The Algorithm Will See You Now: Multimodal Propaganda and Chinese Cognitive Warfare
Abstract:
This study analyzes AI-generated propaganda videos produced by Chinese state-affiliated actors to examine how meaning is constructed through multimodal design. Using a social semiotic framework and multimodal qualitative content analysis, the research explores how visual, textual, and auditory modes interact to encode ideological messages. Findings reveal that these videos deploy strategic combinations of symbolic imagery, ambient sound design, and compositional framing to represent American institutions as morally bankrupt, militaristic, or culturally hollow. Rather than relying on explicit argumentation, the propaganda achieves persuasion through emotional tone, irony, and mythic symbolism—inviting viewers to adopt a critical or oppositional stance toward the United States. This aestheticized approach reflects a shift in Chinese cognitive warfare: from declarative messaging to immersive perception management. The study contributes to propaganda theory by mapping how intermodal coherence functions as rhetorical strategy and offers practical implications for information warfare professionals confronting an increasingly ambient and algorithmically distributed threat environment.
AUTHORS
Independent Researcher
Douglas S. Wilbur Ph.D., (University of Missouri at Columbia) specializes in the role of propaganda and information warfare in violent conflict and war. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In a previous life he was an Information Operations Officer in the U.S. Army with four deployments.
Published In
Journal of Information Warfare
The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.
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