Manipulative Narratives in Socio-Political Social Media: Patterns of Dissemination and Audience Reception

Abstract

This article examines manipulative narratives in socio-political social media with a primary focus on the Ukrainian context and a comparative reference to Western research. A manipulative narrative is defined as a recurrent interpretive scenario that simplifies reality, distributes the roles of victim, culprit, and savior, intensifies emotions, and guides audiences toward predetermined political conclusions or behavioral responses. The theoretical framework integrates research on strategic narratives, discourse manipulation, priming, misinformation psychology, media trust, and platform amplification. Special attention is paid to the works of scholars affiliated with the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, whose studies make it possible to connect motivation, cognitive activation, media trust, and contemporary manipulative techniques within one socio-communication perspective. Methodologically, the article combines analytical literature review, comparative analysis, platform analysis, and qualitative case study. The empirical focus includes recent Ukrainian cases circulating through Telegram, TikTok, Meta, and cross-platform networks: the narratives about “U.S. biolabs in Ukraine,” “Bucha as a staged event,” “black transplantology,” and delegitimizing videos about mobilization amplified through synthetic and decontextualized content. The study demonstrates that manipulative narratives are not limited to outright falsehoods. They can be built from true fragments rearranged through false causality, selective emphasis, pseudo-expertise, moral panic, visual proof, and emotional framing. Their dissemination is accelerated by engagement-oriented algorithms, social endorsement metrics, anonymous channels, coordinated amplification, short-video formats, and cross-platform migration. Audience reception is shaped by repetition effects, familiarity, identity filters, priming, emotional arousal, unequal levels of media literacy, and varying degrees of trust in institutions and media. It is concluded that the Ukrainian case is not peripheral to Western theory but a crucial field for its verification and development, especially under war conditions. Effective counteraction requires not only post hoc fact-checking but also prebunking, transparent sourcing, visual verification, researcher access to platform data, and platform-specific media literacy strategies.