1 MIT University Skopje (Skopje, North Macedonia)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/up/17/8
Received: 1 September 2025 / Accepted: 18 December 2022 / Published: 30 December 2025
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Abstract
This paper examines the paradoxical role of media in hybrid conflicts, focusing on Europe and the Western Balkans as exposed information spaces. It analyses how disinformation operates across cognitive, technological, and institutional dimensions to erode trust, legitimacy, and decision-making capacity. Adopting a qualitative, interpretative approach, the study draws on European policy frameworks, strategic communication doctrines, academic literature, and observed practices in polarized environments. Rather than quantifying disinformation, it explores processes of narrative construction, amplification, localisation, and normalisation.
The analysis finds that hybrid operations succeed by exploiting emotion, identity, and narrative simplicity. Artificial intelligence intensifies this threat through scalable, personalised manipulation, accelerating trust erosion across media, institutions, and governance. The paper argues that media resilience must be understood not as a technical or regulatory capacity but as a societal, institutional, and cultural process integral to democratic security. Sustainable responses require long-term, preventive, bottom-up approaches centred on trust-building, cognitive awareness, and institutional credibility.
Keywords: hybrid warfare, media, disinformation, foreign propaganda, cognitive security, democratic resilience, artificial intelligence
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