media savvy

Austin Bay links to Michael Totten’s most recent report from Lebanon (if you haven’t been reading Totten’s blog and series, you should do so).

On the subject of Hezbollah’s “Divine Victory,” Bay says:

Our enemies are masters of media manipulation. But “information victories” without on the ground success are thin facades.

I agree that “information victories” are thin facades. They are better, however, than no victories at all. What’s more: score enough of them that are “sticky” (per Malcolm Gladwell) and you can actually change a narrative. That makes “information victories” very important in a hearts-and-minds war such as the one that Hezbollah continues to wage. We shouldn’t underestimate their importance.

It is dispiriting to watch various jihadi and Islamist groups, in the West and everywhere else, manipulate the media again and again. It is way past time for the West to start scoring some “information victories” of its own—particularly in the (seeming) absence of “real” victories.

We cannot afford too many “information victories” for jihadis and Islamists. l