The impact of social media on influence engineering and crisis manipulation: Strategies for promoting truth

Purpose In a nutshell, the purpose of this research is to investigate how the social media contributes to the new concept of influence engineering and crisis manipulation, at the same time offering practical frameworks to alleviate the challenges of associated with misinformation and reinforce truth-oriented communication. Design/methodology/approach This research makes use of qualitative research design that is carefully guided by the interpretive research paradigm. This is because the study relies broadly on real-world application methods of content analysis in which concepts are carefully discussed to pass across an in-depth understanding of the subject matter being investigated with the aim of bringing new knowledge. Findings This study has closely examined the effect of social media on influence engineering and crisis manipulation, appraising the psychological and algorithmic instruments that allow such phenomena to fester, and finally recommends multidimensional approach to extenuating misinformation and encouraging the dissemination of truthful content. Originality/value This research provides a comprehensive contribution to the new concept of influence engineering and crisis-induced misinformation within the framework of social media. Extant literature has often treated misinformation as a broad phenomenon, this study centres on the deliberate and premeditated manipulation of crises as a fundamental mechanism for influencing public sentiment.