Democracy Under Pressure from Outside and Within: Introducing the Concept of Information Manipulation to Strategic Communication Research

Mis- and disinformation are increasingly recognized in academia as threats to democracy and societal well-being. There is also a growing interest in mis- and disinformation in strategic communication research, as these are also pressing issues for major organizations. However, sociopolitical perspectives on the topic are underrepresented in the field. Moreover, many areas of disinformation research and its application in strategic communication lack an integrative concept for capturing the complexity of online disinformation and related phenomena, as well as the interplay of relevant dimensions. To close this gap in the literature, the present conceptual paper introduces the concept of information manipulation as a form of strategic political communication from the field of international relations into strategic communication research. Based on this, the paper offers an innovative perspective on how domestic and foreign information manipulation interlink. The paper endorses a whole-of-society approach to information resilience and discusses the role of strategic communication research and practice in the analysis and mitigation of information manipulation.