METHOD & SOURCES
A narrative investigation grounded in professional field experience, cross-checked evidence and a chapter-by-chapter source trail.
The reader’s note describes an approach combining investigative journalism, academic research and narrative writing. Field experience and attention to testimony are joined with cross-checking sources, verifiable data and contrasting perspectives.
Institutional reports and research studies; peer-reviewed academic articles; and in-depth journalistic investigations. The book names organisations including Graphika, the Stanford Internet Observatory, CIPESA, the Institute for Security Studies, Africa Check and Reporters Without Borders.
The authors explain that quotations attributed to experts, journalists and field actors mainly come from documented public statements listed in the sources. The book should not be read as a newly conducted, systematically sampled interview survey.
To preserve the narrative flow, references are grouped at the end rather than presented as conventional footnotes throughout. The chapter references begin on printed page 81; the thematic bibliography begins on page 107.
Influence operations are deliberately opaque. Encrypted messaging cannot be observed systematically, and accounts from people producing disinformation are scarce or incomplete. Quantitative data may be contested. The book does not claim exhaustive coverage.
Based on the reader’s note, printed pp. ix–xi, free to read.