Media-Military relations in the age of Twitter and Facebook

Two unconnected news items over the last one week caught my attention and set me thinking on how the age-old template of military-media interaction has undergone a drastic change in this past decade.

One was a report in The Guardian which said: “The British army is creating a special force of Facebook warriors, skilled in psychological operations and use of social media to engage in unconventional warfare in the information age.The 77th Brigade, to be based in Hermitage, near Newbury, in Berkshire, will be about 1,500-strong... the Brigade will be responsible for what is described as non-lethal warfare... against a background of 24-hour news, smartphones and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, the force will attempt to control the narrative.”

The second was the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) decision to open a twitter account (@SpokespersonMoD). For a Ministry notorious for its opaque nature of decision-making and information dissemination, this was a tectonic shift. What prompted the MoD decision to follow in the footsteps of the highly popular and effective twitter handle of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)—​@MEAIndia—will perhaps never be known, it’s a good first step towards bringing in some transparency in the highly sanitised, fear-ridden corridors of the MoD. Whether the twitter handle will actually be interactive (its first tweet said: “This handle will disseminate authentic info and latest updates from the Indian Ministry of Defence”) is a matter of speculation but the fact that it has joined the social media platform is a sign of our times.

This handle will disseminate authentic info and latest updates from the Indian Ministry of Defence. — Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) February 10, 2015

The advent of the internet has brought a powerful medium into the information domain. Of all the media vectors (print, television and internet-based social media platforms), this is probably the most nebulous, seamless, largest, quickest and hence the most dangerous. The ability to anonymously transmit and receive information without owning any infrastructure or even hardware has made it an effective tool for the insurgents. The medium also does not lend to government control. 

As a young, highly perceptive serving officer of the Indian Army has written in a private mail to me, “Social media has become an additional element within the operational environment in which nearly anyone with an internet connection can participate. While social media capabilities do not provide information superiority, they have empowered individuals to more effectively share content and consequently influence the narrative of a conflict. Also, social media capabilities have provided a means for individuals and small groups to effectively synchronize actions, even in absence of an authoritative leader. The speed at which participants can add content, truthful or otherwise, to the battle space, forces Armed Forces to change the way they approach this media. Thus the power of this media is value neutral; it can be used by any player. In fact whoever controls the narrative in this field, will occupy the perception high ground.” 

These are exactly the reasons why the British Army is forming an Information Brigade. The Guardian report noted: “The 77th will include regulars and reservists and recruitment will begin in the spring. Soldiers with journalism skills and familiarity with social media are among those being sought. An army spokesman said: “77th Brigade is being created to draw together a host of existing and developing capabilities essential to meet the challenges of modern conflict and warfare. It recognises that the actions of others in a modern battlefield can be affected in ways that are not necessarily violent.”

The Indian Army came onto the social media platforms in 2013 in a small way but has now gained a considerable presence on Facebook and Twitter. The presence of the Additional Director General, Public Information (ADG PI)—@ADGPI—the nodal agency for all media related issues at Army HQ has a formal role now as the official mouthpiece of the Indian Army. Both the platforms have substantial following and continue to influence favourable opinion for the Army. The credibility of the Army’s social media ventures has been enhanced by multiple references and recommendations which they have received from the accounts of the PMO, PIB, US Army & Amitabh Bachchan to name a few. May be the other two services will soon follow suit.

This is a big change from previous decades when dominance was achieved through rationing information, exercising information control, censorship and propaganda. Those in charge of public information have now realised that such methods are not practical or prudent in the contemporary world. There is a constant increase in the number of sources of information which cannot be muzzled and have to be managed. In coming years, the security forces will therefore have to focus on balancing openness with security to exploit the power of the media, both tactically and strategically. Media strategy can no longer be the job of the public relations officer alone, but must be seen as a command function. A day is not too far when the armed forces may have to think of creating a separate Public Affairs cadre to handle their media and perception management campaigns.

The media that reports on the military and central armed police forces too needs to train and equip itself to discern, detect and dissect national security issues. At the same time, the government, the armed forces and even academics, who deal in issues of national security, have to understand the way traditional media and the new entrants function. There is a crying need to have more interaction between these players without the pressure of deadlines. So far, the tendency is to keep away from each other. That does not help either side. 

And as I have said in the past, the traditional media has largely been a friend and supporter of the armed forces. I am not so sure about the new elephant in the tent— the social media. It is wild, it is irreverent, it has its own set of rules and it does not bother about big names and bigger reputations.

As the then National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, said at a cyber security conference a couple of years ago: “Cyberspace is today the fifth domain of human activity, in addition to land, sea, air and outer space. Our dependence upon cyberspace for social, economic, governance, and security functions has also grown exponentially. Unfettered access to information through a global inter-connected Internet empowers individuals and governments, and it poses new challenges to the privacy of individuals and to the capability of Governments and administrators of cyberspace tasked to prevent its misuse. The goverment’s job is complicated by the unique characteristics of cyberspace. It is borderless in nature, both geographically and functionally; anonymity and the difficulty of attribution; the fact that for the present the advantage is with offence rather than defence; and, the relatively anarchic nature of this domain.”

Media practitioners—both traditional and those in the fifth domain—will necessarily continue to focus on the functioning of the military as they view it. It is up to decision-makers and the military leadership to exploit their presence, reach and influence to suit to their own aims and objectives. Therein lies the trick.

In the end I want to leave you with a thought: In my view, more interaction, not less between the media and the military is the way forward. Familiarity in this case will breed more knowledge not contempt.