The Great Awakening QAnon's Mobilization to Disinformation

Abstract

How did the movement attract such a large, politically diverse base during a notably politically divided era? The movement's message alone does not explain how QAnon gained such a popular following in a short period of time, nor does its strategy and repertoires. I argue that QAnon aggregated the support from existing movements while amassing millions more in a collage of disparate followers by taking advantage of a divisive political environment and quickly attracting attention through the exploitive use of social media technology.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 07, 2021
Accession Number
AD1178139

Entities

People

  • Jean R. Oliveras

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Birds
  • Disinformation Operations
  • Environment
  • Fake News
  • Governments
  • History
  • Information Operations
  • Internet
  • Law
  • Media
  • National Politics
  • New York
  • Political Ideologies
  • Political Science
  • Political Systems
  • Psychology
  • Recreation
  • Social Media
  • Social Psychology
  • United States
  • Video Games

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design