On June 22, at 15:00 Moscow time (GMT+3:00), the Valdai Club will hold an online discussion, titled “The New World Political Narrative: Style and Syllable 2020”, with participation of Alexey Volin, Russian Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.
The coronavirus pandemic has led entire sectors of the economy and political communications to adopt a “remote work” format. During the months of the pandemic, several summits have taken place online, while the decisions made on them go far beyond the Internet – they include the G20 summit, the OPEC+ meeting, the summit of the World Health Assembly and others.
It is worth recognising that the introduction of digital technology began to change political processes much earlier. For example, Estonia switched to the principles of e-government years ago, and voting on issues of national importance takes place there online. Debates continue in the United States, amid upcoming elections, on the possibility of the widespread introduction of electronic voting.
The presence of politicians on social media has become commonplace, and the line between ordinary users and officials is gradually blurring. The accounts of politicians and even diplomatic departments have begun to resemble a battlefield, with their wars of words and sarcastic remarks. One vivid example is the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump, who can excite the world community with a tweet. Roman Reinhardt, author of the Valdai Paper “Tweets vs. the Oficialese: How the Language of Russian Diplomacy Is Changing Amid the Global Transition”, which is set to be published on the day of the discussion on the Club’s website, considers it fair to talk about the emergence of such concepts as: “Trump language”, “Putin language”, “Lavrov language”, and so on.
Is it possible to say that multilateral summits have become a formality? How can new technologies change political processes? Can virtual wars develop into real ones? Will voting on political structures, with the use of official accounts, be able to replace traditional campaigns and the use of polling stations? How has the language of official communications changed over the last few years? How do these changes affect real politics? The participants in the discussion will answer these and other questions.
Speakers:
- Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club;
- Guillermo García, Communications Secretary, Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI); Media Adviser, Buenos Aires City Foreign Affairs Department
- Alexey Volin, Russian Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media;
- Alexey Naumov, author of the Vneshpol Telegram channel;
- Roman Reinhardt, assistant professor of diplomacy at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations;
- Paul Saunders, Senior Foreign Policy Fellow, Center for National Interests, Washington, DC
Moderator:
- Ryan Chilcote, PBS NewsHour special correspondent.
For accreditation, you need to fill out the accreditation form on our website and indicate your personal mobile number with the WhatsApp application installed.
You can ask the speakers a question by sending it before the broadcast or live to press@valdaiclub.com or via WhatsApp to the number: +79269307763. Be sure to include your name and position, as well as the name of the speaker to whom the question is addressed. Questions will be asked during the Q&A session.A
A link to the live broadcast of the meeting will be posted on all online platforms used by the Valdai Club, including our website, Telegram, Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter, Instagram.
