Understanding Media Manipulation in Narrative Warfare

Adversaries have found that manipulating narratives in online media provides a new, effective, and inexpensive way to wield soft power at home and abroad. Thresher’s team of engineers, data scientists and national security professionals have created the Media Manipulation Monitor (M3) to identify, measure, track and interpret these actions. M3 is based on the principle that advanced censorship regimes designed to control the flow of information convey a great deal about their governments and leaders. We propose to tailor the data and analytic tools of M3 to give US Air Force and other DoD customers actionable intelligence as they work to understand the role of media manipulation in narrative warfare. Our feasibility study in Phase I will focus on identifying user needs through structured customer discovery and determining metrics to measure the effectiveness of M3 data and analytic tools in meeting those needs. The needs assessment will include tests for relevance, efficiency, and usability, including security requirements and integration into analyst workflow. A proven product with paying commercial and government clients, M3 has high potential to bring the benefits of understanding the governments that seek to control their media environments to the intelligence analysts and operators in the Air Force.