Tracing Information Flows in the Hybrid Media System: The Agenda-Setting Role of Dark Platforms Surrounding the Ukraine Invasion Discourse

Mónika Simon, Savvas Zannettou, Kasper Welbers, Anne C. Kroon, Damian Trilling

Abstract


The influence of dark platforms on public debate remains understudied. Using a unique multiplatform corpus of news articles, posts from four news-related subreddits, tweets from politicians, and posts from 4chan/pol (N = 1,545,813), we leveraged neural topic modeling and advanced overtime analyses to study discursive information flows dynamically. Focusing on the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our results showed limited discursive information flows from the dark platform agenda to other agendas. However, the most influential topics on the dark platform agenda were significantly more toxic than those on other agendas. Our approach effectively uncovers the nuanced dynamics of discursive information flows across various platforms, deepening our understanding of the complex interplay between different agendas in shaping public debate in the contemporary media system.


Keywords


discursive information flows, agenda setting, dark platforms, topic modeling

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