The Info War w Andrea Hickerson

Who wins when nobody knows what to trust?

If the biggest national security threat isn't hackers or spies—but bad communication—what happens next?

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Andrea Hickerson, Dean of Journalism at the University of Mississippi and founding director of the new Center for Information Advantage & Effectiveness, to distill how information actually moves, mutates, and manipulates us.

From deepfakes and dashboards to sports rumors, betting markets, and why "media literacy" might be the wrong fix entirely—this is a conversation about how narrative, tone, and trust quietly decide outcomes long before facts ever get a vote.

Welcome to the info war.

Key Topics

Why bad communication—not bad actors—is the real national security risk

Why dashboards create a false sense of knowing

Deepfakes: when quality doesn't matter, context does

How sports, fandom, and entertainment become information Trojan horses

Why famous people are harder to deepfake than regular humans

How misinformation sneaks in through tone, not facts

Why media literacy puts too much work on audiences

Media ethics vs. "just think harder" solutions

Who actually benefits when confusion spreads

Why trust collapses faster than truth

Resources + Links

Center for Information Advantage & Effectiveness — University of Mississippi

Andrea Hickerson — andreahhickerson@olemiss.edu

Book: Fake Checking: A Journalist's Guide to Deep Fakes

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MAD Warfare™ is hosted by narrative strategist Jocelyn Brady and cognitive neuroscientist Sean Anthony Guillory.

Edited and produced by Amine el Filali.

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