How Do You Know What to Believe? | Paula Slier | TEDxUniversity of Johannesburg

Paula Slier, a war correspondent who has reported from conflict zones including Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and Libya, looks at how information shapes belief. Drawing on her experience in war zones and on today's digital information environment, the talk examines how algorithms, outrage, emotional triggers and narrative manipulation affect everyday people. It argues that intelligence alone does not protect against manipulation, since vulnerability is greatest when emotion, fear, hope, belonging and identity come together.

• Lessons on propaganda and narratives from conflict zones
• How algorithms and outrage shape what people believe
• Why emotion and identity increase vulnerability to manipulation
• Filmed at a TEDx event organized independently by a local community

For more than two decades, Paula has reported from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones - Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya and beyond - where information can be as powerful as weapons themselves. In war zones, survival depends on understanding narratives: propaganda, emotional triggering, fear, identity, and the stories people are persuaded to believe. For years, she believed information warfare belonged mainly to politics, governments, extremist groups, and digital platforms. This talk explores what happens when the battlefield moves beyond geography and politics and into everyday human experience. Drawing on lessons from physical war zones and today’s digital information environment, it examines how algorithms, outrage, emotional activation, and narrative manipulation increasingly blur the boundaries between public warfare and private vulnerability. At its core, this talk argues that intelligence alone does not protect us from manipulation. Human beings are most vulnerable when emotion, hope, fear, belonging, and identity intersect. Global War Correspondent Information Warfare Specialist & International Speaker Founder | Newshound Media International From Gaza to Ukraine, war correspondent Paula Slier has spent more than two decades reporting from the world’s frontlines, where she discovered that the world’s oldest weapon isn’t technology or propaganda, but human emotion. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx