Information strategies in various spheres of life
Information strategies operate on a single principle: they are aimed at creating an appropriate virtual world, which allows you to make changes to reality at the next step, based on it. That is, there is a change in information reality in front of us, along which there is a change in virtual reality, in order to change the real (physical) reality as a result.
The mass consciousness sees in reality those aspects that are emphasized in information flows. This leads to the concept of an information agenda (agenda setting), which arose in the United States in the process of managing public opinion. Since the mass consciousness really reacts only to the first important types of messages, it is necessary to create such types of messages that will occupy these first places. It's like a message competition, not an authoritarian ban on some messages and pushing others to the top.
The information space is more dynamic, while the physical (real) space, either cognitive or virtual, is more conservative. It is very difficult to change them.
Thus, it is the information space that allows you to check new people, new ideas and new projects more quickly. It is also a cheaper option of "expertise", since changes in the information space cost much less. But every significant change in the real space that is planned requires appropriate information preparation.
We can find examples of exactly such use of information reality in many cases. For example, in electoral technologies, when an appropriate image of a candidate is created, motivating the voter to vote for him. The virtual object itself - the image - is one of the main components of making a fateful decision.
When choosing Nixon, political strategists started talking about the fact that the image should be such that it would cause an almost chemical reaction of voters, i.e. rational thinking should not participate in this.
In the case of a crisis situation in the information space, spin-doctoring occurs, i.e. an attempt to deploy the information situation in such a way that it is more beneficial for the communicator.
The information space is mobile and dynamic, which allows you to build a variety of mental structures in it, which ultimately affect individual and mass consciousness.
Preparing for an armed conflict, which was quite clearly seen in the example of the war in Iraq, requires significant work with information and virtual realities. The main rule in this case is the demonization of the enemy. Saddam Hussein was already presented as an Arabic-speaking Guler in the first Gulf War. The basis of the war in Iraq was the presence of weapons of mass destruction; as it turned out later, it was just a virtual reality, since no weapons were ever found.
Similarly, the demonization of Russia, the president of Russia, is taking place in Ukraine now. Analogies with fascism (Putler, Rashism) are used for this purpose. The attitude in Ukraine towards Russia has traditionally been positive, and it is not so easy to change this, since it is based on numerous family ties, constant contacts at the personal, social and industrial levels. Now there is a total information attack on this attitude in order to change it to a negative one.
As we can see, points of vulnerability of mass consciousness are chosen as the most effective virtual tools - something that mass consciousness can react to automatically.
For example, when it comes to a war crime, there are always stories about the cruelty of the enemy towards children and women, since telling about the same actions against soldiers will not have the same effect.
Any revolution or significant change in the social order is based on the destruction of the virtual world of mass consciousness. This is also the revolution of 1917, when the new rule became "peace to huts, war to palaces." This is also perestroika, the processes of glasnost of which worked to destroy the Soviet model of the world, when all the sacred symbols of that era were presented exclusively in a negative way. In the theory of decision-making, it is recorded that a change in knowledge results in the adoption of completely different decisions.
That is, the corresponding virtual intervention is able to temporarily change the world map, but after that, the situation is immediately corrected, which allows you to restore the world model programmed by the communicator.
We can divide strategies into the following types:
- information strategies working with the future;
- information strategies that work with modernity;
- information strategies aimed at the past.
Each of these strategies, in turn, is divided into stabilization and destabilizing options. For example, an information strategy that works with future situations can be either mobilization (legitimization option) or one that denies this option of the future, works against it.
Mobilization strategies were often used in the Soviet Union. Any new transition (for example, the conquest of virgin lands) needed to connect mass and individual consciousness to perform new tasks. The mobilization strategy allows you to connect the current situation with the situation of the future, when virtual objects are "substituted" instead of some real objects. Then there is a gradual replacement of virtual objects with real ones, when they gradually begin to appear.
The mobilization strategy of the Great Patriotic War made it possible to concentrate mass consciousness on victory, as well as forget about the troubles that accompanied difficult times. In such crisis periods, information strategies are just as important as military strategies, since the role of the civilian population in achieving victory is no less important.
The legitimization strategy, as we discussed above regarding the Iraq war, creates prerequisites for the use of military force. This is a virtual use of force before doing it in reality.
The mass consciousness can "replay" future actions in its imagination, functioning as an appropriate permission for such actions.
Quite often, future strategies stimulate one type of situation while simultaneously negating another. The anti-alcohol information campaign was a strategy of denying a particular type of future. Or the revolution of 1917 was at the same time a mobilization strategy for changing the social order and a negative one for manifestations of the old order.
In all these cases, the information strategy builds in the mass consciousness a type of virtual object that allows you to make a transition to the future, since it is aimed at supporting those elements of the future in modernity that are most necessary for such a transition.
When an information strategy works with objects of the past, it implements either positive or negative tasks.
The Soviet Union conducted, for example, a large number of jubilee campaigns, which was typical for the times of "stagnation". The purpose of such campaigns was to maintain those aspects of the past that were important for maintaining the right picture of the world.
On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, pseudo-historical studies appeared in many European countries, the purpose of which was to belittle the role of the Soviet Union in this Victory. In a number of cases, and at the state level, attempts are being made to place the blame for the outbreak of World War II on Stalin, as well as on Hitler, which contradicts historical truth.
We can also talk about a fixing strategy, which is aimed at strengthening the modern picture of the world of a certain society, because it "fulfills" certain of its axioms. If the Soviet system emphasized the social goals of a person, then the American system emphasizes individual goals, for example, a model where everyone can become a millionaire. The films of each system are created around such axioms.
In this context, we should also mention the concept of soft power, which is used in his research by J. Let's say it's from Harvard University. "Soft power", in contrast to "hard power" (for example, the use of force), is an encouragement to perform an action exclusively by means of attraction, which primarily includes mass culture. Hollywood, for example, performs such a function in terms of spreading the values of American society in the world.
J. Let him emphasize that hard power is the use of military or economic actions, while soft power is based on attraction, not coercion.
Such information strategies are more durable. Let us recall, for example, the influence of France on society in the time of Pushkin. The upper class then lived by the standards of another nation. Today, the United States has powerful "machines" for generating such virtual standards. These are films, television and other manifestations of mass culture that are spreading all over the world, where they begin to compete with their own cultures of different peoples.
Information strategies work with virtual objects. Not all virtual objects are the same. Pascal Boyer, for example, talks about the corresponding cognitive limitations, due to which some symbols can pass, and some cannot. That is, our brain has appropriate cognitive filters, so some symbolic objects are more likely to be transmitted from one person to another; for example, P. Boyer refers to religious symbols.
Various information strategies are used in propaganda, advertising, branding and public relations. In this case, a virtual object is also introduced and maintained, which is an analog of a real-world object (product, company, country). The virtual object allows you to perform various types of transformations in order to get closer to completing various tasks.
A separate section is information strategies in the field of healthcare aimed at fostering a healthy lifestyle. This is a large area where a significant number of information campaigns are conducted and a lot of money is invested.
An important element is the development of various information strategies for different types of target audience.
There are four groups of audiences based on their risk response.
- The first group includes those who are not afraid at all, for example, AIDS, they do not belong to the risk group, they do not need attention from the planners of the information campaign.
- The second group is the "alarmists". They also do not belong to the risk group, but they exaggerate their own vulnerability. This group should receive informational messages that will be able to correct their inappropriate behaviors.
- The third group - "refuseniks" - significantly underestimate the real risks.
Here, the information strategy should increase their sense of vulnerability.
- The last group - the "players" - recognize risks, but are active in preventing risks. The information strategy in this case should teach them to choose less risky behaviors.
A new variant of information strategies has become the creation and maintenance of frames in the mass consciousness, which are understood as standardized interpretations introduced into human consciousness. Such a frame for the war in Iraq was the presentation of it as a war on terrorism.
In general, information strategies are elements of broader strategies being developed by mankind, since any information strategy still tries to transform not only information, but also genuine reality.
