Strategic Communication to Counter Security Threats in the Disinformation Era

The culture of communications is changing at a rapid pace, driven by the power of internet and social networks. The digital communication environment, with its remarkable advantages and opportunities, also provides opportunities to different actors for conducting malicious influencing activities, divide societies, erode the democratic values and sow distrust in our institutions. Users are encouraged to create personal echo-chambers at the expense of information pluralism and to move away from reliable and credible news reporting and sound journalist analyses.

This interdisciplinary course, framed under the CRESCEnt project (Mind the Gap in media coverage and strategic communication in case of security threats), co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, addresses the challenge of building awareness and developing resilience to disinformation, fake news, and hostile information influencing campaigns.

The MOOC aims to increase the key knowledge and competences of institutional spokespersons and journalists (including young professionals in journalism and related disciplines/areas) in the field of security and defense, and in relation to strategic communication and news reporting on security threats.

The course is developed in collaboration between: “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy (MVNIA) – Romania, Ciberimaginario Research Group of the University Rey Juan Carlos– Spain, Kentro Meleton Asfaleias (KEMEA), Center For Security Studies – Greece and Ministry of Internal Affairs, Directorate for Information and Public Relations (MAI-DIRP) – Romania.