Disinformation is a “Big Lie” that contradicts Common Sense Asking For Faith Alone

In the digital era, “discourse power” is real power. Disinformation has become a preferred method of confounding the adversary and winning supporters. How does this work at the level of great power competition and conflict? Why is this question relevant today? Here are a few answers that I organized into a short online course for the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy.

1. Disinformation spreads by appealing to powerful human needs: to trust leaders, to think metaphorically, to belong, and be validated by others. Two-step flow, selective exposure, framing, agenda setting, and the spiral of silence theories explain how these needs are exploited by disinformation.
2. Two-step flow theory proposes that we seek and accept ideas that are promoted by those that we look up to, opinion leaders, selectively exposing ourselves to their information.
3. Framing theory states that messages framed by words and stories that appeal to our needs to belong or believe are more likely to be believed, regardless of their information load.
4. Agenda-setting theory affirms that disinformation may influence us not only by what it says but also by how it prioritizes information or leaves out. We know that which is salient. 
5. The spiral of silence theory discovered that people hate to be alone in holding an opinion. If even a false majority is created, many people will clam up, allowing the false majority and its disinformation to prevail.

I designed the course as a Senior Fellow of The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University to help professionals in international affairs discern the defining characteristics of disinformation and use them to separate it from other forms of misinformation or from simple digital noise meant to generate clicks.

The course is anchored by several five-minute-long videos that answer two questions: What is Disinformation? How does it influence people if it lacks validity? In six learning modules organized around animated videos, you will learn how disinformation and influence operations are used in the modern world to shape hearts, change minds, and try to defeat nations at times without firing a shot.

The course also examines the use of disinformation as a total-war tool, making a clear distinction between it and poorly sourced or inaccurate information, which are, after all, part of everyday life. As I will explain below, disinformation as a propaganda tool attempts to thoroughly change how we think about things. Disinformation should not be mistaken for spin, rhetorical hyperbole, or partisan interpretation of reality. Disinformation, in this context, is the ultimate form of propaganda; it is what Hitler of sinister memory called “the big lie;” a distortion or reality so big, a departure from what our common sense tells us so great, that you need to accept it by faith alone.

Once defined, we need to understand how disinformation works its magic. Its effects are not the product of repeated exposure but word framing, selective exposure, and, most important, creating networks of believers that influence each other.