“Prof. Auksė Balchytienė: “Development of informational and digital resilience – a lifelong task”

2023-04-21 08:46:25

In the face of crisis

At the beginning of the year, the Baltic Digital Resilience Research Center “Digires” published an overview of the digital resilience situation of Lithuanian society. The almost 70-page overview presents in detail the situation of disinformation spread by hostile forces in Lithuania and other Baltic countries and discusses possible actions to achieve greater digital resilience of society.
According to the data of the analysts of the Strategic Communication Department of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, “Digires” reports that the intensity of information activities in 2021 increased by 32 percent, and 5,030 cases of information activity were identified in the Lithuanian information space, the sources of which were from Russia, Belarus and China.
The Baltic Digital Resilience Research Center also points out that in the latest analyst report of the Strategic Communication Department of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, it is observed that 41.61 percent disinformation consisted of disinformation aimed at Lithuania’s defense capabilities, NATO, national and international values.
As written in the review of the situation of the digital resilience of the Lithuanian society prepared by “Digires”, these reports also identified the main goals of Russian propaganda in Lithuania, which include creating skepticism of the population regarding EU and NATO membership, neutralizing critical thinking, instilling a negative assessment of the country’s institutions and work, and confusion among citizens and raising public authorities.
It is worth noting that Lithuania is not the only target of hostile forces, as Estonia and Latvia also face the same problems. “Russia’s war against Ukraine has slightly changed the opinion of the citizens of the Baltic countries about Russia (not to mention such political decisions as banning visas or closing the borders to Russian citizens). There is a change in values ​​among the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia, and those Russian-speakers who support Ukraine (and thus advocate freedom and democracy) have gained some visibility. However, in 2022 in June 24 percent population still did not consider Russia a threat to the country. As for the Ukrainian context, 9 percent of those surveyed believed that Ukraine oppresses Russian speakers, and 15 percent were inclined to believe that the war was provoked by the West. <…> The public survey showed that, after the start of Russian aggression, the number of people in Latvia who have a negative view of Russia increased from 37 percent. In 2021, up to 66 percent. in 2022, and only 20 percent. indicated a positive attitude. <…> However, as another 2022 shows. survey, only 40 percent. Russian speakers condemn the Russian invasion <…>. According to the survey, the Russian-speaking population, aged 18-34, with a higher education, middle- and high-income Latvian citizens were more likely to condemn the invasion. These results show that Russia targets the older generation and people with the worst socio-economic situation with its disinformation,” the “Digires” team analyzes the attitude of the residents of the Baltic countries to the situation in the region.
We can be happy that out of all the residents of the three Baltic countries, Lithuanians are almost the most supportive of democratic values ​​and the pursuit of freedom, because, according to the report prepared by “Digires”, well over half (79%) of Lithuanian residents support economic sanctions against Russia, even more (83%) .) supports the supply of weapons to Ukraine and even 93 percent. – humanitarian aid.
When asked how she assesses the digital resilience of Lithuanian society, “Digires” project manager, chief researcher prof. Auksė Balčytiene first points out that resilience is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional concept, when talking about which it is very important to assess the overall picture: how advanced are information users, do they notice errors and recognize potentially manipulative information, do they know how and in what ways it should be checked, does it apply in daily activities?
According to A. Balčytienė, new sources of information, new speakers are constantly appearing, technologies are renewed, and various innovations are introduced (for example, artificial intelligence), so learning to understand oneself in the midst of information growing at enormous speeds is a constant need. “We can confidently say that the development of information and digital resilience is a lifelong task. In order to become an experienced user of information and media, it is first important to be an experienced thinker,” says the head of the Digires project.
According to the professor, the digital resilience of the Lithuanian population is growing, but different groups experience very different challenges, so the strengthening of resilience must not stop. According to A. Balčytinė’s observation, for example, it is not so difficult for young and very young users to understand the features and possibilities of technological innovations and to use them to perform daily tasks. On the other hand, young people are more likely to be fascinated by the superficial aspects of the content, and this is exactly the kind of consumption that manipulators target.
“For much older people, it is much more difficult to abandon a usual skill, to look for something new and to change what until now seemed ordinary and “normal”: reading the press, watching TV or listening to the radio. Therefore, it is more difficult for this audience to understand that the world of information is thick with everything – not only quality information, but also aggressive propaganda, information manipulation and misinformation that aims to harm. There are groups of people whose representatives are educated and constantly use digital technologies for work and leisure. They can be called experienced users of new things and media, but they are more focused on career or life matters and often forget about everyday citizenship. Being a member of society is important – it’s not just about participating in support campaigns. It is important to be interested and talk about the life of the state all the time”, A. Balchytienė comments on the situation of society’s resistance to “Gyvenimus”.
By the way, it is wrong to think that only older people can fall for false information. According to A. Balčytienė, all groups are vulnerable in the information space, but each in its own way… True, according to the expert, for understandable reasons, the most sensitive groups are children and the oldest information users.
However, as the professor herself says, “research shows that two-thirds of people who actively use the media rate their knowledge of identifying disinformation well. It just begs the question: What do these people do next?”
As technologies are constantly improving, and with them also the methods of spreading disinformation and propaganda, it is especially important to constantly strengthen the “immunity” of society in the information space. And in this situation, not only the simple user of information should step up, but also the state, but how to do it? According to A. Balčytienė, first of all, it is necessary to strengthen communication and purposeful pursuit of the planned goal. According to the professor, this is also needed in public policy decisions that have gaps, inconsistencies, good ideas that are not implemented until the planned result, and in everyday situations. “Only in this way will we become a resilient society in which every person and every institution works towards an agreed goal and keeps promises and commitments. In such a transparent society, disinformation would not spread, because responsible citizens would curb it immediately”, A. Balchytienė shares her thoughts.
Speaking about the aspiration to live in a more resilient environment, the head of the Baltic Digital Resilience Research Center “Digires” emphasizes: if we agree that disinformation is a threat, then an action plan and agreements on how to organize a digital response are also necessary: ​​media literacy programs in schools are improved, libraries are opened to provide assistance and following advice to residents, state institutions exchange data with each other and analyze legal and other measures to curb misinformation. By the way, it is worth noting that not everything is so bad because, as the “Digires” project manager herself says, progress is also visible in all these areas.
Rimantė Jančauskaitė