Counter-Intuitive: Strategic Communications' Role in P/CVE 'Counternarratives'
type: CreativeWork
description: The objective of this study was to analyse the effectiveness of online strategic communication initiatives in the field of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE). Challenging extremist ideas online and offline is important for national security. Governments, civil society groups and tech companies are all involved in this effort. The continuous growth of online extremist content has prompted the P/CVE sector to implement numerous initiatives. These primarily focus on countering the appeal of extremist ideology by utilising communication, persuasion, and redirection strategies. Such efforts are clearly complex in nature and not simply a case of creating messages to persuade people. Known as ‘counternarrative’ or ‘counterspeech’ communications, these online campaigns are not always well-researched or effectively evaluated. Lack of source information and primary data due to security concerns are common themes in this regard. They also appear to somewhat overlook the central role of human agency in the context of how choices and actions are manifested. This study examined online messages that seek to counter violent extremism. The goal was to improve how these messages are created and used. In order to pursue this objective, an in-depth examination of the concepts of radicalisation and deradicalisation was conducted. This was supported by a comparative analysis of socialisation theory within a political socialisation context. To place these ideas within a relevant operational framework, the Reasoned Action Model (RAM) of behaviour change management was employed and adapted to address the unique requirements of the online P/CVE sector. The researcher integrated these features to create a hybrid framework specifically designed for the purposes of this study, referred to as the Socialisation and Reasoned Action Strategic Communication (SoRaSCo) model. Subsequently, this was employed in three distinct and innovative prevention and countering violent extremism (…
abstract: The objective of this study was to analyse the effectiveness of online strategic communication initiatives in the field of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE). Challenging extremist ideas online and offline is important for national security. Governments, civil society groups and tech companies are all involved in this effort. The continuous growth of online extremist content has prompted the P/CVE sector to implement numerous initiatives. These primarily focus on countering the appeal of extremist ideology by utilising communication, persuasion, and redirection strategies. Such efforts are clearly complex in nature and not simply a case of creating messages to persuade people. Known as ‘counternarrative’ or ‘counterspeech’ communications, these online campaigns are not always well-researched or effectively evaluated. Lack of source information and primary data due to security concerns are common themes in this regard. They also appear to somewhat overlook the central role of human agency in the context of how choices and actions are manifested. This study examined online messages that seek to counter violent extremism. The goal was to improve how these messages are created and used. In order to pursue this objective, an in-depth examination of the concepts of radicalisation and deradicalisation was conducted. This was supported by a comparative analysis of socialisation theory within a political socialisation context. To place these ideas within a relevant operational framework, the Reasoned Action Model (RAM) of behaviour change management was employed and adapted to address the unique requirements of the online P/CVE sector. The researcher integrated these features to create a hybrid framework specifically designed for the purposes of this study, referred to as the Socialisation and Reasoned Action Strategic Communication (SoRaSCo) model. Subsequently, this was employed in three distinct and innovative prevention and countering violent extremism (…
author: Zamir, Munir
language: eng
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:39:57Z
provider: University of South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of South Wales