Oriented on making people closer

At the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, it was held a meeting between media literacy expert Emerson Brooking and students of the Faculty of International Journalism. The session was organized by the US Embassy together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

Emerson Brooking is widely known in the Internet space as the co-author of the book “LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media,” which provides a detailed analysis of how social networks in our time are turning into a kind of “information weapon.” He is also the author of a number of publications in such reputable magazines as Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy, Washington Post and Rolling Stone, etc.

Emerson Brooking currently serves as a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Laboratory. In 2019, he was included in Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30, an annual list of young people who have achieved particular success in their field before the age of 30.

After Emerson Brooking gave a lecture to future international journalists at the Institute of International Affairs, he gave an interview to ORIENT.

- Mr. Brooking, you held a number of meetings in Ashgabat with media workers - current journalists and their future colleagues. As we can see, the recipient of your lectures was selective. Tell me, what is the purpose of your visit?

– The main purpose of my visit is to share my knowledge about how disinformation spreads in the global information space, and to tell what role the Internet plays in this process. The fact is that a gigantic audience of users of the Global Network in the United States of America and other countries has been faced with similar problems for many years, which we in the United States have studied quite well. That is why we decided to share our accumulated experience.

– Have you achieved your goals?

– During the meetings, I spoke in detail about how the Internet is changing our communication, what technologies and mechanisms exist that in some cases help communication and the process of cognition, and in other cases interfere with these processes. For example, artificial intelligence, various bots, puppets and other inventions of the human mind. After all, the main thing is how all these communication mechanisms influence our communication, the psychology of information perception. There are aspects, views, experiences that are fixed in the human consciousness and are permanent. But there are various tools and methods that can change them and even manipulate people.

– So, your goal is for the reader to learn to distinguish truth from misinformation. Nowadays, information has no barriers - it penetrates everywhere. When Robinson Crusoe found himself on a desert island, he was cut off from the whole world. For our contemporary, if you were in Robinson’s place, it is enough to have a mobile phone with you to find out everything that is happening on the planet. But he will not always be sure whether what he hears is true or a lie? What advice do you give to the modern Robinson, how can he figure out where the truth is and where the misinformation is?

– There is a huge amount of information on the Internet and a great variety of its sources. Moreover, this information is interpreted differently. Therefore, it is important for the reader to understand the intentions of those who post information; there is intent behind each specific example of it. And it should be determined whether the author really illuminated any fact from all aspects or approached the problem tendentiously.

Who will ultimately benefit if you believe what the authors write about? What kind of selfish or objective intentions are present in the information? To earn money? Break into power structures? The desire to manipulate your consciousness or anything else from this series.

Therefore, I would advise, if possible, to check the information with as many sources as possible, so as not to go too deep into one of them. Over time, a person who constantly works with information will understand which sources are trustworthy and which are not.

But I would like to return to your Robinson Crusoe analogy. Given all the difficulties that he will encounter in gaining access to opposing assessments of the same events, he will need to systematically increase the level of his awareness on the topics of interest to him. I do not mean so much Robinson Crusoe himself, but rather the path that he will have to overcome in order to learn and prepare himself well before finding an inhabited island.

– That is, it is important to get acquainted with information that evaluates events from different aspects and have the necessary knowledge of your own…

• Absolutely right!

– Modern media have in their arsenal high-tech tools not only for transmitting information, but also for creating it. And I would like to know how you evaluate when a journalist does not write the material himself, but entrusts this creative mission to artificial intelligence, which is so popular among young people?

– Increased interest in everything new and advanced, including the ability of artificial intelligence systems to perform those functions that were previously inherent only to humans, makes us all young. Indeed, we are seeing increased interest in AI these days. The very inquisitive students of the Institute of International Relations, with whom I spoke today, asked me many interesting questions, including on the topic of using artificial intelligence in work and everyday life. But at the same time, they understand that AI systems can only help complete the mechanical, routine part of the task, but cannot become a replacement for the human brain. Artificial intelligence can help write information that appears to be true, but AI does not know what is true. I think AI will make our jobs easier by being a great option as an assistant, however, we should be careful never to try to replace human thinking with it.

– I agree, because material written by a person also has its own soul!

– I believe that when reading good material, carefully written by a professional, you can, as they say, feel the soul of a journalist between the lines. In short information of two hundred words, this may not be noticed, but in longer materials, the soul of a real writer is present. And even if AI is able to write several materials in one sitting, they will not have the same spirituality and consciousness as a human can.

– The modern world is multipolar, and each side has its own truth. The journalist must understand this alternative in order to take a specific position and correctly cover the event. But in complex matters, he has access only to the tip of a giant iceberg of information, since much remains behind the curtain of confidentiality. I mean such well-known cases as the additional protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Colin Powell test tube, and the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin. Even the documents of the most notorious crime of the 20th century - the assassination of President Kennedy - have not yet been fully declassified. But over time, when once-hidden information becomes public knowledge, people’s position may change to the exact opposite.

• Agree. When the journalist has all the information, then he will be able to correctly assess the situation. But I also want to say that in the modern world this element is becoming less necessary. For example, in the digital and forensic research laboratory where I work, many former journalists also work, and we try to use information in the public domain in order to double-check facts and come to some conclusions and assessments.

The Internet opens the door to new ways for misinformation to spread, but it also creates ways to identify the truth in the process. In my presentations, I talk about how bots and puppets are used on the Internet. If you can recognize their use, it often means the authors have something they're hiding. This gives us new strings to pull in the search for the truth. This is not the most reliable confirmation, but it makes it possible to get closer to the truth.

– I witnessed with what interest the students of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan listened to your lecture, and after it they asked you many different questions. Tell me, what interests future Turkmen journalists? And what opinion do you have about Turkmen youth?

– I really liked the students of this university from among the future Turkmen international journalists. And I think that their energy and interest is a manifestation of their thinking. And I would like to emphasize that Turkmen youth have a sense of interest, curiosity, and a desire to learn new things. They are aware of global technologies and understand the dangers of their misuse. The Turkmen youth I have met are wonderful representatives of their country. (PHOTO 8)

– I came to Turkmenistan with the goal of teaching, but in the end I learned new things myself. Turkmenistan surprised me. But what is also surprising is that the information disseminated about Turkmenistan in foreign media does not always coincide with reality. So I hope that when I return to Washington, I can tell the truth about your country and share it with others.

Bekdurdy AMANSARYEV

Photo: author