Australia-Philippines Military Public Affairs workshop

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Throughout the three-day course, we’ve looked at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.  We’ve looked at the operational framework in which both nations work.  Some of the considerations that we have to work together with.  We’ve looked at media programs and media talent and preparing that talent and facilitating media embed programs.  And we also unpacked and looked at photography workshop as well, where we’ve been able to have lots of fun looking at the kits and the tools, and taking some photography and vision in order to amplify key messages into the region.

ADF | Australia-Philippines Military Public Affairs workshop

Related:

Great communication begins with connection

‘The workshop got our nations on one page to deliver the right information and messages that we want to convey across the globe.’

Embedded journalism:

The original purpose of embedding was to control journalists, according to Helen Benedict, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School.  Citing award-winning Australian journalist Phillip Knightley’s book “The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq” which describes how the U.S. government invented embedded journalism in response to critical coverage of the Vietnam War.  As civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,000, the Pentagon sought a media strategy that would bring attention back to the military’s role in the war, especially the role played by ordinary American service members.  This would require bringing war correspondents on side.

What are Information Operations?

To obtain a competitive edge, information operations and warfare entail obtaining intelligence on opponents and disseminating propaganda.

DefinitionInformation operations are tactics used to sway people’s opinions and affect how decisions are made.

More information:

Embedded Journalism, Media Manipulation & Apathy

2012 NDAA – Propaganda – MISO – InfoOps – PsyOps

SeaLight document

Interesting USG Reactions to Wagner Group Rebellion

American officials determined as early as January there was an internal power struggle underway between the private military group Wagner and the Russian government, and have been gathering and closely ‘monitoring’ intelligence on the volatile dynamic ever since, according to officials.

US has closely ‘monitored’ power struggle between Prigozhin and Russian government for months

Related:

US to delay Wagner sanctions for fear of siding with Putin: WSJ

Cameron Hudson, a former chief of staff to the US special envoy for Sudan, stated that Washington had a strategy to “target, isolate, and weaken Wagner’s growth in Africa,” adding that by maintaining that approach, Washington is now potentially assisting Putin.

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it

US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East

Related:

CONOPs

Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations

The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media

The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.

For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.

The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).