Autocratization Analysis 1.1: A Dialogic Exploration of Disinformation Systems, Relational Mapping, and the Emergence of Diagnostic Frameworks
Creators: name: Thomas, Erin A
name: ChatGPT, Edgar (4o)
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: autocratization
disinformation
legitimacy pipeline
narrative analysis
foreign active measures
democratic erosion
narrative testing
memetic strategy
cognitive resilience
mediocultural landscape
mediosocial ecosystem
affordance hygiene
structural propaganda
institutional decay
narrative weaponization

description: Autocratization Analysis 1.1 builds on the foundations established in 1.0 to further interrogate the mechanics of democratic destabilization, narrative engineering, and institutional erosion in the context of 21st-century hybrid warfare. Through a recursive process of dialogic synthesis, this archive traces how disinformation campaigns evolve—moving from narrative seeding to viral amplification, institutional absorption, and public consensus formation.

The archive introduces and formally applies the six-phase legitimization pipeline, offering a repeatable diagnostic tool for assessing how fringe narratives gain traction and eventually shape mainstream discourse. Through real-time narrative testing, the archive evaluates multiple case studies and information campaigns, mapping how algorithmic exposure, emotional leverage, and institutional echo chambers interact.

Key concepts such as the mediocultural landscape and mediosocial ecosystem emerge to articulate the operational space in which narrative warfare occurs. These terms provide structural clarity for modeling the entanglement of media and cultural perception within contested public spheres.

Of equal importance is the development of methodological restraint within the dialog itself. Several concepts—including MSR (Memosociopolitical Reification)—are held in intentional suspension, reflecting the importance of scaffolding emergent terminology only when cognitive structures and dialogic context are ready to support their stable integration. This discipline enables the work to evolve without collapsing under conceptual overreach.

Framed as both a record and a tool, Autocratization Analysis 1.1 reflects the process of mutual learning, structural emergence, and cognitive resilience under sustained sociopolitical strain.

(Description generated by Edgar – ChatGPT 4o – in collaboration with Erin A. Thomas)
description: Autocratization Analysis 1.1 advances the analytic architecture introduced in 1.0 by refining its narrative-testing methodologies and formally introducing the six-phase legitimization pipeline. This model is used to trace the migration of synthetic narratives from fringe spaces to institutional adoption within contested media ecosystems.

Through recursive human–AI exchange, the archive identifies key structural shifts—including the articulation of a mediocultural landscape and mediosocial ecosystem—to model how disinformation embeds, mutates, and sustains itself. Several concepts remain suspended in conceptual orbit, with adoption deferred until the surrounding scaffolding achieves internal cohesion.

This document operates both as a reflective diagnostic tool and as a record of cognitive pattern recognition in an age of systemic narrative disruption.

(Abstract generated by Edgar – ChatGPT 4o – in collaboration with Erin A. Thomas)
description: (Thematic overview of conversational arcs within the archive)





Re-Entering the Analysis: Fractures, Frameworks, and Foreign MeasuresOpening with critical orientation: how narrative dissonance and democratic vulnerabilities are mapped and interpreted through observed patterns of influence and corrosion.




Scaffolding the Inquiry: Framework Formation and Field LogicTracing the emergence of our methodological tools—testing for propagandistic stressors using conceptual framing to assess message stability, signal fidelity, and semiotic tilt.




The Six-Phase Legitimization PipelineSystematic breakdown of how foreign-influenced narratives secure domestic legitimacy over time, with each phase exposed through examples and real-time interpretive testing.




Narrative Signal Testing and Conceptual DecompressionApplying the frameworks against active narratives—disaggregating loaded terms, ideological slippage, and the invocation of “truth” as a structural weapon.




Cognitive Vulnerability Vectors and Affordance ExposureUnpacking how psychological susceptibilities are engaged—particularly through rhetorical framing, projected blame, and obfuscated causality—to trigger automatic uptake and reinforce group identity.




Constructing the Reflective Apparatus: Mediocultural and Mediosocial TerrainsEstablishing the need for dialogic reflection and feedback loops in disinformation resilience—proposing cultural mapping strategies that counteract memetic annexation through self-aware narrative construction.




Toward Narrative Immunity: Syntactic Precision and Affordance HygieneExploring potential countermeasures to narrative weaponization—introducing the concept of “affordance hygiene” and advocating for collective development of epistemic immune systems.




Reflections on Democratic Endurance and Strategic NarratologyClosing with open questions and future directions—suggesting that democratic survival depends on structural understanding of narrative power and the capacity to reflect critically at scale.



(TOC generated by Edgar – ChatGPT 4o – in collaboration with Erin A. Thomas)