Politoblog

Greta Scott, Aria Guevara, and Paulina Frank interviewed Tim Weber, Head of Editorial and Executive Director at Edelman and former Business and Technology Editor for the BBC News Website, on Russian disinformation and the role of social media in the war on Ukraine. Greta Scott (GS) : Russia has invested billions of roubles in its disinformation campaign. I saw online that you have described both PR and journalism as “storytelling” activities. But how does disinformation work? And how effective are disinformation and communication strategies? Tim Weber (TW): Disinformation is storytelling, that's the whole purpose of it. Disinformation is about putting out multiple narratives – they can be completely contradictory - to sow confusion, to create distrust, to make people think, “Well, not everything is quite certain - this person says this, that person says that,” and so on. There was a time when most countries had one fairly agreed narrative – that's because they listened to the