Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President—What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know

There are countless reasons to be concerned about the 2016 election of Donald Trump, including his sexism, racism, xenophobia, ableism, campaign team of crooks and cronies, lack of experience in political office, and experience in running six businesses to bankruptcy. We have clear evidence that Trump has disrespected women, mocked disabled people, championed racist and xenophobic policies, and run several businesses into the ground with billions of dollars of debt, all whilst never having served the public in office and being surrounded by ne’er-do-wells with a penchant for criminal activity. Yet one of the most controversial aspects of Trump’s election—the influence of Russia—is one for which evidence has remained patchy, unclear, and inconclusive. Until now. Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President provides a much-needed, nuanced, yet detailed and comprehensive insight into Russian influence throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Jamieson’s book set out to explore whether the 78,000 voters who gave Trump an electoral college victory were influenced by Russian trolls and hackers. Her analysis is firmly grounded in a tapestry of communication theory, where priming, framing, agenda setting, contagion, and micro-targeting are all introduced in a clear manner and then drawn upon throughout to elucidate the empirical analysis. Here, Jamieson’s forensic investigation of Russian troll messaging demonstrates how it was widespread, aligned with Trump’s interests, mobilized some voters (veterans and White Christians) and demobilized others (Black voters and Bernie Sanders’ supporters), and contained persuasive appeals that were effectively targeted. Jamieson also lays out how Russian hacking—specifically, the spread of Russian-hacked Democrat emails and documents by WikiLeaks—effected media coverage and presidential debates throughout the final month of the election campaign. Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President is invaluable, and almost overwhelming in how it draws together evidence and shows that actors associated with the Russian state were attempting to influence the 2016 U.S. election.