RANEPA is preparing a comprehensive program for training information workers

The Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) under the President of the Russian Federation, in collaboration with ANO Dialog, will launch training programs for “media technologists”, specialists in “information space design”, as well as in “strategic communications management”. The contours of the project were outlined at a press conference on Tuesday by the university’s vice-rector Andrei Polosin and deputy director of the Dialogue Regions ANO Yulia Ablets. The program, at the intersection of several humanitarian disciplines, is designed to prepare experts who can not only respond to external and internal information threats, but also specifically design a “sovereign” media space.

The stated topic is broader than the implementation of a new educational program, Andrei Polosin immediately made a reservation when opening the presentation of the project. The education system is being reformed as a whole, and subject area restructuring is ahead, he explained: “The world poses new challenges, and training programs must form new systems of disciplines.” Therefore, the system being developed has not yet been fully outlined, although its contours are quite traceable.

Mr. Polosin called strategic communications management a “complex construct”, which, in addition to generally required subject knowledge, includes general information theory, the theory of political processes, social hypotheses and models: “Seven communication theories, psychology, advertising, image – everything that concerns issues related to communications between people, the foundations of any social structure and, ultimately, the political system of any state.” The existing “scattered courses,” the scientist complained, provide such training exclusively within the framework of one discipline or another: political science, journalism, PR, economics, etc. The new course is not limited to the media market, but touches on everything “that concerns the organization of human interaction.” , the vice-rector separately made a reservation: “Now the training of specialists in the field of organizing the management of joint activities of people also requires certain additions of knowledge about how people work with each other, what motivates them and how this is ensured.”

Therefore, now the industry requires separation and “good development,” believes Andrei Polosin: “The program will respond to the request for training personnel for the country in the entire area that has been described: political and social processes, and issues of interaction within the framework of commercial activities, and the development of the sphere culture and language.” The status of RANEPA and its subordination to the government provides the university with the opportunity to implement such a program and simultaneously develop the necessary educational tools together with other universities, Mr. Polosin emphasized: thus, the university will launch an experimental stream in March, while simultaneously developing the content of the educational program.

The demand for high-quality personnel with appropriate training exceeds 100 thousand specialists, the vice-rector of RANEPA is sure: “The question is not even that there is a market demand, but that this is a subject that is a matter of life for our country.” “We are talking about the formation of a sovereign information field,” agreed Yulia Ablets. “The way the architecture of this field is created will largely lay the foundations for the development of our society in the future.” Therefore, government agencies (in terms of creating “a field that will support certain changes”) and large organizations are largely interested in such specialists, the expert believes.

According to political scientist Alexander Asafov, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, made public at a press conference, in the West there are now over 1.8 thousand structures that are engaged in “strategic communications” on a professional basis. Mr. Asafov sees their roots in the institutions of “information warfare” developed back in the 20th century. However, in addition to confronting such unfriendly structures, the specialists whom RANEPA is starting to train must be able to work on a creative level, the political scientist notes: “This is not only the prevention of challenges and threats, but also a question about the future. And these specialists may be the designers of the future, who should plan for it, and not treat it as a chaotic flow, from which we manage to fight back successfully or unsuccessfully.”

“Given the platform of the Presidential Academy and the demand associated with cognitive wars and information confrontation, of course, such people should be politicized,” Alexander Asafov later reasoned in a conversation with Kommersant. In his opinion, mid-level staff in the industry lack “structural political knowledge related to the state, its functioning, sovereignty and international politics.” “The fact that we had a lot of specialists from other countries, including Ukraine, working in our market created a certain gap in security: according to media stories, this was clearly felt at the beginning of the SVO,” the expert recalled. “Therefore, they, of course, must be politicized, understand not only in narrow specialization, but also in much broader ideological issues.” The political scientist believes that there is definitely a demand for such specialists in government agencies, “since the state is moving along the path of digitalization at an accelerated pace.” “An ordinary PR specialist is a specialist without a coat of arms, homeland or flag. And to carry out government tasks, government specialists are needed, qualified and systematically trained,” concluded Mr. Asafov.

Grigory Leiba