HYBRID WARFARE AND SOCIAL MEDIA:NEED AND SCOPE OF DIGITAL LITERACY IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Digital and information literacy is an emerging concept about the awareness of media messages consumption or information evaluation on virtual communication platforms, specifically in social networking websites. With the advent of communication technologies and emergence of web 2.0, the dynamics of war are also shifting from traditional warfare to information warfare having no geographical as well as content related boundaries. Therefore, the role of modern information and communication technologies is very important to study in the context of hybrid warfare where social media is being used as a tool of hybrid warfare. This study aims to assess the problems and need of information literacy among the social media users of Pakistan. Conceptually, it takes roots from hybrid war literature and digital literacy. Methodologically, we conducted survey of social media users of Pakistan. Data was collected from purposively selected 300 respondents (150 males and 150 females) having different age groups. For this purpose, we developed Hybrid War Awareness and Digital Literacy Scales to understand, detect and respond to the hybrid threats. The study found the trends of social media usage, exposure to propaganda messages and reaction of social media users in Pakistan. It recommends that digital and information literacyis better for planning against hybrid war which may be a threat to national interest instead of introducing strict laws.