Faking The News | Final Assignment Questionnaire
Metadata
Your name / major / year:
Mohammad Hafiyyandi (Hafi) / ITP / Year 1
Project working title:
The First Indonesian Multi-Millionaire in China
Tweet-length project description:
An experiment examining how majority Moslem-Indonesians project their hopes & insecurities toward their own ethnic group and the Chinese-Indonesian ethnic.
Paragraph-length project description:
The experiment starts with disseminating a fake feel-good story about “the first Indonesian Multi-Millionaire in China” on Facebook, Whatsapp, and LINE. There are 2 versions of the story linked from the FB post / chain message, in which the ethnicity of the person-of-interest differs: one version Chinese-Indonesian, the other Moslem-Indonesian. The experiment examines reaction of Moslem-Indonesians (segmented according location, demographic, and psychographic) towards success story of a Chinese-Indonesian & Moslem-Indonesian. There are 2 measures: page impression & engagements (quantitative), and sentiments in the comments (qualitative).
The experiment also explores how platforms like Facebook & peer-to-peer messaging apps are used to distribute news and reinforce ethnic identities.
Concept
What basic reality does your project reflect?
Moslem-Indonesians get easily triggered by news and stories relating to their dominance in the cultural & economic sphere, especially when China / Chinese-Indonesians are involved.
There was an exodus of Chinese-Indonesian in around 1959 & 1965 due to political instability and violent actions towards the ethnic group.
What basic reality does your project mask or pervert?
That China produces millionaire at the fastest rate in the world.
Does your project mask the absence of a basic reality?
That there is no “first Indonesian multi-millionaire in China”.
Does your project bear relation to any reality whatsoever?
I am going to take cues from news stories of Li Ka Shing, a real billionaire in Hong Kong (he fled mainland China and became a property magnate in Hong Kong).
Intent
Tools used, with justification
02 x Fake News Site
Landing page of the story. This is where visitor will get directed to the different version of the story. Uses Wordpress (build), PHP (basic redirecting logic), Google Analytics (impression tracking).
Domain & look of the site should mimic (1) mainstream news site, and (2) right-wing conservative news site.
Facebook Post / Album
Indonesians love to share albums or statuses about personal anecdotes / feel good personal stories. Uses Photoshop to create fake photos of the story’s protagonist in various settings (e.g. meeting Jack Ma, in TV show). Link to fake news site.
Facebook Ads
Hyper-targeting via Facebook Ad platform, segmentation according to location, psychographic, and demographic as groups-of-interest.
Facebook 60s Video
Short videos perform well with Indonesian audience. Uses Photoshop & After Effects. Link to fake news site in the caption.
WhatsApp / LINE
Anecdotal message with short-form-link (e.g. bit.ly) to the fake news site
Data collection and measurement (if appropriate)
Page views of news site
Comments & shares on news site
Comments & shares on Facebook post
Comments & shares on Facebook video
Click throughs from short link on messenger platforms.
Quick sentiment analysis on comment section.
Ethical risks and mitigation
Risks
Appropriating stories of a real person, disseminating fake stories, experimenting on sensitive issues that involve real communities.
Mitigation
Disclaimer on the landing site.
Legal risks and mitigation
Indonesia has just started policing hoaxes (it’s in the law), but active policing is only on high-stake, inflammatory political hoaxes.
Mitigation
Don’t touch politics in the story at all. Should not seed the story into other publisher page.
Justification
Why are you interested/excited/compelled to pursue this project?
Religiously & politically motivated protests and violent raids are prevalent in Indonesia. I am interested in examining how ethnicity plays important role in the dynamics as well. My hypothesis is that race and ethnicity are, in some cases, more important and triggering than religious identities.
Links
Initial ideation
Project questionnaire
Project URL (direct/source/other)
To be updated
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