The Project

CICERO

The goal of the CICERO project is to develop and implement a counter-narrative communication campaign aimed at preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism, accompanied by a methodology for evaluating the campaign’s effectiveness.

The CICERO consortium will, at first, identify the target audiences that are considered particularly susceptible to extremist propaganda. The most prominent radicalisation narratives circulating across the EU will then be collected and analysed. The campaign will rely on both online and offline communication channels for disseminating a wide range of multimedia contents, produced by the consortium, to the different audiences.

CICERO will deal with different kinds of radicalisation narratives, ranging from those related to politico-religious extremism (e.g. jihadist), to left-wing, right-wing and single-issue extremism. The aim is to undermine the appeal of the extremist propaganda, while also providing credible and positive alternatives to the related narratives.

Additional purpose of the campaign is to empower relevant civil society actors in challenging extremist narratives. To this end, online communication efforts will be designed to promote messages that encourage civic engagement and the assimilation of democratic fundamental rights and values embedded in EU society, supported by off-line activities dedicated to amplifying the CICERO counter-narrative message. Civil society engagement efforts, including the organisation of “train-the-trainers” workshops directed at specific stakeholders, will be undertaken to further enhance the ability of civil society to detect and cope with radicalisation leading to violent extremism.

 In order to maximise the effectiveness of the CICERO campaign, the consortium will develop and implement a multi-layered evaluation methodology, allowing to progressively monitor and evaluate the campaign’s impact on the designated target audiences.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

  • To undermine the appeal of the extremist propaganda, while also providing credible and positive alternatives to the related narratives;
  • To empower civil society in the prevention of violent radicalisation across the EU;
  • Enhance the ability of civil society to detect and cope with radicalisation leading to violent extremism;
  • Enhancing resilience and critical thinking of stakeholders;
  • Promote the democratic values and fundamental rights embedded in EU society;
  • To support capacity building amongst relevant stakeholders.

Project Structure

WP1 - Management and Coordination of the Action

  • Project Coordination
  • Project Administration
  • SC Meetings
  • Project Management TEAM meeting

WP2 - Preliminary analysis and campaign requirements

  • Analysis of online radical patterns related with Islamist
  • Target audience analysis as a basis for devising tailored counter narratives
  • Identification of a network of experts, activists, local leaders and other relevant CSOs representatives
  • Legal, ethical and sustainability requirements for the campaign

WP3 - Creation and production of multimedia contents

  • Definition of a counter-narrative strategy: compaign goals, key messages and media
  • Design and production of textual contents
  • Design and production of image contents
  • Design and production of audio contents
  • Design and production of video contents

WP4 - CICERO campaign and project results dissemination

  • Dissemination Strategy
  • CICERO website creation and its management
  • Media buying (TV, radio) and target advertising (websites)
  • Social media spreading (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc)
  • Project final conference

WP5 - Campaign effectiveness evaluation and capacity building

  • Qualitative and quantitative evaluation methodology definition
  • Campaign effectiveness monitoring and evaluation
  • “Train the trainers” workshops with CSEP, RAN and other CSOs represent
  • Offline activities as catalysts for communication actions

Copyright 2021 Cicero. All rights reserved.

This project was funded by the
European Union’s Internal Security Fund
Police under GA N° 812613