EU strategic communications with a View to Counteracting Propaganda

Author (Corporate)
Publisher
Series Title
Series Details June 2016
Publication Date June 2016
ISBN 978-92-823-9283-6
EC QA-01-16-562-EN-N
Content Type

Please note: Each In-Depth Analysis is assigned a DOI (digital object identifier), which is a safe and long term way of ensuring a hyperlink to the full text of this report. However, when ESO creates this record, on occasion the DOI still has not been activated by the EU Bookshop. If you find the source url hyperlink does not work please use the alternative location hyperlink listed as a related url.Emanating from Russia in the east and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the south, the EU has been increasingly hit by destabilising messages amounting – in different forms and to different degrees – to coherent hostile ‘strategic communications’ campaigns, or the processes of infusing communications activities with an agenda or plan to impact the behaviour of a target audience.

Both Russia and ISIL have engaged in aggressive messaging and deceptive media campaigns, albeit with distinct narratives, targets and audiences. This paper analyses the ‘what’ and the ‘how’: the respective narratives of each actor, their specificities, their similarities and their differences.

The analysis also draws attention to strategic communications efforts undertaken by the EU, which are vectored into defensive (react and respond) and offensive (probe and push) dimensions. This understanding of the present context finally allows for an evaluation of what actions can be taken to enhance the effectiveness of the EU’s own strategic communications.

External author: European Union Institute for Security Studies - EUISS, France

Source Link Link to Main Source http://dx.publications.europa.eu/10.2861//506928
Related Links
European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union: Publications available via the EU Bookshop http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/directorate-general-for-internal-policies-of-the-union-cbf.cKABstF7wAAAEjwYYY4e5K/
European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: In-Depth Analysis, June 2016: EU strategic communications with a View to Counteracting Propaganda http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2016/578008/EXPO_IDA(2016)578008_EN.pdf
ESO: Background information: A credible and independent media is the best way to counter Russia’s information strategy in the EU http://www.europeansources.info/record/a-credible-and-independent-media-is-the-best-way-to-counter-russias-information-strategy-in-the-eu/
EurActiv, 14.07.16: Commission: Russian propaganda has deeply penetrated EU countries http://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/thurs-commission-official-russian-propaganda-has-deeply-penetrated-eu-countries/

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