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Lately, strategic communications seem like fairy dust – if you just sprinkle a bit of that stratcom magic, all your communications problems will be solved. But is it really that easy? In this podcast, we will begin exploring strategic communications from a defence perspective – government and military communications, disinformation, hostile activities on social media, and countering violent extremism.
Episodes
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Almost nine months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and there are no doubts that the Kremlin has terribly miscalculated both its military capabilities and Ukrainians' will to resist. For Ukrainians, the war has already started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, and they have been building their capacity in both military, as well as cognitive domains ever since.
#StratComPodcast host Tomas Pildegovičs sat down with the Co-Founder of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center and civic activist Natalya Popovich to dig deeper into the foundations of Ukrainian resilience. Natalya shares her insights into how Ukrainian culture, perception of themselves, and history have changed since the annexation of Crimea and how Ukrainians built the image of "professional resisters" by countering Russian information operations long before the Russian army set foot on their soil. She also elaborates on the issue of putting efforts in resisting the country that has invested hugely into building its brand as a region-dominant culture.
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
Thursday Oct 20, 2022
There is one thing that is clear today - social media is another battlefield that nowadays requires a little more than a basic skill set of an internet user to not be fooled. Social media platforms had been widely criticized for the growing level of various threats for social media users versus the lack of response and action from the platforms themselves.
In this episode of the #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs sat down with Mr. David Agranovich, Director of Global Threat Disruption at Meta (former Facebook) to discuss what Meta has already done and what it is planning to do to make the social media platform less attractive or inconvenient to use for threat actors to reach their goals. Mr. Agranovich also shares some insights on what Meta has observed when analysing Kremlin-related activities on the platform after the February 24.
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
For several decades Europe has been living in an illusion. Even though Putin's regime has been testing the waters and straining global societies' nerves with provocations of various scales now and then, we were still believing there are no adversaries close by. Russia's unprovoked and horrendous military aggression toward Ukraine has shattered the illusion and left us with many questions - is there room for democracy in times of war? What can Europe learn from Ukraine's democratic resilience? What does it mean to be a European and what values we are not ready to sacrifice to totalitarian regimes?
In this episode of the #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs sat down with Mr. Raphael Glucksmann, Member of the European Parliament, the Chair of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation to discuss democracy in times of war and how European values are more important than ever.
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
#StratComPodcast / S3E1: Russian information warfare – the perspective of Ukraine
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Russian military aggression in Ukraine has fundamentally changed how global society perceives modern warfare. The dominance of state-controlled media, attempts to brainwash domestic and foreign audiences, troll farms overflowing social media with false narratives – these are just a few tools Russia has been using to "sell" its military aggression to a wide range of audiences.
We open the new season of the #StratComPodcast with a highly important conversation tackling Russian hybrid warfare strategies in Ukraine before and during the war. During the Riga StratCom Dialogue 2022 conference #StratComPodcast host Tomas Pildegovičs sat down with Liubov Tsybulska, Founder of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine who has been on the front line of information war and has some substantial insights to share.
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Today's digital information environment is a real jungle full of disinformation traps set to confuse, mislead and scare. While democratic society aims to build its institutions based on objective truth, malicious actors are always present spreading false narratives and mixing up facts to undermine public trust in democratic institutions, deepen unhealthy polarization and gain geopolitical influence by affecting the trust in military and governmental institutions and their actions. How can open source research be useful in identifying, exposing and explaining where and when disinformation occurs and creating a new model of expertise adapted for impact and real-world results?
In the 4th episode of #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs welcomes Mr Graham Brookie who is Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) - the leading open-source research hub with a focus on governance, technology, security, social media, and where each intersect. By publishing what it can prove, or disprove, in real-time, the DFRLab is creating a new model of research and education adapted for impact.
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
#StratComPodcast / S2E3: Is modern day democracy in crisis?
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Modern day democracy has suffered a lot. It has been challenged in various aspects starting from government institutions unable to prove their value in modern day society to a changed media landscape facing a fundamental revision of values and acknowledging the shaky meaning of the freedom of speech in the context of the war in Ukraine.
In this episode #StratComPodcast host Tomass Pildegovičs welcomes a guest that played a fundamental role in strengthening the position of Latvia in the international arena during it's first decade after regaining the independence. Dr Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a former president of Latvia who served two terms from 1999 to 2007 and has played a leading role in achieving Latvia’s membership in NATO and the European Union. Madam President is outspoken pundit on social issues, moral values, European historical dialogue, and democracy, member of the Council of Women World Leaders since 1999. Since 2020 Dr Vīķe-Freiberga is a Board Member of the Club de Madrid and has served as its President from 2013 to 2019.
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
#StratComPodcast / S2E2: #StratCom and Modern Warfare
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
Tuesday Mar 08, 2022
As information manipulation and propaganda in the digital environment has become an essential and highly effective tool of modern warfare, we have invited Jānis Sārts, Director of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence to share his thoughts on the role of strategic communications in modern warfare and how this reflects in ongoing Kremlin's regime aggression in Ukraine.
#StratComPodcast is hosted by Tomass Pildegovičs, PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge.
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
#StratComPodcast / S2E1: What is #StratCom?
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Today's digitalized information environment has given rise to various actors who use information manipulation to undermine trust in democratic institutions and deepen polarization. The very first episode of #StratComPodcast second season aims to determine what is strategic communications and why it is an essential aspect of global security.
Our first guest is Professor Neville Bolt, Director of the King's Centre for Strategic Communications (KCSC), Reader in Strategic Communications, Department of War Studies, King's College London and Editor-in-Chief of Defence Strategic Communications Journal by NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence.
#StratComPodcast is hosted by Tomass Pildegovičs, PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge.
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
#StratComTalks: Influencer Marketing - a legitimate communications channel?
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Many commonucators have been thinking about influecer marketing, but does it go beyound just "selling things"? What those working with government comms have to be careful about when planning contracts and communications activities with influencers? What are the biggest risks and how to vet influencers in the selection process? At this session we look at the size of industry & speed of growth, define influencer marketing and correct misconceptions.
Mr Scott Guthrie is an independent influencer marketing consultant, conference speaker, guest university lecturer, top 10 PR blogger, and media commentator. He is co-chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations influencer marketing panel, a Public Relations and Communications Association council member, and an editorial board member of both Talking Influence and Influence publications. Scott has written chapters for five business books on the subject of progressive public relations and influencer marketing. His latest work Virtual Influencers: More Human Than Human is due for publication by Routledge in November in the book Influencer Marketing: Building Brand Communities and Engagement.
This conversation was livestreamed on 14 October 2020 on our YouTube channel.
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Conversation with Francesca Granelli about Disinformation and COVID-19
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
In this episode we have a conversation with Dr Francesca Granelli - a Teaching Fellow at King's College, London, and a political scientist and historian. Her interests span language, trust, and strategic communications, specifically in their use in historical and contemporary revolution.
This time we talk about an academic article that she co-authored for the academic journal "Defence Strategic Communications".
Read the article "Disinformation’s Societal Impact: Britain, Covid, And Beyond" (authors: T.Colley, F.Granelli and J.Althuis)
Academic journal “Defence Strategic Communications” Volume 8
Music: Otomārs Krišjānis Kariņš