Trading up the chain is a marketing and propaganda tactic of deliberately inducing

circular reporting Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistaken ...

, by seeding a message or claim in a less-credible medium, with the intent of it being quoted and repeated by publications (or people) who appeal to a wider audience. Those more-authoritative sources are then cited, to build up the message's credibility and publicize it further. Trading up the chain can be a tactic for

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

and media manipulation. The term was publicized by the author and marketer

Ryan Holiday Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, modern Stoic, public-relations strategist, owner of the Painted Porch Bookshop and host of the podcast ''The Daily Stoic.'' Prior to becoming an author, he served as the former director of ...

, who described its use in

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

References

{{Media manipulation Disinformation Internet manipulation and propaganda Marketing strategy News media manipulation Publicity

See also

References