- Strategic communication goals for NATO include understanding, influence, change, and environmental factors both external and internal. - NATO faces problems with a lack of political and public support, effects of specific propaganda undermining support for values and purpose, and an abundance of information in a "post-truth" environment hindering deliberation. - The document discusses issues around a global networked news war, disinformation tactics, the role of algorithms and personalization in spreading news, and challenges around rebuilding trust in a low-trust, high-skepticism information environment.

1. Truth, Trust and Technology:
strategic communication in the
misinformation age
Prof Charlie Beckett
LSE
NATO College, Rome
March, 2019

2. Goals of strategic communication for NATO
•Understanding
•Influence
•Change
•‘Environmental’
• external, internal, data, policy, role
• public, authorities, experts, media
• perception, elections, funding,
military, security, diplomatic
• Evidence, accountability, record,
objectivity

3. NATO strat comms problems
•Lack of political and public support
•Specific propaganda effects
•General undermining of support for values and
purpose
•Information abundance and diversity
•‘Post-truth’ relativism that hinders information
deliberation

4. What did you need to know today?

5. Is my flight home delayed?

6. What’s the latest on #Brexit?

7. What is the latest Hammers ‘news’?

8. Mixed news media – but all networked
• Traditional ‘legacy’media
• Social news media
• Social networks/platforms

10. News becomes personal
• Social sharing
• Email newsletters
• Topic selection ‘My FT’
• Facebook algorithms
• Personalised search
• News aggregators
• Facebook/Twitter feeds
• Artificial intelligence
• News bots
• Gamification

11. Global networked news war

12. Disinformation: the four Ds Images from www.i3gen.uk

24. Not just Facebook and not just elections

25. Bot wars: polarising, fomenting

26. It’s not just social media

27. Post-Truth?
1. Over abundance of information creates
confusion
2. Fact-checking is limited
3. Algorithms struggle to filter, platforms
incentivise for attention not accuracy
4. Learn to adapt to a multiple-truth information
ecology?

31. Trust signalling

32. Fake news is good news for reality-based
news media

33. Trust
1. Transparency is vital, but just the start
2. Filter bubble or community?
3. Emotions as key drivers
4. Real problem is curation, connection,
personalisation
5. Learn to adapt to a low-trust, high-scepticism
information ecology

35. Zuckerberg cover photos

36. Getting worse before it gets better?
1. Governments, corporations, lobby groups now
investing in information manipulation
2. New channels, platforms and networks will
provide fresh distribution outlets for
misinformation
3. Failure to address systematic problem means
we treat symptoms not structural challenges:
remember the banking crisis?

39. LSE Commission recommendations
• A new institution, the Independent Platform Agency, to oversee the
technology companies’ networks and platforms
• A major programme of media literacy in and beyond the classrooms
• More support for public service news media innovation and adaption

40. Truth, Trust and Technology:
a new agenda for the crisis in public
information
@Charlie Beckett
c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk