---
title: Method (how to file)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/about/method/
description: This is the working method for hourly briefs and for campaign dossiers. Doctrine defines the object. This file defines the work.
section: About and doctrine
---

![Illustration: a split dossier collage contrasting a 1950s intelligence briefing room with an analog newsroom monitoring wall.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-then-and-now.jpg)

[About](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/)

# Method (how to file)

On this page

This is the working method for hourly briefs and for campaign dossiers. Doctrine defines the object. This file defines the work.

## Two objects

| Object | Path | Job |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Brief** | `briefs/YYYY/MM/DD/HHMMZ.json` | One cycle. Snapshot of a method in motion. |
| **Campaign** | `campaigns/<slug>.md` | Multi-cycle pattern. The dossier the atlas can mirror. |

A brief may point at a campaign via the optional `campaign` field. A campaign lists related brief ids. Do not duplicate the JSON into the markdown; the markdown is the long read.

## Two-column ledger (required mental step)

Before writing, split the case:

| Column A — facts that would survive a hostile lawyer | Column B — interpretation |
| --- | --- |
| Dates, names, filings, takedown counts, URLs | "this is propaganda because…" |

If Column A is thin, either mark `contested` / `medium` or write `status: "quiet"`. Never move B into A.

## Rotation (methods, not teams)

Read the last three briefs before choosing a case.

If the last two named the same bloc (US parties, US government/contractors, Russia, China, Iran, Qatar, Israel, NGOs, platforms, corporations, commercial networks), look at another. A streak is itself a card stack.

Scoring is actor-agnostic. If the Pentagon and a Kremlin contractor use the same buried-disclosure + newsroom-camouflage pattern, they get the same technique ids.

## Source rules

1. Never invent quotes, URLs, counts, or filings.
2. Prefer primary, dated sources: platform threat reports, FARA / court records, official notices, leaked documents published by named outlets, contemporaneous reporting that quotes those.
3. If you cannot open the URL, drop it.
4. Secondary roundups are pointers, not the load-bearing beam.
5. If evidence is thin, say so. Quiet is a valid product.

## Technique rules

- Use **only** ids in `taxonomy/techniques.json`.
- Two to five ids is usual. Pick the load-bearing ones.
- Do not mint a slug. If the method is real but unnamed, use the closest id and say so in analysis.
- Vectors are channels (X, FARA, WeChat deletion, LLM retrieval). They are not techniques.

## Confidence

| Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `documented` | Primary documents, court records, official disclosures, platform attributions with indicators |
| `high` | Multiple independent open sources, low disagreement about the facts |
| `medium` | Plausible, sourced, but attribution or interpretation still open |
| `contested` | The *facts* or the *frame* are actively disputed; say so in analysis |

## Analysis shape (active briefs)

350–700 words, in this order:

1. **What is sourced** — two to four sentences of Column A.
2. **Mechanism** — which techniques, how they combine, what the tells are.
3. **Why it is (or is not) propaganda** — origin, coordination, design goal. Actor-agnostic comparison.
4. **Literacy counter** — what a reader should do next time. Not "ban it."

Quiet briefs: a short watch log. Do not pad a nothing-burger into a case.

## Campaign dossiers

Write a campaign when a pattern has at least two independent open sources **and** either (a) multiple cycles or (b) durable infrastructure (sites, contractor chains, legal instruments).

Each dossier states: actor, target, techniques, color, first-seen, status, related briefs, mechanism, evidence, what would falsify the campaign read, literacy counter.

Campaigns are not indictments. They are durable maps.

## Hard refusals

- Do not generate propaganda or provide a playbook for running an operation.
- Do not modify taxonomy, schema, or doctrine from the hourly job. Those change only on an explicit maintainer pass.
- Do not "fix" a live brief by rewriting history. File a later brief that corrects it and link via `relatedBriefs`.