Building Resilience to Manipulative Information During Elections: Learn to Discern and Elections Facilitator's Guide

"Elections play a vital role in maintaining democratic governance. They enable citizens to choose their leaders and hold them accountable for their actions and policies."

The Learn to Discern and Elections Facilitator's Guide is designed to be a comprehensive resource to build resilience to manipulative information during elections. Based on IREX's Learn to Discern (L2D) approach, it is intended for voters, elections officials and observers, media professionals, and other citizen audiences who seek to foster a more informed and engaged electorate, ultimately strengthening information integrity and democratic processes around the world. The guide provides practical lessons, activities, and resources that cover the entire electoral cycle - from pre-electoral to post-electoral periods - and addresses the evolving information landscape, the role of media in elections, cognitive biases, and strategies to identify and combat misinformation. It is designed to be adaptable to various contexts and for in-person, online, or blended learning environments.

As explained in the guide, "In 2024, billions of people will participate in elections that will have a significant impact on people's lives and the future of democracy around the world. However, false narratives, conspiracy theories, and baseless claims of election fraud pose a global threat, eroding trust in democracy and threatening the safety of citizens, journalists, election workers, and political candidates, especially women in politics.

The effectiveness of elections in promoting democracy depends heavily on the integrity of the information environment. Manipulative information can distort public perception, undermine trust in democratic institutions, and polarize communities. Therefore, it is essential for citizens to be equipped with the skills to critically engage with media and information and to recognize and resist manipulative information throughout the electoral cycle."

The training outlined in the guide is designed to build several core competencies defined by IREX's L2D approach and training materials (see Related Summaries below for more information on L2D). These core competencies are:

• Understanding Cognitive Processes: Developing awareness of one's cognitive biases and emotional reactions to elections-related information.
• Navigating the Information Space: Gaining knowledge about the infrastructure of the complex information space, including algorithms and business models that influence media content.
• Maintaining Balance: Learning to safeguard attention, decision-making, and personal information in an overwhelming information environment, particularly during the electoral cycle.
• Practical Engagement Tools: Acquiring specific skills and tools to engage with elections-related information critically and responsibly.
• Constructive Interaction: Promoting prosocial behaviours and respectful engagement with others in the information space.

The guide is not tailored to any specific country but adopts a more general approach by featuring examples from different global contexts. Its format enables trainers and programmes to readily customise materials by aligning them with the electoral cycle, processes, and environments of their respective contexts, replacing examples as needed.

The guide is structured as follows:

Unit 1. Evolving Information Landscape And Elections

• Understanding Today's Information Space
• Information and The Battle for Attention and Information Overload
• Information and the Machines: Algorithms and the Digital Environment

Unit 2. The Role of Media in Elections

• Media in Elections: The Double-Edged Sword
• Agenda-Setting in Politics and Elections
• Digital Media in Politics and Elections

Unit 3. Information and Decision-Making in Elections

• Cognitive Biases and Distortions
• How Cognitive Biases Affect Our Electoral Behaviours
• Elections Filter Bubbles

Unit 4. Information Manipulation Before, During, and After Elections

• What Should You Expect as Elections Approach
• Types of Manipulative Information
• Who Is a Target?
• Who Are the Manipulators?
• Manipulation with Headlines
• Photos, Videos, and Al Content Manipulation
• Freedom of the Press
• How to Navigate the Information Disorder

Unit 5. Elevated Threats During Elections

• Harmful Stereotypes
• Hate Speech
• The Gender Dimension
• Persevering in the Digital Space

Key Takeaways and Recommendations

The Facilitator's Guide is accompanied by the L2D Elections Resource Guide, which is intended as both a supplement to the Facilitator's Guide and a standalone guide. It provides a brief list of resources and tools to better understand the information landscape around elections and to better recognise and resist information manipulation that is designed to undermine democratic elections. According to IREX, the resources included have been instrumental in the design of the Facilitator's Guide, and many of the resources and more are referenced in the Facilitator's Guide with additional context.