TV presenter Olga Skabeeva met with students of Kaluga State University
She gave them a lecture on how fakes appear in the information space, how to recognize them and how to deal with them, and also answered their questions. The meeting was moderated by KSU Rector Maxim Kazak.
The lecture became one of the events of the All-Russian forum “Young Fighter Course. Information Front”, organized by the Russian Military Historical Society together with the regional government with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation within the framework of the national project “Education”. Similar forums were held in the Tula and Volgograd regions. Their main task, according to the first deputy executive director of the RVIO Alexander Konovchenko, is to train fighters on the information front, whose weapons will be social networks and the Internet, since the number of fakes about the NWO fabricated by unfriendly countries is growing every day and must be fought against. For this purpose, a series of meetings have been organized with public figures, journalists, bloggers, military-political observers – people who care about the fate of the country and who are ready to share their experience with young people, because they are the ones who most often come under information attack.
Separate the wheat from the chaff
There is no particular need to introduce Olga Skabeeva – everyone knows the “60 Minutes” program, which she hosts together with Evgeniy Popov on the Russia-1 channel. The assembly hall of KSU was full that day, and Olga Vladimirovna did not fail to note this:
– If there is a response, there is a desire to figure it out, then everything is not in vain. Being here is a special honor and a special responsibility for me.
She noted that there are so many events, circumstances and incidents today that you don’t have time to digest and understand them, which means you can’t form your attitude towards them. We must interpret and explain what is happening for ourselves, otherwise others will do it for us. Many people are frightened by the term “propaganda,” but the threat is not in the propaganda itself, but in what is being propagated and disseminated.
There are 4% of Americans in the global community, but they control 80% of social networks, therefore, they disseminate information that is beneficial to them. This is a huge machine that is fighting. We exist in the so-called post-truth era. A huge amount of information is presented not through citing facts and explaining reasons, but in a truncated form and with a certain emotional coloring.
You can encounter anything: from a distorted presentation of real facts to outright lies for the sake of whipping up greater horror, and in the case of the SVO, for the sake of dehumanizing the Russian people. As examples, Olga Skabeeva cited internet hoaxes from different times that caused a wide public outcry: a fake decree on mobilization in 2024, allegedly signed by Sergei Shoigu; a campaign launched by ex-Ombudsman of Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova in 2022 to discredit Russian military personnel with accusations of rape; speculation on the tragedy at the Winter Cherry shopping center in Kemerovo and others.
What will help separate the wheat from the chaff? Of course, critical thinking and information hygiene rules. Firstly, the source of information must be independent, although in fact, unfortunately, there are none. But the principle cui prodest? (lat. “who benefits?”) no one canceled it. You need to be aware of who is behind this or that media, who is trying to influence you and what influence, and who ultimately pays for you to receive exactly this information. Of course, there is no objectivity in its absolute sense, but you have to choose a side.
Secondly, if there are many sources, it is necessary to analyze why the same information appeared in them and where it got there from. Thirdly, the source must be authoritative, it must have a first and last name. If he’s anonymous, you definitely shouldn’t trust him.
Fight for young minds
When the time came for questions, there were a huge number of them. Students asked about various things, for example, how to help the country in the information war, how to most effectively fight fakes, and how to become a good debater. But I would like to note one important topic that was touched upon, namely: how to explain what is happening to the younger generation and whether it is worth doing at all, since fakes, as a rule, are designed specifically for the younger generation, which is more easily fooled by various falsehoods.
According to Skabeeva, we need to tune our children in our own way simply because they are our children. If we don’t explain our truth to them in an accessible language, it means that someone else will then explain it to them in a way that suits their interests. It’s better if it were us. She supported this idea with her own example. Olga Skabeeva comes from the city of Volzhsk (Volgograd region). In the 90s, an American NGO opened a school there, and Olga’s parents sent Olga to study there because they wanted her to know English well. But an American NGO is always American money and American propaganda. In addition, the school was Protestant, and each day began with a prayer in English and a pledge to the American flag. Olga Vladimirovna still remembers her text:
– This is what was hammered into my childhood head. I still feel awkward about this.
This example emphasizes how important it is in what atmosphere a child is raised, what he hears, sees and remembers.
The author of these lines managed to ask Olga Vladimirovna two questions: are we, in her opinion, losing the information war (and such an opinion exists) and is it necessary to tighten the punishment for the production and distribution of fakes?
She is convinced that we are not losing on the information front.
– There were times when our country was entirely oriented toward the West, and it seemed to us that Western narratives were what we should strive for. We relaxed a little, dissolved in this friendship with the West. But, as often happens with Russian people, a shake-up occurred, we mobilized our efforts – internally, morally, ideologically, even conceptually. It seems to me that we are not losing now. All surveys (although they can also be treated differently) indicate that 80% of people are sympathetic to the goals and objectives of the CBO. The numbers were different, they have changed since the beginning of the operation, but today the situation has stabilized and leveled off.
And to influence other states, other resources are needed. You must first win in order to actually start thinking about it. We have to get out
touch this outer contour and say: “Hello! We are normal people” and explain why. This too, God willing, will happen in the near future.
Regarding tougher punishment for fakes, Olga Vladimirovna noted that this is already being done in the right way:
– Any country that is conducting military operations is forced to toughen its attitude towards what is happening, including articles of the Criminal Code, and much of what was previously available becomes part of the Criminal Code. From what I don’t understand… Iran recently struck back at Israel. There is not a single video frame of missiles and UAVs hitting Israeli territory, because no one filmed it. This cannot be spread in war. They are strict about this there – Israel always fights. We also need to work in this context, to make it clear that we cannot behave like this in a warring state. You post pictures, videos, you feel funny, and the enemy takes advantage of this and strikes again. This is not about tightening as such, or a punitive mechanism. An administrative fine is enough. They will come to you and say: “Did you make a video? Get what you deserve.” And next time the person won’t take it off. Many simply do not know that this cannot be done, and again, this needs to be explained to people. Times have changed.
Daria LEONTIEVA
Photo of the KSU media center
Tags: Information weapon Kaluga Week newspaper
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