Every modern american political campaign has an 'online action team' that will get flash alerts and talking points to help shape public perception of the news. Any news site will have people who are known partisans for points of view who are regularly involved and regurgitating the party line at every opportunity. We also have a huge contingent of people who promote commercial interests through social media. If you add up the shills, the various different formats of political astro-turfing and the subtle but universally understood sanctioning of some points of view as 'unserious'. I am not so sure that the Chinese are ahead of us in that game. We have a greater surface diversity of opinion, but those who step out of the bounds of the acceptable range of opinion are sanctioned in recognizable ways.
It is true that there exists an entire spin machine for every campaign or cause. And yes, pundits do work for the news organisations. Same goes for every major corporation in the world.
* gasp *
The key here is that we all know who they are, and know that they represent a particular view that they are pushing. It's all about transparency.
It isn't astroturfing unless you're pretending to be grassroots in the first place.
Confront any member of one of the online shouting societies and they will tell you they are speaking from deeply held personal beliefs, even if it's on an issue that they knew nothing about or held diametrically opposed views just a few hours before.
