Were bots behind 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' bashing?
Top Talkers: A new study out of USC reveals half the negative tweets about 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' came from bots, trolls or activists.
Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is notoriously controversial as opinions about how it stacks up against other films in the franchise are split. However, a new academic study theorizes that the online vitriol about the movie may have been drummed up by none other than Russian trolls.
According to a paper titled “Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation,” researcher Morten Bay examined the online chatter about the 2017 film. His findings suggest that its negative reputation may have been influenced by organized Russian meddlers bent on influencing political matters in America.
“The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society,” Bay writes. “Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation.”
'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' may not have been as poorly-received as online trolls would have you think. (Lucasfilm via AP)
He asserts that more than half of the social media users who directly expressed their distaste for the movie to Johnson, for example, were trolls, bots or some variation of the two. Their hope was allegedly to propagate the discussion with “extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality.”
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Bay separates critics of “The Last Jedi” into three categories. The first are those with a political agenda, the second are run-of-the-mill trolls and the third are thought to be genuine “Star Wars” fans that took issue with “The Last Jedi” that Bay calls “fantagonists.”
Since its release, the film has been marred by negative press stemming from fans’ reaction on social media. Actress Kelly Marie Tran, for example, was trolled so badly by racist fans taking issue with her character and performance that she opted to quit social media.
Bay asserts that roughly 50.9 percent of those tweeting negatively about the movie were likely politically motivated or not even human beings. Another surprising finding from Bay’s research is that, despite the movie’s notorious reputation as a science fiction abomination, only 21.9 percent of tweets about the movie that were analyzed were negative in the first place.
To explain this discrepancy, Bay argues that the Trump-era that the movie came out in was a time when people’s attitude toward political discourse had been primed to run counter to the values expressed in “The Last Jedi.”
In response to the paper’s publication, Johnson took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the matter, noting that, while he doesn’t think this exonerated him for some of the film’s flaws, it’s on par with what he’s seen with fan interactions online.
“A bit of Morten’s research came out awhile ago and made some headlines - here’s his full paper. Looking forward to reading it, but what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online,” he wrote.
Johnson continued: “And just to be totally clear: this is not about fans liking or not liking the movies - I’ve had tons of great talks with great fans online and off who liked and disliked stuff, that’s what fandom is all about. This is specifically about a virulent strain of online harassment.”
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