Creating the impression of public support by paying people in the public to pretend to be supportive.
The false support can take the form of letters to the editor, postings on message boards in response to criticism, and writing to politicians in support of the cause.
Astroturfing is the opposite of "grassroots", genuine public support of an issue.
Mike, admit you just got caught astroturfing. You're just pimping your own blog.
Microsoft didn't have grassroots support, so they created astroturf support.
Pretending to be a grassroots movement, when in reality the agenda and strategy are controlled by a hidden, non-grassroots organization. In this manner, a faux show is presented, consisting of robotic individuals pretending to be voicing their own opinions.
Political term that means pseudo-equal rights group or artifcial equal rights group. This groups or organizations tend to call them selves a organization that supports freedom and equality; however that is nothing more a backdrop for a biased unequal agenda.
Groups like Accuracy In Academia and Students for Academic Freedom are good exaples of Astroturf Groups. They put on the identity of being a organization that supports equality, but actually are trying to advance a political bias
v. The technique of using boiler plate text to advance a political agenda. "Astroturfing" is typically done by sending the same letter to every newspaper one can find. A certain number of newspapers will be duped into thinking that the letter is original and heartfelt when it is neither.
Many newspapers were astroturfed with the pro-Bush letters posted at the pResident's web site. Many newspapers were convinced that a number of soldiers worship Bush as the Messiahincarnate.