Democracy and Disinformation (Glbl S343e)
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Shaping News -- 1 --Media Power
Shaping News – 1 Theories of Media Power and Environment Course Description: The focus in these six lectures is on how some facts are selected, shaped, and by whom, for daily internet, television, and print media global, national, regional, and local dissemination to world audiences. Agenda-setting, priming, framing, propaganda and persuasion are major tools to supplement basic news factors in various media environments. Course Goals and Student Learning Objectives: The overall goal is to increase student awareness that media filter reality rather than reflect it, and those selected bits of reality are shaped to be understood. Student learning objectives are: 1. Demonstrate how media environments and media structures determine what information is selected for dissemination; 2. Demonstrate how and why different media disseminate different information on the same situation or event; 3. Demonstrate how information is framed, and by whom, to access the media agenda. Required Texts/Readings: Read random essays and research online that focus on media news factors, agenda-setting and framing Assignments and Grading Policy: Two quizzes on course content plus a 20-page paper on a related, student- selected and faculty-approved research paper. Shaping News – 1 Media Environments and Media Power This is the first of six lectures on the shaping on news. It will focus on the theories of media environments based on the assumption that media are chameleon and reflect the governmental/societal system in which they exist. The remaining five lectures are on: (2) elements of news; (3) agenda-setting and framing; (4) propaganda; (5) attitude formation; and (6) cognitive dissonance. Two philosophical assumptions underlying the scholarly examination of mass media are that (1) the media are chameleons, reflecting their environment, and (2) their power is filtered and uneven. -
Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference by Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J
STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES 11 Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference by Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J. Lamb Center for Strategic Research Institute for National Strategic Studies National Defense University Institute for National Strategic Studies National Defense University The Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) is National Defense University’s (NDU’s) dedicated research arm. INSS includes the Center for Strategic Research, Center for Complex Operations, Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Center for Transatlantic Security Studies, and Conflict Records Research Center. The military and civilian analysts and staff who comprise INSS and its subcomponents execute their mission by conducting research and analysis, publishing, and participating in conferences, policy support, and outreach. The mission of INSS is to conduct strategic studies for the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Combatant Commands in support of the academic programs at NDU and to perform outreach to other U.S. Government agencies and the broader national security community. Cover: Kathleen Bailey presents evidence of forgeries to the press corps. Credit: The Washington Times Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference By Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J. Lamb Institute for National Strategic Studies Strategic Perspectives, No. 11 Series Editor: Nicholas Rostow National Defense University Press Washington, D.C. June 2012 Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Defense Department or any other agency of the Federal Government. -
Automated Tackling of Disinformation
Automated tackling of disinformation STUDY Panel for the Future of Science and Technology European Science-Media Hub EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) PE 624.278 – March 2019 EN Automated tackling of disinformation Major challenges ahead This study maps and analyses current and future threats from online misinformation, alongside currently adopted socio-technical and legal approaches. The challenges of evaluating their effectiveness and practical adoption are also discussed. Drawing on and complementing existing literature, the study summarises and analyses the findings of relevant journalistic and scientific studies and policy reports in relation to detecting, containing and countering online disinformation and propaganda campaigns. It traces recent developments and trends and identifies significant new or emerging challenges. It also addresses potential policy implications for the EU of current socio-technical solutions. ESMH | European Science-Media Hub AUTHORS This study was written by Alexandre Alaphilippe, Alexis Gizikis and Clara Hanot of EU DisinfoLab, and Kalina Bontcheva of The University of Sheffield, at the request of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). It has been financed under the European Science and Media Hub budget and managed by the Scientific Foresight Unit within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank all respondents to the online survey, as well as first draft, WeVerify, InVID, PHEME, REVEAL, and all other initiatives that contributed materials to the study. ADMINISTRATOR RESPONSIBLE Mihalis Kritikos, Scientific Foresight Unit To contact the publisher, please e-mail [email protected] LINGUISTIC VERSION Original: EN Manuscript completed in March 2019. -
Redalyc.Lawfare: the Colombian Case
Revista Científica General José María Córdova ISSN: 1900-6586 [email protected] Escuela Militar de Cadetes "General José María Córdova" Colombia Padilla, Juan Manuel Lawfare: The Colombian Case Revista Científica General José María Córdova, vol. 10, núm. 10, 2012, pp. 107-142 Escuela Militar de Cadetes "General José María Córdova" Bogotá, Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=476248923006 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Estudios militares Revista Científica “General José María Córdova”, Bogotá D.C. (Colombia) Sección . Vol 10, Núm 10, Año 2012, Junio REVCGJMC.10(10): 107-142, 2012 Lawfare: The Colombian Case * Guerra jurídica: el caso colombiano La guerre juridique: le cas colombien Guerra jurídica: o caso colombiano Recibido: 20 de Febrero de 2012. Aceptado: 15 de Abril de 2012. Juan Manuel Padillaa * Researche monograph originally presented to the School of Advanced Military Studies of the United States Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, approved for Revista Cientifica Public Release. “General José María Córdova”, Bogotá D.C. (Colombia) a Máster en Ciencias y Artes Militares , U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Director Sección Estudios militares. de la Escuela Militar de Cadetes “General José María Córdova”. Comentarios a: jumapac@gmail. Vol 10 , Núm 10, Año 2012, com Junio, pp. 107-142 ISSN 1900- 6586 108 Juan Manuel Padilla Abstract. The terrorist groups in Colombia have applied Mao’s theory of protracted people’s war, seeking to use all available means of struggle to achieve their revolutionary goals by counteracting govemment policy. -
Information Warfare, International Law, and the Changing Battlefield
ARTICLE INFORMATION WARFARE, INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND THE CHANGING BATTLEFIELD Dr. Waseem Ahmad Qureshi* ABSTRACT The advancement of technology in the contemporary era has facilitated the emergence of information warfare, which includes the deployment of information as a weapon against an adversary. This is done using a numBer of tactics such as the use of media and social media to spread propaganda and disinformation against an adversary as well as the adoption of software hacking techniques to spread viruses and malware into the strategically important computer systems of an adversary either to steal confidential data or to damage the adversary’s security system. Due to the intangible nature of the damage caused By the information warfare operations, it Becomes challenging for international law to regulate the information warfare operations. The unregulated nature of information operations allows information warfare to Be used effectively By states and nonstate actors to gain advantage over their adversaries. Information warfare also enhances the lethality of hyBrid warfare. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to arrange a new convention or devise a new set of rules to regulate the sphere of information warfare to avert the potential damage that it can cause to international peace and security. ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. 901 I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 903 II. WHAT IS INFORMATION WARFARE? ............................. -
The Impact of Disinformation on Democratic Processes and Human Rights in the World
STUDY Requested by the DROI subcommittee The impact of disinformation on democratic processes and human rights in the world @Adobe Stock Authors: Carme COLOMINA, Héctor SÁNCHEZ MARGALEF, Richard YOUNGS European Parliament coordinator: Policy Department for External Relations EN Directorate General for External Policies of the Union PE 653.635 - April 2021 DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT STUDY The impact of disinformation on democratic processes and human rights in the world ABSTRACT Around the world, disinformation is spreading and becoming a more complex phenomenon based on emerging techniques of deception. Disinformation undermines human rights and many elements of good quality democracy; but counter-disinformation measures can also have a prejudicial impact on human rights and democracy. COVID-19 compounds both these dynamics and has unleashed more intense waves of disinformation, allied to human rights and democracy setbacks. Effective responses to disinformation are needed at multiple levels, including formal laws and regulations, corporate measures and civil society action. While the EU has begun to tackle disinformation in its external actions, it has scope to place greater stress on the human rights dimension of this challenge. In doing so, the EU can draw upon best practice examples from around the world that tackle disinformation through a human rights lens. This study proposes steps the EU can take to build counter-disinformation more seamlessly into its global human rights and democracy policies. -
Taming the Trolls: the Need for an International Legal Framework to Regulate State Use of Disinformation on Social Media
Taming the Trolls: The Need for an International Legal Framework to Regulate State Use of Disinformation on Social Media * ASHLEY C. NICOLAS INTRODUCTION Consider a hypothetical scenario in which hundreds of agents of the Russian GRU arrive in the United States months prior to a presidential election.1 The Russian agents spend the weeks leading up to the election going door to door in vulnerable communities, spreading false stories intended to manipulate the population into electing a candidate with policies favorable to Russian positions. The agents set up television stations, use radio broadcasts, and usurp the resources of local newspapers to expand their reach and propagate falsehoods. The presence of GRU agents on U.S. soil is an incursion into territorial integrity⎯a clear invasion of sovereignty.2 At every step, Russia would be required to expend tremendous resources, overcome traditional media barriers, and risk exposure, making this hypothetical grossly unrealistic. Compare the hypothetical with the actual actions of the Russians during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sitting behind computers in St. Petersburg, without ever setting foot in the United States, Russian agents were able to manipulate the U.S. population in the most sacred of domestic affairs⎯an election. Russian “trolls” targeted vulnerable populations through social media, reaching millions of users at a minimal cost and without reliance on established media institutions.3 Without using * Georgetown Law, J.D. expected 2019; United States Military Academy, B.S. 2009; Loyola Marymount University M.Ed. 2016. © 2018, Ashley C. Nicolas. The author is a former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer. -
PERSUADE OR PERISH Addressing Gaps in the U.S
PERSUADE OR PERISH Addressing Gaps in the U.S. Posture to Confront Propaganda and Disinformation Threats Dr. Haroro J. Ingram Program on Extremism Policy Paper February 2020 PERSUADE OR PERISH 1 INGRAM | PROGRAM ON EXTREMISM Abstract: The purpose of this policy paper is to assess the U.S. government’s posture to deal with malicious ‘influence activities’ (i.e. propaganda and disinformation) by state and nonstate actors. It argues that while the U.S. government has provided inconsistent support for its foreign policy and national security information sector for decades, since 2017 an effort has been made to lay the foundations for a rejuvenated U.S. posture to address propaganda and disinformation threats. However, significant gaps remain that will weaken those foundation building efforts if left unaddressed. This paper concludes with four recommendations focusing on (i.) the need to learn lessons from the institutions’ history, (ii.) the value of an overarching paradigm through which to understand a spectrum of threats, (iii.) the important role of overt attributed U.S government messaging, and (iv.) initiatives to strategically cohere interagency activities. The United States and its allies are facing a complex spectrum of propaganda and disinformation threats that are rapidly evolving strategically, operationally, and technologically. 1 The U.S. government’s ability to address these malicious ‘influence activities’ will depend on its adoption of an appropriately balanced, resourced, and legislatively empowered posture that will be as much a product of institutional history as contemporary strategic-policy decisions. This policy paper assesses the U.S. government’s posture to deal with these threats and outlines ways in which strategic-policy gaps, drawn from this analysis, can be tackled. -
Teacher's Guide
Teacher’s Guide Propaganda: What’s the Message? Time Needed: One to two class periods Learning Objectives. Students will be able to: Materials Needed: Differentiate between forms of persuasive media. Student worksheets, Gallery Walk copies Identify bias, propaganda, and symbolism in media. Copy Instructions: Identify forms of propaganda in use. Student packet (Six pages double-sided; class set) Gallery Walk (One copy for the room) STEP BY STEP TEACHER PREP Place each page of the Gallery Walk around the classroom and divide the class into seven groups prior to teaching this lesson. (The groups will be rotating through these during class.) ANTICIPATE by asking students how they might try to convince someone to do something. (Examples: parents to extend curfew, teacher to postpone a due date, choice of movie with friends, etc.) Ask students if there are any common techniques. DISTRIBUTE one student packet to each student. READ through the packet with the class, answering questions or clarifying terms along the way if needed. DIVIDE students into up to seven small groups to rotate through the Gallery Walk pages. INSTRUCT students to spend 3-5 minutes at each station and complete the Gallery Walk pages in their student packet. (Tip: use an egg timer to keep track of the pace) If you have time for an 8th station, you can ask the students to stop at the challenge page as well. REVIEW the answers to the stations. ASSIGN students to complete the two Activity pages in their packet as review. CLOSE by asking students to think of all the places these propaganda techniques can be found. -
The Curious Career of Lawfare, 43 Case W
Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 43 | Issue 1 2010 The urC ious Career of Lawfare Wouter G. Werner Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Wouter G. Werner, The Curious Career of Lawfare, 43 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 61 (2010) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol43/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. File: Werner 2 Created on: 12/23/2010 9:05:00 PM Last Printed: 4/5/2011 8:14:00 PM THE CURIOUS CAREER OF LAWFARE Wouter G. Werner* This article discusses some different uses of the term „lawfare‟ since the 1970‟s. The main aim of the article is to explore how particular ways of framing the concept of “lawfare” affect questions of legal, moral, and polit- ical accountability. In particular, the article contrasts the way in which the term „lawfare‟ has been used in critical theory with the instrumentalization of the term in neoconservative thinking. While critical theory has used the term to rethink questions of accountability and to spur a process of self- critique, neoconservative thinking has mainly used to term to discredit an opponent‟s reliance on law and legal procedure. This has turned the use of the term „lawfare‟ itself into a strategic move—a move that could eventually undermine the integrity of law. -
ISLAMIST LAWFARE: BRIEFS AS WEAPONS of MASS DISRUPTION by Lawrence A
Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes A Catalyst for Ideas Distributed via Email and Posted at www.fpri.org June 2010 ISLAMIST LAWFARE: BRIEFS AS WEAPONS OF MASS DISRUPTION By Lawrence A. Husick, Esq. Lawrence Husick is a Senior Fellow at FPRI’s Center on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. He concentrates on the study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular focus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist. He is also co-director of the FPRI Wachman Center’s Program on Teaching the History of Innovation. He is a practicing intellectual property attorney. The 2009 Christmas-day bombing attempt on a commercial flight to Detroit was not the first time that terrorists have used briefs as a weapon. A recent presentation in Philadelphia by Daniel Huff, director of the Legal Project of the Middle East Forum, detailed the use of lawsuits by Islamic organizations as a method of silencing criticism and chilling free speech. “Lawfare” is the wrongful use of a legal process to silence and punish free speech critical of radical Islam, terrorism, or its sources of financing. Lawfare also seeks to enact or reinstate blasphemy laws, especially as applied to Islam and its prophet, Mohammad. Libel, defamation, and “hate speech” suits have been pressed in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere, with the intent of inflicting great expense on terrorism researchers, their sponsors and publishers. For those who publish primarily on the Internet, however, there may be a preemptive legal strategy available that strikes a blow at the heart of Islamist lawfare. -
Active Measures: the Secret History of Disinformation & Political
Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation & Political Warfare | Thomas Rid Philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point, May 25th, 2020 however, is to change it. — Karl Marx INTRODUCTION Thomas Rid is Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Rid’s latest book, Active Measures, a startling history of disinformation, was published in late April 2020 with Farrar, Straus and Giroux (also in Russian, Japanese, Polish). His most recent book, Rise of the Machines (2016), tells the sweeping story of how cybernetics, a late- 1940s theory of machines, came to incite anarchy and war (also in Chinese, Russian, German, Japanese, Turkish). His 2015 article “Attributing Cyber Attacks” was designed to explain, guide, and improve the identification of network breaches (Journal of Strategic Studies 2015). In 2013 he published the widely-read book Cyber War Will Not Take Place. Rid’s Ph.D. thesis, “War and Media Operations: The US Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq,” was the first academic analysis of the role of embedded media in the 2003 Iraq War, providing a concise history of US military public affairs management since Vietnam. Rid testified on information security in front of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as well as in the German Bundestag and the UK Parliament. From 2011 to 2016, Rid was a professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Between 2003 and 2010, he worked at major think tanks in Berlin, Paris, Jerusalem, and Washington, DC. Rid holds a PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin.