Investigating Disinformation Through the Lens of Mass Media: A System Design

Abstract

Mass media is a medium of communication with a significant impact on public opinion and perception of issues of global significance. This study is centered around developing a software system to detect and analyze disinformation efforts through mass media outlets and predict shifts in public opinion or reveal active campaigns. The developed system uses a multistep process to analyze and reveal anti-American sentiment in any country of interest, particularly US allies. We used Turkey as a use case to test our system. Turkey is an important country because it holds a critical role within NATO as a US ally and has recently had significant shifts in anti-American views. We collected mass media articles from various Turkish media outlets. The articles were translated to English and stored in the system database. Roughly 3,500 articles are being published and added to the database each month. Using this system, we were able to conduct both exploratory and targeted analyses. For instance, an Iranian disseminated Turkish language newspaper was found to have the most negative Anti-American sentiment. Additionally, we retrieved and analyzed news articles related to Turkey's S-400 missile purchase from Russia, proving our system has significant potential.