Seminar on Making Democracies Resilient to Modern Threats

This seminar was organized by the Fulbright Finland Foundation in cooperation with the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the United States Department of State, and hosted by the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Seminars were given by distinguished speakers from United States, England, and Finland.  All this year’s Fulbright Grantees were invited as well as government officials from every Scandinavian country, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.  The event was also open to public so the room was full of people. The purpose of the event was to hear and discuss the modern threats that countries face currently. 

The introductions were given by Jed Willard, Director of Global Engagement, FDR Foundation, Adams House, Harvard University. He also served as mentor for the whole event.  His title was: "Interfering with Other Countries: How and Why"

The Keynote speaker was Richard Harknett, Professor of Political Science, University of Cincinnati, 2017 Fulbright Professor in Cyber Studies at Oxford University.  His title was “Vulnerable-Resilient Democracy: The Duality of Cybersecurity” 
He started with entertaining slides on but when he moved on to talk about cyber security that is interconnected, my knowledge of the topic was too weak to follow the scientific discussions. His conclusion was “The alternative to digital tribalism is face-to-face cross cultural exchange. Fulbright got it right.”

Next panel discussions. Each of panel members gave a brief introduction to their research and then audience was able to ask questions.  Moderator was Jed Willard. 

Clinton vs. Trump elections 

First panelist:  Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Department of Government.  His talk titled "Structural Weaknesses in Modern Democracies" dealt with public opinion.  He explained that there are three models on how people form opinions: 1.  “The Good Citizen” (Rationa Actor) Model, 2.  “Advertising” Model, and 3.  Selective Perception Model.  In the first case you receive information, then your form a perception and finally you form an opinion.  In the second, model you first form a perception, then there is some kind of action and finally you form an opinion.  He showed an example of a luxury car.  In selective perception model people usually have an attitude, then you gather information, form a perception and finally an opinion. Good example of this was the precedental campaign between Trump and Clinton.    

This was really very interesting. Truly enjoyed all the jokes about politicians and I understood everything! 

The next speaker was Jonathan Albright, Director of Research, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University and his talk was titled "How Social Media Platforms Are Used to Interfere with Democratic Processes". We all know what social media can do. Very scary threat.  Good talk.

After these introduction, the audience was able to ask questions.  Lively discussions run into the coffee break.

Second Panel discussions was lead again by Jeff Willard. Adam Berinsky, Mitsui Professor of Political Science and Director, MIT Political Experiments Research Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology talked about "Rumors, Truths, and Reality: Political Misinformation in the Modern Day" and Briony Swire-Thompson, who is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute and Fellow at Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, and 2015 Fulbright Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  His talk was titled "Cognitive Approaches to the Correction of Misinformation". 

What a delightful presentation.  The topic questions he addressed were: 

1. What is the prevalence of misinformation and fake news?

2. Why does misinformation persist and what are some recommendations for how to correct it?

3. If people learn someone spread misinformation does that change their feelings towards them?

He explained the cognitive psychology behind fake news vs. misinformation.  He had
several graphs and statistical information to back up his claims.  Of course, Trump and elections was one of the topics.

Audience had plenty of questions and the organizers had to cut them short because of the time crunch. 

Closing remarks came from Päivi Anttikoski, Director General of Government Communications, Finnish Prime Minister's Office. 

Päivi Anttikoski, closing remarks. 

Afterwards all the Fulbright attendees were invited to a restaurant reception across the street.