Purpose: Turn slogans into trades. If you can’t write the ledger, you can’t change the ledger.
Output format: Assessment → Confidence (low/med/high) → Next action
[screen 1]
TTF in One Line
Who gives what to get what, and how.
That’s the Transaction Framing Tool. Four columns. Every disinformation ecosystem can be mapped this way.
If you can’t fill in all four columns, you’re still operating in ideology space, not mechanism space.
[screen 2]
The Columns (Fixed)
Who | Gives | Gets | How
These columns are non-negotiable.
If “How” is missing, you’ve got ideology, not a mechanism. “They spread disinfo because they’re evil” isn’t analysis. “They spread disinfo via affiliate links that pay per click” is.
The mechanism is where intervention becomes possible.
[screen 3]
“Gives” Must Hurt a Little
The “Gives” column must represent real costs:
- Time invested
- Cash spent
- Access granted
- Legitimacy risked
- Political cover provided
If “Gives” is empty or costless, you’ve written a fantasy, not a transaction.
People don’t participate for free. Find the cost they’re paying.
[screen 4]
“Gets” Must Be Observable
The “Gets” column needs measurable outcomes:
- “Avoided backfire” (measurable through absence of consequence)
- “Reduced reach” (engagement metrics)
- “Less monetization” (revenue data)
- “Faster triage” (response times)
Not acceptable:
- “Awareness”
- “Influence”
- “Impact”
These are vague. Make them concrete or admit you don’t know.
[screen 5]
Every Row Is an Assumption
Each row in your ledger represents a hypothesis about how the system works.
Rows look permanent until someone properly prices the spillover. Markets shift. Regulations change. Platforms update policies.
Your ledger is a snapshot, not a permanent truth. Update it when conditions change.
[screen 6]
Self Rows Exist
Don’t forget internal costs:
- Moderation labor (platform pays)
- Compliance overhead (companies pay)
- Incident response (organizations pay)
- Mental health costs (individuals pay)
These are real transactions, even when money doesn’t change hands.
Someone always pays. Usually the wrong somebody.
[screen 7]
The Bottom Line
Every TTF analysis ends the same way:
State who extracts value and why it persists. Plainly. No euphemisms.
Examples:
- “Platform extracts engagement value while externalizing moderation costs to NGOs and mental health costs to users.”
- “Influencer extracts audience trust and converts to affiliate revenue; followers pay with money and occasionally health.”
- “State actor extracts polarization value; democratic society pays with reduced social cohesion.”
If you can’t write this sentence, you haven’t finished the analysis.
[screen 8]
DIM Application
The TTF tells you which intervention space you’re in:
Belief space (Gen 2/3):
- Transaction involves persuasion
- People give attention, get worldview validation
- Intervention: counter-messaging, prebunking
Reach space (Gen 4):
- Transaction involves amplification
- People give engagement, get visibility
- Intervention: reduce distribution, platform action
Identity-group space (Gen 5):
- Transaction involves belonging
- People give conformity, get community membership
- Intervention: alternative communities, resilience building
The ledger reveals which generation of response fits.
[screen 9]
Practical Exercise
Task (20 minutes):
Build a 10-row TTF for a health misinformation ecosystem involving:
- Platform
- Content creator
- Audience (believers)
- Audience (skeptics who engage)
- Advertiser
- Fact-check organization
- Government communications agency
- Search engine
- News media covering the story
- Researcher studying it
For each row: Who | Gives | Gets | How
Mark 2 rows as “spillover” (externalized costs). Add 1 “internalisation” row (who could absorb currently externalized cost). Write the bottom line.
[screen 10]
Sample Partial TTF
| Who | Gives | Gets | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | Server space, algorithm reach | Engagement time, ad revenue | Recommendation system |
| Creator | Time, content production | Followers, ad revenue, donations | Posting, consistency |
| Believer | Attention, sharing | Validation, community | Engagement, identity |
| Advertiser | Money | Impressions | Programmatic ads (often unaware of content) |
| Fact-checker | Labor, credibility | Grants, reputation | Debunking content |
Spillover row: Platform externalizes moderation cost to fact-checkers (Fact-checker gives labor, Platform gets cleaned ecosystem without paying).
Internalisation row: Platform could pay for moderation directly via content review staff + financial liability for harms.
Bottom line: Platform extracts engagement value while distributing costs to users (health), fact-checkers (labor), and health system (treating preventable conditions). Persistence because externalities aren’t priced into platform’s revenue model.
[screen 11]
Common Errors
Error 1: Vague “Gets”
- “Gets influence” — influence on what? measurable how?
Error 2: Missing “How”
- “They spread lies” — through what mechanism? what enables it?
Error 3: Ignoring spillovers
- Only mapping direct transactions, missing who pays hidden costs
Error 4: Moralizing instead of mapping
- “They do it because they’re bad” — not a transaction analysis
[screen 12]
Why This Matters
Most disinformation interventions fail because they target symptoms (the beliefs) instead of causes (the incentives).
The TTF forces you to see the market structure. Once you see it, you can:
- Identify leverage points
- Design interventions that change incentives
- Predict how actors will adapt
- Measure success by transaction disruption, not belief change
This is how you move from “educate harder” to “change the market.”
[screen 13]
Module Assessment
Scenario: A conspiracy theory about 5G and health harms spreads across multiple platforms. Various actors are involved: content creators, platforms, telecom companies (who might benefit from delay), health authorities (trying to respond), media outlets (covering the controversy), and concerned citizens (sharing content).
Task (15 minutes):
- Build a 6-row TTF covering key actors
- Identify the row where value extraction is highest
- Identify the row where spillover cost is highest
- Propose one internalisation mechanism
- Write the bottom line
- Assessment + Confidence + Next action for intervention
Scoring:
- Penalize vague Gets/Gives
- Credit observable mechanisms
- Reward spillover identification
[screen 14]
Key Takeaways
- TTF = Who gives what to get what, and how
- “How” is mandatory — without mechanism, you have ideology not analysis
- “Gives” must cost something; “Gets” must be observable
- Every row is an assumption — update when conditions change
- Someone always pays; usually the wrong somebody
- Bottom line must state who extracts value and why it persists
- TTF reveals which DIM generation fits the intervention space
Write the ledger. Change the ledger.
Next Module
Continue to: Platforms as Auction Houses — Stop calling platforms “public squares.” They’re auction systems for visibility.