Brief me

How can those who seek to uphold liberal democracies ensure their communication resonates with citizens without resorting to the manipulative tactics used by those who seek to undermine liberal democracies? How can communications be both meaningful and ethical? This is the central challenge that the future research project will address.

This research that will be launched in 2021 will build upon previous Enlightenment 2.0 work that examines the relationship between online technologies and political behaviour, as well as understanding values and identities.

This research seeks to understand the potential consequences of communication strategies that use different methods, tools and channels as well as tackling the question of ethical communication. It will analyse the many variables of meaningful communication for different audiences and hopes to be able to establish an interdisciplinary framework (including but not limited to values, narratives, metaphors, frames and causal reasoning) in environments with high and low levels of uncertainty.

An important component of this work will involve citizen engagement to listen and discuss with citizens across the EU about what they consider meaningful and ethical communication to be. The combination of state-of-the-art science coupled with a profound understanding of citizens’ opinions – it is hoped – will result in helpful insights for practitioners and policymakers.

The international Call for Experts was launched on 15 October 2021 and closed on 29th of October 2021.

 

 

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