The Life Cycle Method for Understanding Media Manipulation and Disinformation – The media manipulation life cycle (MMLC) forms the basis of the Casebook, giving a common framework for journalists, researchers, technologists, and members of civil society to understand the origins and impacts of disinformation and its relation to the wider information ecosystem. Situated in the emerging field of Critical Internet Studies, this research methodology combines social science and data science to create a new framework for studying sociotechnical systems and their vulnerabilities. Methods – The means for documenting case studies require a variety of methods that span quantitative analysis, content analysis, network mapping, and ethnographic studies. As such, a variety of indicators from different sources (e.g., commercial threat reporting, platform reporting, independent research, investigative journalism, public statements, website scraping) will be used to triangulate the findings. In addition, each case study will vary in the methods used to detect and document the operations, depending on the availability of evidence. Where original research and analysis was undertaken, source material will be presented and cited. For more information on the life cycle model, selection criteria, coding process, and research methods, please refer to our code book and our primer on investigative digital ethnography….”