China will be a bigger risk factor than Russia in the information war: Philip Seib

By Vishal Manve, MALD 2023 Candidate, The Fletcher School

On April 13, 2022, The Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World organized a conversation with Philip Seib, the author of Information at War, and Thom Shanker, Director, Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University and former Washington editor of the New York Times. The conversation revolved around how information and disinformation are weaponized in the context of war amid the current Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022.

Kickstarting the conversation, Seib explained how the current media coverage of the war in Ukraine was substantive, providing crucial information and showcasing evolution in war reporting. He acknowledged the presence of sensationalism albeit terming it “unavoidable and tugging at heartstrings as war impacts civilians, children, and entire cities.”

“In the long haul, news organizations should pay attention to the coverage of civilian lives in this war. When news organizations step back and look beyond day-to-day news coverage but the grand scheme of news developments, I hope they introspect on how they cover the plight of people who are victimized by war around the world,” Seib said.

On the topic of digital developments in journalism, Seib said he was impressed by forensic journalism and platforms like BellingCat which use satellite imagery to investigate stories on the ground and debunk government propaganda.

“Such initiatives cut off claims like Putin claiming dead bodies in Bucha were done by Ukrainians themselves. Satellite imagery and reporting that has come out has shown these bodies were present when the Russians were present and Ukrainians did not come and murder their citizens,” he further explained.

He said that the true strength of journalism lies in hard evidence, including how “it would be harder for regimes” to engage in mass killing and eventually discrediting the news as fake.

On the disinformation front, Seib said they cannot be left unchecked and news organizations need to provide direct responses to contradict disinformation campaigns often mounted on a massive scale.

“Russians had considered themselves masters of disinformation campaigns after the interference in the 2016 Presidential elections, but this time around, there is a large volume of counter-information made available to debunk fake news,” Seib explained.

Pivoting to China, Seib further added how the Chinese “are the masters at influencing the global information flow and deserve more attention” since, from an American standpoint, China will be a bigger risk factor than Russia.

Cautioning civilians, Seib added that people need to be skeptical and check alternative news sources.

“It is a question for aspiring diplomats, journalists, policymakers, and countries to pay attention to the way the world gets information about armed conflict,” he added.

Utilizing the example of Finland, Seib said the Nordic nation begins media literacy as a crucial component in kindergarten, treating students as the first line of defense against disinformation and propaganda. He further added the U.S. had not taken this seriously enough. “News and truth are not always the same thing,” he said.

Seib further said he was often critical of the U.S. government’s attempts at public diplomacy but in the context of Ukraine, the U.S. had done a good job through — Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and numerous other outlets.

“They are calling it a ring around Russia and enhancing broadcasting not just into Russia, but into Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and trying to counter Russian influence even in places like Latin America, and Africa,” Seib added.

“If you don’t want the Chinese or Russians to run rampant with their version of events through their information sources, it is incumbent on countries like the United States to push back,” he said.

As the world goes digital with over five million people owning cell phones, Seib said the way we do journalism and engage in foreign policy and diplomacy changes impacts everyone in the process.

Explaining how the blame game cannot be permitted to supersede facts, Seib added that “Putin could be allowed to slither out of any responsibility” by blaming previous actions by other state actors.

“A key strength of Murrow’s reporting was his ability to transcend beyond political and government aspects of what was happening during the Blitz and forming kinship between American and British audiences,” Seib stated.

“Murrow understood the connection between the individual victim of war and policies of war. He never lost sight of this cardinal fact as he wrote stories,” Seib further explained about Edward Murrow, one of the prominent journalists in American history.

He further explained how the real equivalence for Putin’s war was not with the United States but with Adolf Hitler.

“You can see very distinct parallels between Czechoslovakia in 1938 and Ukraine in 2022, and Putin’s hunger will not be satiated just with Ukraine,” he concluded.