This week is the Influence and Propaganda Conference in Verona, New York, outside of Syracuse. Put on by the IO Institute in partnership with the MountainRunner Institute, the conference will be a frank and open discussion on the nature, purpose and format of propaganda and activities intended to influence. This conference comes at a critical time as the volume and quality of disinformation and misinformation increases in an environment that empowers virtually anyone. The gatekeepers of yesterday, governments and major media, are increasingly bypassed, ignored, reactionary or co-opted as today’s information flows across geographic, linguistic, political and technological borders with increasing ease and speed.
Conference topics include:
- Commercial Aspects of Influence
- Military Perspectives on Influence
- The Role of the Media
- Academia’s view of Influence
The full conference agenda is here. Pre-registration is now closed. You may, however, register at the door.
I will be at the Conference all week, including co-moderating the panel on the media, along with my friend Russ Rochte, faculty at the National Defense Intelligence College. We will begin the discussion by looking at the media’s changing role, personality and composition in today’s environment of engagement across multiple mediums, diminished resources, intensified news cycles and direct audience engagement by news makers. We will explore the impact of Wikileaks and the statement “the media is an instrument of war.”
I am hopeful that someone will Live Tweet the event using the short hashtag #iandp.
On a related note, I will be at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, later this month (25-26 October) to give a lecture entitled “Public Diplomacy in a Complex Environment.”