Monetizing disinformation in the attention economy: The case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

The ubiquity of social media has created both opportunities and challenges for businesses and societies. For product brands, ideas, or campaigns to gain traction on social media platforms, they need to capture attention. This is often accomplished by creating and disseminating compelling information, even disinformation, on these platforms. Strategies that drive this attention economy are often not obvious. The monetization of disinformation is explored here through a case study on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the analysis of a dataset of 94,993 unique online articles. When combined these methods allow for the evaluation and exploration of various tactics that contribute to the evolving GMO narrative and their potential application to other topics. Preliminary results suggest that a small group of alternative health and pro-conspiracy sites received more total engagements on social media than sites commonly regarded as media outlets on the topic of GMOs. Other externalities observed include continued social and political controversy that surround the GMO topic as well as the growth of additional product and marketing approaches such as “non-GMO” verification.