School of Information Sciences

CCI Professor Awarded Office of Naval Research Grants to Study Russian Disinformation Campaigns

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The Department of Defense Office of Naval Research has awarded nearly $1.7 million across two grants to School of Journalism and Media Professor and Director of the Information Integrity Institute Catherine Luther to research Russian disinformation campaigns and their influence on Russian diasporas.

Luther is the principal investigator for both grants with several College of Communication and Information and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, faculty from various departments making up the research teams.

Luther and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jahara Matisek of the U.S. Naval War College created a proposal for a Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership grant focused on Russian disinformation and propaganda targeting Romania, which is a former Warsaw Pact country, and Moldova, a former Eastern bloc country.

They were granted $400,000 in funding for this unique two-year grant that pairs civilian researchers with military experts.

Luther said the grant allows her and members of her research team to visit experts at several institutions that have insight into the ongoing battle against disinformation, including U.S. and NATO installations.

They will also visit the U.S. Naval War College to conduct workshops for both cadets and officers there. Then, in the summer of 2025, two cadets from a military institution will come to Knoxville campus to work as research assistants on the project.

Luther said they’re hoping to have several deliverables come out of the research, including whitepapers, academic journal articles, and articles for military magazines. They will also create best practices for teaching military cadets and officers about Russian disinformation campaigns and strategies.

Luther also received another two-year grant from the Office of Naval Research to monitor and measure the effectiveness of Russian disinformation and propaganda campaigns in Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

“What media-related factors make these campaigns effective or less effective? Are younger people less vulnerable to these messages compared to older people? How does religion come into play?” Luther said. “These are a few of the factors that we want to really dive into.”

The two-year grant is being funded at nearly $1.3 million through the Minerva Expansion Award.

Luther said this allows her and members of her team to broaden the research they had already been conducting examining the impact of Russian disinformation campaigns on the Russian diaspora within former Soviet Union countries. They hope the findings from their research will provide new knowledge that can be applied to understand and tackle disinformation campaigns emanating from other countries.[MOU1] 

“We’ve always had disinformation, we’ve always had these campaigns,” Luther said. “But, now with social media and communication technology advancements, it’s become so much easier for even ordinary individuals to be hired as proxies of state governments to spread that disinformation.”

She added that with the advancement of generative artificial intelligence, it’s going to be increasingly challenging to curb disinformation.

Luther said these factors have led governments to become increasingly concerned about disinformation efforts as they can pose a significant threat to democratic systems by creating divisions and sowing chaos within countries.

Luther believes the interdisciplinary approach to the projects helped in securing funding, in addition to UT having leading experts in areas related to this research. She said this research will draw on expertise from across several fields such as political science, psychology, anthropology, information science, journalism and media, and public relations.

“I think what makes our project proposals compelling is the interdisciplinary nature,” Luther said. “I’m always stressing the importance of collaborating across fields and really sharing knowledge. So, I think the proposals resonated because of those different backgrounds and unique strengths we all bring and then coalesce into one.”

Meet the Teams

Minerva DECUR Award, DoD Office of Naval Research (Amount: $400,000)

Title: Identifying Patterns of Russia’s Malign Influence Operations in Online Spaces and Their Influences on Russian-Speaking Populations and Russian Diasporas

Team Members:

  • Principal investigator (PI) Catherine Luther, director of the CCI Information Integrity Institute and the Minnie Doty Goddard Distinguished Professor in Journalism and Media
  • Lead Co-PI Lieutenant Colonel/Jahara “Franky” Matisek, military professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College
  • Co-PI Olga R. Chiriac, Project Europe head of engagement with the Irregular Warfare Initiative of the Modern War Institute and visiting professor at the University of Bucharest in Romania
  • Co-PI Suzie Allard, chancellor’s professor in the School of Information Sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information
  • Co-PI Alex R. Bentley, director of the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity and professor in the UT Department of Anthropology
  • Co-PI Benjamin Horne, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences and joint faculty in the Bredesen Center’s Data Science and Engineering program
  • Co-PI Garriy Shteynberg, associate professor of Social Psychology in the UT Department of Psychology

Minerva Expansion Award, DoD Office of Naval Research, (Amount: $1,299,768)

Title: Monitoring the Content and Measuring the Effectiveness of Russian Disinformation and Propaganda Campaigns in Selected Former Soviet Union States

Team members:

  • PI Catherine Luther, director of the CCI Information Integrity Institute and the Minnie Doty Goddard Distinguished Professor in Journalism and Media
  • Co-PI Dr. Suzie Allard, chancellor’s professor in the School of Information Sciences and associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information
  • Co-PI Alex R. Bentley, director of the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity and Professor in the department of anthropology
  • Co-PI Benjamin Horne, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences and joint faculty in the Bredesen Center’s Data Science and Engineering program
  • Co-PI Brandon Prins, professor and director of the Department of Political Science
  • Co-PI Garriy Shteynberg, associate professor of social psychology in the Department of Psychology
  • Co-PI Maureen Taylor, recently retired professor of public communication at the University of Technology Sydney. She continues her research affiliation with UT.
  • Co-PI Joshua Borycz, STEM librarian at Vanderbilt University
  • Co-PI  Damian Ruck, chief researcher at Advai based in the UK

CCI Professor Awarded Office of Naval Research Grants to Study Russian Disinformation Campaigns written by Ernest Rollins and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.