#169 Adam Fivenson on Shielding Democracy

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, Adam Fivenson of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) discusses his co-authored piece: Shielding Democracy: Civil Society Adaptations to Kremlin Disinformation about Ukraine.

Research Questions: Adam Fivenson suggests an interested student examine 

• How will the many changes taking place in our information ecosystem impact the 50+ national elections coming between now and the end of 2024?
• Based on their prior actions and their efforts around the world, how might authoritarian actors take advantage of our evolving information space to spread divisive narratives that harm democracy?

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #151 Daniel Runde on Chinese Soft Power
• Shielding Democracy: Civil Society Adaptations to Kremlin Disinformation about Ukraine by Adam Fivenson, Galyna Petrenko, Veronika Víchová, and Andrej Poleščuk
• We Are Social 2023 Digital Report
• European Union Digital Services Act
• Russian War Report (Atlantic Council)
• Russian War Report: DFRLab releases investigations on Russian info ops before and after the invasion by the Digital Forensic Research Lab
• Other reports
  • German Marshall Fund’s Civic Information Handbook
  • DFRLab’s Narrative Warfare and Undermining Ukraine reports
  • Atlantic Council: Scaling Trust on the Web
• Ukrainian counter-disinfo organizations
  • Detector Media-Ukrainian journalists focused on countering Russian info ops
  • StopFake-Ukrainian fact checkers
  • Vox Ukraine-Ukrainian fact checkers and news organization
  • Ukraine Crisis Media Center-Ukrainian news organizations
• Other European organizations doing work to counter disinformation
  • European Values-Czech advocacy group
  • Political Capital-Hungarian think thanks and advocacy group
  • Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights-Polish advocacy group
  • GLOBSEC-Slovakian think tank
• LAC-based organization: Chequeado-Argentine fact checkers with LAC-wide network
• Counter Disinfo Networks
  • National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) Disinformation Hub
  • International Republic Institute’s (IRI) BEACON project
  • Zinc Network’s Open Information Partnership
  • German Marshall Fund’s Black Sea Trust

Link to full show notes and resources

Guest Bio: Adam Fivenson is the senior program officer for information space integrity at the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies, where he conducts research on the integrity in the information space and countering authoritarian information activities. Prior to joining the Forum, Adam advised political figures, governments, and international non-profits on communication, technology and data strategy, and led ethnographic research missions on the impact of new technologies on societies across four continents. He holds an MS from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a BA from the University of Michigan. Follow him on Twitter: @afivenson.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org.

Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.

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