I came across this brilliantly written article on how modern-day conflicts involve psychological tactics such as misinformation but using online methods to spread disinformation.
Propaganda has been used extensively in all conflicts, as the saying goes:
“The first casualty of war is the truth”- (Perhaps coined by Aeschylus)
Propaganda can be used for a variety of reasons including garnering support for war and damaging the morale of civilians on one of the sides of the conflict.
The problem with the technique of propaganda in the modern age is that it fundamentally reduces the confidence of a population in believing that the truth can be deduced or discovered.
In her article Zara Abrams looks at how modern audiences as spectators of the Russian/Ukrainian conflict is being influenced via these methods.
One technique that researchers are now using to try and eliminate at least some of the damaging effects of misinformation is to ‘prebunk’ a lie rather than debunk it after the fact. Zara points to research that shows prebunking is often far more effective than is trying to debunk misinformation once it's present in social media.
This is a fascinating article:
Wow, thanks for sharing this article. I am very interested about this concept of prebunking.