‘Information vertigo’ undermines truth and democracy, say Carolina faculty

This story, written by UNC Hussman student Jordan Andreasen ’28, was originally published at global.unc.edu.

“We are in a critical moment in our democracy,” Jennifer Davis ’94, ’97 (JD) said, “We’re not going to be able to face these enormous challenges unless our democracy is healthy once again.”

On Sept. 24, UNC Global Affairs and the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) hosted the first Diplomatic Discussion of the academic year at the FedEx Global Education Center.

The event, “When Nothing Seems True: Information Warfare and the Fight for Democracy,” featured two Carolina faculty members. Davis is the Knott Distinguished Professor of Practice in the UNC Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense and Diplomacy Initiative Faculty Fellow in UNC Global Affairs. Daniel Kreiss is the Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and cofounder of CITAP.

Davis and Kreiss spoke of the impact of information warfare on democratic societies both abroad and in the U.S., helping students understand how authoritarian governments erode political and civil rights through the calculated and widespread use of disinformation.

Carolina’s Vice Provost for Global Affairs and Chief Global Officer Barbara Stephenson, who came to UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019 after 34 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, opened the event by addressing the “record-breaking crowd” of nearly 300 students, faculty, staff and community members.

“I am truly overjoyed to see so many of you here tonight to discuss this complicated and incredibly nuanced topic,” she said.

Stephenson said the term “information warfare” encapsulates the urgency and severity of the issue. Davis, also a retired Foreign Service Officer, then clarified the distinctions between information warfare, misinformation, disinformation and related terms, citing a number of authors who’ve written on these phenomena, such as Anne Applebaum and Timothy Snyder. Davis also shared stories from her experience as a senior U.S. diplomat.

The two-time Tar Heel served as acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, as well as chief of staff to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, executive assistant to two secretaries of state, special assistant to another secretary, director of orientation at the Foreign Service Institute, and more, including posts in Colombia, Belgium and Mexico. It was Davis’s time as consul general in Istanbul, Türkiye, where she faced a targeted disinformation campaign by Russia to damage the relationship between the U.S. and Türkiye.

“We saw [Russia] very cleverly using troll farms, bots and AI, not only to sow discord in our own democracy… but also to harm us and our relationships with our allies and partners,” she said. “And they’re using [them] very effectively.”

According to Davis, the strategy behind, and effectiveness of, information warfare has changed significantly with the rise of new technologies.

“The goal of these information operations is not to make us believe something false,” Davis said. “It is to give us information vertigo; to make us feel like nothing is true.”

Kreiss spoke about the impact of information warfare on domestic politics. With his background in political communication, Kreiss spoke about the importance of accountability — electoral, institutional and discursive accountability — from the people, branches of government, journalists, universities and other key stakeholders in society. According to Kreiss, information warfare weakens all forms of accountability.

“When you no longer trust those knowledge producers, it’s a lot harder for those knowledge producers to hold power to account,” he said.

Unfortunately, Kreiss said, many media organizations today weaken accountability in democracies because they incentivize short-term attention, monetize emotional content, amplify extremist content, fragment audiences and deinstitutionalize knowledge production.

During the moderated discussion, Stephenson asked Davis and Kreiss if they have seen countries successfully defend their democracies against information warfare and how they did it. The speakers shared examples from postwar Europe to modern-day Brazil. Open communication between trusted, familiar people worked in those contexts, and remains part of the solution in the U.S.

“Work to engage the public, your memberships. If you’re a part of civil associations, or clubs, community groups: talk to people about this, face-to-face, talk to people about the importance of democracy,” Kreiss said.

Addi Rockoff ’27 asked the presenters how to decipher and process news and information on an international scale. Kreiss emphasized the importance of reliable news sources, finding institutions that have the public interest at heart; however, Kreiss’s biggest piece of advice to Rockoff was to “follow your gut.”

“It’s hard, given the millions of pieces of content we see on a regular basis,” he said. “But, it’s about being aware, it’s about being critical, and it’s about cultivating trusted sources and trusted individuals as a way to help navigate our world.”

Davis and Kreiss encouraged students to learn from successful democracies around the world and to be active citizens. Strengthening democracy, they argued, requires many people to work together, including journalists, universities, media organizations and civil society. Davis and Kreiss encouraged students to defend democratic norms and institutions; prioritize in-person and local connections; support institutions, organizations and outlets that are committed to democracy; and lean into identities, values and norms that are shared with others. And the time to defend American democracy, they said, is now.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, UNC Global Affairs hosted a second Diplomatic Discussion with U.S. Ambassador (retired) Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In November, there are two more Diplomatic Discussions on critical minerals in Indonesia (Nov. 4) and America’s role in NATO (Nov. 12).