one count and thirty-nine by another were hacked." Allowing that it wasn't Russians but American voters (and the Electoral College) who put Trump in office, the author performs an after-battle analysis of the "social disruption," with hackers hooking former FBI Director James Comey into reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and even gaming the presidential debates. Jamieson is clear on why the Russians would have targeted Clinton; she is just as clear that the "legacy media" failed in their task and swallowed narrative lines whole—attributing misinformation to WikiLeaks, for one, and not "St. Petersburg," bypassing any discussion of Russian involvement until well after the fact. Chalking up the knowns and unknowns, the author concludes that by commission on one hand and omission on the other, both of the leading nominees "increased our collective vulnerability to Russian machinations in very different ways"—machinations, she adds, that aren't likely to stop.

There's no good news in this book, which both admonishes and forewarns. Somber but necessary reading for those interested in the democratic process and its enemies.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170069477
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	11/20/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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