Information Means of Warfare

Abstract

The relevance of the paper is determined by the fact that the information component plays the most important role in the hybrid war that Russia is conducting against Ukraine today. In the conditions of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the study of the informational factor of hybrid wars is an urgent problem of both military and political sciences, as well as the social communications science. The purpose of this article is to highlight the information factor of warfare in the context of the development of mass communication. The methodology is based on the use of systemic, structural-functional, comparative analysis methods for the process of developing the information factor of warfare. The conclusions. The informational component has been inherent in wars since ancient times, but its intensity, forms and methods were determined by the development of mass communication tools, which took place on the basis of scientific and technological progress. Originating as rumors spread by word of mouth in the enemy’s camp, information methods of warfare were transformed into printed propaganda materials with the advent of printing. However, they reached their greatest flowering with the advent of audiovisual media and communication. During the First World War, documentary films were used for propaganda purposes, but mainly for the mobilization of the own population. Radio, having drastically broken the barriers of information dissemination, significantly strengthened the role of an information factor in the Second World War and, later, in the Cold War. The advent of satellite television relegated radio to the background, as visual illustrations of information diversions made them accessible to the mass consciousness. But the greatest opportunity for the use of mass communication in war came with the advent of the Internet, because it is less censored than other media; it can be used through various electronic devices, informational influence with its help can be carried out covertly. The development of technical means of information transmission does not mean that more advanced means completely supplant less advanced ones. The matter lies only in the priorities of their use. The spread of the information factor in the conducting of wars has led to the appearance of such a variety of them as hybrid wars, in which the information factor plays a leading role in their preparation and an overriding role in their conduct.