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*Next LCT Centre Online Roundtable: **September 22nd – **4 pm SYD***
*Disinformation as a weapon: Analysing information warfare with ‘clusters’
and ‘constellations’*
*Eszter Szenes and Mark W. Perry*
We are constantly faced with disinformation and conspiracy theories that
seem to spread faster than fact-checkers and experts can debunk them. This
persistent information blitzkrieg is amplified by social media, mass media,
state-sponsored troll factories and automated bots. One example of such
state-coordinated information warfare is the Kremlin’s propaganda
ecosystem. In this Roundtable we demonstrate the usefulness of the LCT
concepts of *clusters *and *constellations*, which explore how certain
kinds of meanings are condensed and grouped together, for the study of
information warfare.
Specifically, we will unpack the disinformation campaigns that were
strategically conducted in parallel to Russia’s 2015 intervention in Syria
and its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Findings reveal how recognisable
and recurring configurations or patterns of meanings cluster into
information tactics that portray Russia’s adversaries as terrorist
recruiters and aggressors bent on encircling Russia and committing
atrocities. In contrast, clusters that project Russia’s superior military
capabilities and position it as a global superpower and a humanitarian
protecting local populations are most closely tied to Russian military
objectives. By identifying the role of these cluster bombs in creating
axiological constellations of alternative realities and comparing them to
open-source conflict data, we illustrate the potential of an LCT-informed
approach for predicting future military interventions in other contexts.
*Date: Thursday, 22 September **2022*
*Time: **4**:00 pm **– **5**:30 pm SYDNEY TIME* (*Figure out **your local
time* here
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/Bc_jCMwGxOtqMwW1XHwqRU8?domain=timeanddate.com>
)
*Venue: ONLINE ZOOM*
*Link*: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/82775521047
*Password: LCT*
*Meeting ID**: *827 7552 1047
Please use your name or you won’t be allowed in.
If more than 30 minutes late, email: lctcentreglobal@xxxxxxxxx
<lctcentreglobal@xxxxxxxxx>.
