From Framework to Practice: Evaluating a Preventive Civic Communication Model for Strengthening Community Resilience Against Misinformation

Abstract

Theoretical frameworks for combating misinformation through civic communication have proliferated in recent years, yet empirical assessments of their translation into practice remain limited. This paper evaluates a pilot implementation of a Preventive Civic Communication Model (PCCM) derived from the Community-Based Integrative Model (CBIM) developed by Augustine (2025), which integrates civic literacy, ethical media communication, and leadership development into a structured, community-embedded intervention architecture. Pilot workshops were conducted across three urban and semi-urban community sites in the United States, engaging a total of 214 participants, including adolescents, young adults, and adult community stakeholders, over a twelve-week program cycle. Using pre/post assessment instruments measuring media literacy competencies, ethical decision-making in information sharing, and civic engagement intentions, the evaluation identifies statistically and practically significant gains across all three primary outcome domains. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that structured inoculation-based prebunking sessions, when embedded within a broader civic communication curriculum, produce durable improvements in source verification skills, manipulation-recognition ability, and responsible sharing behavior. The paper further examines program fidelity, scalability constraints, and the model's adaptive capacity across institutional and demographic contexts. Refinements to the original CBIM architecture are proposed based on these findings, and a scalability matrix for adoption by educational institutions and nonprofit organizations is presented. The study contributes to a growing empirical literature on evidence-based civic education interventions and demonstrates that preventive approaches to misinformation, grounded in civic principles rather than reactive correction, represent a practical and transferable public communication strategy.