"The most effective campaigns are face-to-face, repeated campaigns. Such campaigns generally have a larger average impact on persuasion, knowledge, and behavior than remote campaigns (such as ones conducted through television or the internet). Negative and positive messages appear to be almost equal
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ly effective in motivating behavioral change. Negative messaging does seem to be more memorable than other types of messages. However, if negative advertisements are attributed to an individual or organization, they tend to lead to backlash against the sender. Targeting a message to a particular subpopulation greatly increases the success rate of information campaigns, especially if the targeting stresses peer groups or community norms. Additionally, targeting and knowledge of relevant subpopulations can decrease the risk of unintended or counterproductive results. In complex environments where people are bombarded by a wide range of messages, adversarial messaging efforts tend to cancel each other out." (Key findings)
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"With their heavily censored and restricted civil societies at home, China and Russia exploit the asymmetry of democratic systems by targeting open information environments, freedom of expression, participatory civic discourse, and pluralistic and fluid politics. Democracies have unique vulnerabilit
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ies to malign influence activities, but they also have unique and durable strengths. Transparency, rule of law, a free press, and democratic norms—hallmarks of democratic states—foster resilience against malign foreign influence. In the near term, it may be more important for democracies to redouble their efforts to build up their strengths than to reduce their vulnerabilities." (Conclusion)
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"Die technischen Möglichkeiten der Cyberwelt haben gänzlich neue Potenziale zur Beeinflussung von politischen Präferenzen in anderen Staaten eröffnet. Die Meinungsbildung in offenen Gesellschaften wird zunehmend durch subversive Maßnahmen autoritärer Regime im Internet beeinflusst, wodurch der
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öffentliche Raum Internet stark eingeschränkt wird. In dieser Studie wird untersucht, wie die Resilienz von offenen Gesellschaften gegen Subversion aus dem Cyberraum gestärkt werden kann, ohne dabei die eigenen Grundsätze preiszugeben. Zunächst wird ein Überblick zu den Diskursen über Cyberbedrohungen gegeben, um sich dann auf die Frage nach der gesellschaftlichen Resilienz zu konzentrieren." (Zusammenfassung)
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"Democratic nations around the globe are facing increasing levels of false and misleading information circulating on social media and news websites, propagating alternative sociopolitical realities. One of the most innovative actors in this process has been the Russian state, whose disinformation ca
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mpaigns have influenced elections and shaped political discourse globally. A key element of these campaigns is the content produced by state-funded outlets like RT and Sputnik, whose articles are republished by underfunded or sympathetic local media, as well as coordinated groups that attempt to shape mainstream political narratives. Using a tailored text-as-data approach, we examine the thematic and linguistic differences in articles produced by U.S. and Russian state-funded and mainstream outlets in Serbia. We use 11 features (frames and in-text characteristics) to construct an article country-source classifier with a high degree of accuracy. The article contributes toward an understanding of the structural characteristics of Russian statefunded news in the Western Balkans, enhances the application of computational text analysis in Serbian, and provides suggestions for the application of text-as-data methods to the study of online disinformation." (Abstract)
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"This report analyses a persistent, large-scale influence campaign linked to Chinese state actors on Twitter and Facebook. This activity largely targeted Chinese-speaking audiences outside of the Chinese mainland (where Twitter is blocked) with the intention of influencing perceptions on key issues,
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including the Hong Kong protests, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and, to a lesser extent Covid-19 and Taiwan. Extrapolating from the takedown dataset, to which we had advanced access, given to us by Twitter, we have identified that this operation continues and has pivoted to try to weaponise the US Government’s response to current domestic protests and create the perception of a moral equivalence with the suppression of protests in Hong Kong." (https://www.aspi.org.au)
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"Drawing on relevant literature, analysis of North Korean media and information control techniques, and interviews with refugees and defectors, this report argues that a new US information strategy is needed to alleviate the social isolation of the North Korean people and improve their long-term wel
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fare." (About the report)
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"International radio broadcasters took on a centrally important role during the Cold War. Founded at the beginning of the 1950s, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was to become both a political instrument for influencing public opinion and one of the few alternative sources of information for many people livi
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ng to the east of the Iron Curtain. The contributions in this publication illustrate the political, social, and cultural context within which RFE operated at the time; they explore the journalistic practices used in RFE; and they analyze the content of the broadcasts and the responses of RFE’s listeners." (Back cover)
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"Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda investigates the role of international radio broadcasting in diplomacy during the Cold War period and, in particular, the contribution of the BBC and the Voice of America in the construction and projection of foreign policy, together with their role in the disseminati
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on of international propaganda. In addition the radio broadcasts which were monitored in Britain and the US are scrutinized to ascertain how they contributed to the formulation of foreign policy objectives and reactionary propaganda." (Publisher description)
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"Aus Anlass der negativen Ergebnisse von Rio des Janeiro wurde beschleunigt der „Sonderauftrag Südamerika“ zum Abschluss gebracht, der sich vor allem das Ziel setzte, gegen die erdrückende nordamerikanische Konkurrenz die wichtigsten Presseorgane, Nachrichtenagenturen und hauptsächlichen Rund
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funkstationen unter direkte oder indirekte deutsche Kontrolle zu bringen, um Südamerika weiterhin im Sinne der faschistischen Propaganda zu beeinflussen. Diese Propaganda hatte ein doppeltes Ziel: sie sollte die südamerikanischen Republiken nach Möglichkeit für die Sache der „Achsen“-mächte einnehmen und jede antiamerikanische Bewegung demagogisch anstacheln, um den deutschen Imperialismus zu entlasten. Ein wichtiger und typischer Ausschnitt aus der Pressepropaganda im Rahmen dieses Geheim- oder Sonderauftrages Südamerika lässt sich anhand der Materialien des Südamerika-Komitees bei der Abt. Pol. IX im AA unter dem harmlosen Titel „Fortsetzung der Pressearbeit in Bolivien“ rekonstruieren. Danach konnte die deutsche Gesandtschaft in La Paz, über die Firma des Deutsch-Bolivianers von Bergen, „die 65% des gesamten bolivianischen Papierimports innehatte“, den größten Teil der Presse im Lande mittelbar dirigieren, da diese Firma — wie es ausdrücklich hieß — „sofort bei Ausbruch des Krieges im September 1939 ihre 15jährigen Beziehungen zu den Herausgebern nahezu aller bolivianischen Zeitungen zugunsten einer Beeinflussung im deutschen Sinne zur Verfügung“ stellte [...] Den eigentlichen Nerv des Geheimauftrages Südamerika bildeten die umfangreichen und ausgeklügelten Maßnahmen zur getarnten Inbesitznahme von wichtigen Rundfunkstationen, zumal die kostspielige offizielle deutsche Kurzwellen-Propaganda mit Richtstrahlern nach Mittel- und Südamerika auf die Dauer nicht den gewünschten politischen Erfolg zeitigte. Ende Januar 1942 konnte die Abt. Rundfunk beim AA in einer Vollzugsmeldung bekanntgeben, dass der „Rundfunkeinsatz in Südamerika . . . auch für den Fall des Abbruchs der Beziehungen durch getarnte Besitzbeteiligung gesichert“ sei. Es handelte sich um insgesamt 37 größere oder kleinere Sendestationen." (Seite 246-7)
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