On November 8, in Kyiv artistic agency "Our Format" a lecture-discussion with experts in the field of information warfare, propaganda and communication technologies took place. It was given by Honored Journalist of Ukraine Georgiy Pocheptsov. He wrote numerous analytical studies, which were translated into many languages, including: " From Facebook and glamour to WikiLeaks: mediacommunications", "Modern Information Wars", "War and Meanings: Ukraine and Russia in the information and semantic wars" and others.
The discussion was attended by experts from the Research Centre for Regional Security of SSU Nikolay Nazarov and Andriy Lebid. During the meeting, the experts managed to talk to Georgiy Pocheptsov and get answers to the most important security issues.
Mr. Georgiy, what kind of state policy should be in the context of information trends’ changes?
The modern world is defined by several trends, which determine the global progress of social systems. In particular, among these trends I would mention constantly increasing impact of information and its processes on the economy, politics, business, military, education and others.
Thus, it updates the adequate information strategy and policy. In my opinion, effective information policy is possible only under conditions of appropriate educational strategy, the main features of which are: introduction to modern curriculum subjects ("Neuropsychology", "Decision-making theory", "Theory of Communication" and others.).
From this point of view, no less important is the openness to innovation, the innovation situations design, all that can be described as Nudge-strategies, which open an innovative environment. And for this we must change the image mentality and frames of communication. My wish: read much more, do not ever think that the university has given you something that did not give to others.
Is Ukraine a subject of information wars?
I am convinced, that Ukraine is only an object of information wars is not their subject. Why? To be the subject of the information war, the country must have a model of reality (or frame narrative), it seeks to build, construct and information in virtual spaces with possible transgress in physical space.
The narrative - is, above all, culturally accepted logic of events development, a plot on which an event develops. Information processes and wars that accompany them, make urgent a new type of military operations when simply destroy the enemy physically is not justified, because this type of military operations directed rather at destroying narratives, underlying the enemy and which actually control his actions. So what’s the task? Inforce a potential enemy to use ones meanings. There is an appeal to replace the information strategies with the process of strategic communications. When Ukraine formulates its own master narrative clearly and builds a system of strategic communications, there will be a chance to become a subject of information wars.
What is your forecast for Ukraine in terms of building an effective information policy?
Basically, the answer is rather logical in the context of the past. It's no secret that any war is won in the information field. What is important? The new fact is presented in the information space along with its interpretation as possible to prevent counterpropaganda’ actions. Therefore, it is essential for Ukraine not only to declare, but also to pursue effectively an aggressive information policy.
The information security of an identity is one of the priorities of the Sumy Research Center for Regional Security, that’s why, the fundamental positions of Georgiy Pocheptsov will be used for a strategic planning in this area.
Andriy Lebid, Maryna Osyuchina,
The Centre experts