Indirect countermeasures against hostile propaganda appear to be more effective than overt struggle and are becoming more common. U.S. digital diplomacy increasingly employs online games that teach players about information manipulation, aiming to “inoculate” them against attempts to change their convictions. However, the Western academic community has largely ignored the games’ possible risks and ulterior motives. In this paper, three online games of the Department of State and Cambridge University are examined: Bad News, Harmony Square, and Cat Park. Through experiments and follow-up surveys, the authors find that, along with “useful” inoculation, these games also advance the “soft disempowerment” of Russia and its media, more generally suppressing the soft power of non-Western-aligned states. © 2024, Foreign Policy Research Foundation. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)172-187
Number of pages16
JournalRussia in Global Affairs
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2024

    Research areas

  • Bad News, Cat Park, digital diplomacy, Harmony Square, media literacy, online games, Russia, soft disempowerment, soft power, U.S

ID: 126461170