Synthetic Messenger

Every day Synthetic Messenger searches the internet for news articles covering climate change, then 100 bots visit each article and click on every ad they can find. In an algorithmic media landscape, the value of news is determined by engagement statistics. Media outlets rely on advertising revenue earned through page visits and ad clicks, and these engagement signals produce patterns of value that influence what stories and topics get future coverage. Public narratives about climate change are shaped by these interwoven algorithmic and economic logics, logics that are presently leveraged by the fossil fuel industry. Synthetic Messenger is a climate engineering scheme to manipulate the algorithmic systems that shape these narratives. What if media itself were seen as a form of climate engineering, a space where narrative becomes ecology?