Interdisciplinary Studies in Media and Culture

Citizens’ Cognitive Security in the Age of Computational Propaganda: Linking Algorithmic Media, Cognitive Bias, and Political Trust

Articles in Press

Document Type : .

Author

amin kooshki

Faculty member, Political Science Department, Hakim Sabzevari University

10.30465/ismc.2026.54899.3064
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between algorithmic media, computational propaganda, cognitive processing, political trust, and citizens’ cognitive security. In this article, algorithmic media refers to social and news platforms based on content ranking, recommendation, and personalization. Computational propaganda denotes the organized use of algorithms, data, and automated agents to shape or disrupt the information environment, while fake news and deepfakes are treated as forms of manipulated content. The study uses an integrative literature review based on a structured search and conceptual synthesis. The findings indicate that platform ranking and manipulated content do not produce uniform political effects by themselves. Rather, in interaction with prior beliefs, identity, emotion, cognitive biases, institutional performance, and lived experience, they may be associated with changes in political trust, affective polarization, and the perception of reality. Cognitive security is defined as the individual and collective capacity to preserve perceptual independence, critically assess evidence, regulate emotional responses, and sustain reality-based public dialogue. The study concludes that the relationship between media use, political trust, and cognitive security is neither linear nor deterministic; it is context-dependent and shaped by feedback processes.

Keywords

Cognitive security
algorithmic media
computational propaganda
political trust
deepfakes
Subjects
Interdisciplinary Studies in Media and Culture

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 07 October 2026

  • Receive Date 19 June 2026
  • Revise Date 07 October 2026
  • Accept Date 07 October 2026
  • Publish Date 07 October 2026

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