Good News, Bad News: A Sentiment Analysis of the 2016 Election Russian Facebook Ads

Authors

  • German Alvarez University of Texas at Austin, Technology & Information Policy Institute
  • Jaewon Choi University of Texas at Austin, Technology & Information Policy Institute
  • Sharon Strover University of Texas at Austin

Keywords:

Facebook, disinformation, Russian propaganda, emotional appeal

Abstract

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the notion of “fake news” and Russian election interference became somewhat interchangeable. We argue that “fake news” insufficiently describes the Russian disinformation campaign. Our analysis of Facebook ad texts shows that they incorporate emotional appeals differently at unique moments in the political campaign of 2016. We use sentiment analysis to demonstrate the use of positive and negative emotional messages. Sentiment ratings dipped to more negative scores before the November 2016 election and rose to new positive heights after the election. This provides some evidence that the varying uses of positive sentiment and negative sentiment may have been strategic.

Author Biographies

German Alvarez, University of Texas at Austin, Technology & Information Policy Institute

Post Doctoral Fellow, 512-471-4071

Jaewon Choi, University of Texas at Austin, Technology & Information Policy Institute

Doctoral student

Sharon Strover, University of Texas at Austin

Philip G. Warner Regents Professor of Communication, 512-471-6652

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Published

2020-05-27

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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