Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to provide a model of educational intervention, based on a non formal set of tools aimed at implementing a peer-to-peer educational model from military students to civilian students on topics such as basic facts related to the North-Atlantic Alliance, its objectives and values, while developing critical thinking skills aimed at enhancing resilience to disinformation. The novelty of this type of educational intervention that tackles disinformation and fake news checking is the focus between cooperation of 2 different categories of students of 2 Romanian Universities: one a military academy and one a civilian university.

Our main concerns have been focusing on 2 main dimensions:
1. How much disinformation and pro-putin propaganda affected the young students during the past years of pandemic?
2. What are the best educational methods of intervention to tackle this type of pathological communication?

The research, including the testing and the implementation of this educational model of intervention, was realized few months before Russia invasion in Ukraine, between October and December 2021.

In the case of Romania, Russia's malignant influence and the fact that young people do not have information of historical relevance, do not know what is happening there now and tend to be more affected by false information or manipulative narratives launched directly or indirectly by Russians than other age groups, was identified as a particular vulnerability. Therefore, this is the main disinformation source we have aimed to tackle in our project. Even though Russian disinformation is present all over the Alliance members, some particular narratives occurred in frequency and intensity in our case (eg, ”NATO's inability to defend its allies”, ”Romania's military spending is wasted”, ”Romania should be neutral”) and based on an initially social research of the students group (questionnaire and focus group), we observed their vulnerability in front of this type of narratives. The educational approach have been tailored according with the social research results and the impact of this educational model was measured in a sociological and statistical relevant manner, too.

Through an approach that brings together young people with the task of reaching other young people on topics of high interest, we have developed and implemented an educational project that increased the awareness and critical thinking of a target group made of the young generation, thus boosting the resilience of this target group to disinformation campaigns. Increasing the resilience of the young generation to narratives that weaken support for the defense efforts was at the center of our endeavor. As the young citizens of Romania and of the Alliance know more about the efforts of NATO to ensure a safer future for them, and will acknowledge various challenges, we trust that they will be inspired to have an active contribution by further disseminating facts, as opposed to fake-news and disinformation. We trust that the peer to peer education model we have implemented within our pilot research project will serve as a valuable practice that could be replicated in other states, especially in the current context of Russia invasion in Ukraine and the discussion on hybrid or informational form of war.

Keywords:

Disinformation, fake news, peer to peer education, higher education cooperation, military and civilian students.