PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PROP IN THE NEWS

Review of Information War Read Gregory Ellison's review of my second book in Metamorphosis, June 2004.

The Propaganda Agenda at War Is the U.S. Government above propaganda?  A special report by Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS).

Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction Excellent study by Professor Susan Moeller (University of Maryland) that explains how, in the realm of public policy and national security, the media haven't done their job in separating the facts from spin. 

Information War inspires artist John Robertson's expressionist painting of my second book visually captures the art of saying nothing in modern America. 

Marketing America: A Tale of Two Careers My assessment for Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) of the public diplomacy legacy of Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler.  Republished at AntiWar.com and Asian Times Online. 

Rhetoric, Politics, War and News Professor Robert L. Ivie of Indiana University has a useful collection of links as part of the Project on Democracy and War.

Image and Reality Leading British propaganda scholar Professor Philip M. Taylor asks, "Why is that that what many people once regarded as the most sophisticated communications nation on earth keeps on proving   itself to be its own worst enemy in the propaganda front on the 'war' on terror?...there is a fundamental flaw in the American view of 'perception management' on the international stage--and a clue to this is in that now widely used phrase. It emanates from a Harvard MBA type of mentality that if you get the marketing right, anything will sell."  Phil Taylor's website is the most comprehensive I know on all things propaganda. 

Improving U.S. Public Diplomacy Toward the Middle East Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Stephen C. Johnson shares his thoughts in a May 24, 2004 lecture: "Looking back, public relations and vigorous advocacy are traditions that have roots in the founding of our country. President George Washington once counseled that 'as the structure of government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion be enlightened.'"

Rush Limbaugh's Take on Arab Media Is the real problem the U.S. is facing, as Limbaugh says, the Arab media?  I link, you decide!

U.S. Considers its International Reputation Keith Reinhard, CEO of advertising giant DDB Worldwide, says that 4 negative perceptions are holding constant about the U.S. since 9/11: (1) America exploits or takes more than it gives back; (2) U.S. values, some of which are too permissive and corrosive, are spreading too widely, too quickly; (3) U.S. is seen as arrogant and insensitive to others; (4) U.S. cares more about the almighty dollar and "hyperconsumerism." 16 May 2004

Where are the Communication Majors? Deroy Murdock, contributing editor with National Review Online, offers several communication strategies for the information war and concludes with this: "The war on terror — like its most active battlefield, Iraq — is more a contest of ideas than a quest for territory. In that respect, the United States is floundering. Information and images will help America win this war, as soon as the Bush administration stops sitting on relevant data and instead deploys them as weapons of mass persuasion." 14 May 2004

The Iraqi Horror Picture Show My interview with Christopher Dickey, Paris Bureau Chief for Newsweek 12 May 2004.  Dickey is the son of novelist and poet, James Dickey.  Both are outstanding writers.  I 'd like to share this speech Chris gave at Clemson University last November as an excellent example of deeply personal storytelling.

Truth from these Podia Summary of a study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf II.  Author is Sam Gardiner, USAF (Retired).  8 October 2003

Selling America: How Well Does U.S. Government Broadcasting Work in the Middle East? American Enterprise Institute panel 11 May 2004

Propaganda, Inc. is now available in Portuguese by Graphia and is also available in Korean.  Information War will soon be available in Japanese. 

Warrior Candidates Get Ready for Their Closeup         (Media Channel.org April 13, 2004) Whatever the next round of ads will bring, we can be sure that image will triumph over substantive inquiry into complex issues.  And may the best brand win. 

Soft Power is MIA in Foreign Policy                            (O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 12, 2004) Every PR person interested in public diplomacy should read "Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics" by Joseph Nye, Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. It is to 21st century international PR what Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" was to global trend-setting.

How to Become a Person of Persuasion                         Keynote plenary at the 75th anniversary of the Religion Communicators Council, March 25, 2004. 

State of the News Media 2004                                 Outstanding and comprehensive assessment of American journalism this year.  Inaugural edition.  USA Today summarizes: "If you want your news fast, check the Web or cable TV. If you want it more complete, you're better off waiting for the evening news or the morning paper...The 500-page report, an inaugural effort at a comprehensive annual look at the media, paints a dim picture of the dominant mass media of the 20th century, newspapers and network television. It finds them both in serious and long-term decline (daily newspaper circulation down 11% since 1990; evening news viewership down 28% since 1993). Only three out of eight media sectors are seeing audience growth: ethnic, alternative and online media...and there is much more "newsgathering in the raw," less double-checking of facts and putting those facts in perspective, in journalism than before."

A Year After the Iraq War                                                        Pew Global Attitudes Survey, March 16, 2004.A Discontent with America and its policies has intensified. French and German opinion of the U.S. is at least as negative now as at the war's conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical.  Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad. Doubts about the motives behind the U.S. war on terrorism abound.  A growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States. (Look at Spain!) Across Europe, there is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States.  Muslim anger toward the United States remains pervasive, although the level of hatred has eased somewhat and support for the war on terrorism has inched up. Osama bin Laden, however, is viewed favorably by large percentages in Pakistan (65%), Jordan (55%) and Morocco (45%). Even in Turkey, where bin Laden is highly unpopular, as many as 31% say that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable.

We Aren't the World                                                                  Latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey shows how the dismal times, they aren't `a changing, despite what Dylan and others sang back in 1985.  Does the U.S. need a new global anthem, and if so, will the world bother to listen? O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 19, 2004

The Propaganda of the Deed                                                  A message of condolence to the people of Spain, March 12, 2004

Al Hurra-Al Who? Haven't Heard? We're Free, They're Not! Special to O'Dwyer's PR Daily, March 8, 2004

Public Diplomacy and International Free Press U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, February 26, 2004 with statements from Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Margaret Tutwiler and USC Center on Public Diplomacy senior fellow Adam Clayton Powell III.

Now with Bill Moyers If you haven't been watching, this is one of the best options for watching television with a clear conscience.  I'm thrilled that Now has included a section called Milestones in Media and Politics, with long forgotten media and democracy struggles like the John Peter Zenger trial.  Robert McChesney comments that "the founding fathers...their legacy here is very rich. They understood that setting up a diverse, well funded media system with a broad range of viewpoints was the essence of building of the oxygen for democracy. And it took conscious policies. It didn't happen naturally — you had to work at it." 

We Hate You (But Keep Sending Us Baywatch) The Writers Guild of America (West) presented a discussion on the popularity of American entertainment in those places on the planet where American politics are reviled. A USC Annenberg/Normal Lear Center publication.

Public Diplomacy in the Middle East: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (O'Dwyer's PR, February 13, 2004) Anyone who is unfamiliar with O'Dwyer's PR should take a good long look if you have any interest in the public relations industry.  Google and Yahoo named O'Dwyer's PR  #1 website for news about the public relations industry.  I tell all my students, most of whom are public relations majors, that if they want to be successful in the world they have to read a daily newspaper and be up on the news in politics and business.  O'Dwyer's is the daily online newspaper for PR.  Here's the URL www.odwyerpr.com

Regaining America's Voice Overseas Heritage Foundation Lecture #817 by President Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.  (January 13, 2004)

Managed Information Dissemination Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, October 2001; Unclassified document in PDF format

Kill Your TV: No Oops, I Really Mean It If you have never had a TV, don't buy one.  If you do have a TV and decide to watch, watch responsibly.  This message brought to you by the yet-to-exist U.S. Coalition Against TV Mental Abuse.  25 years ago Jerry Mander wrote Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.  He was being modest. If after reading this message, you still choose to watch, (and I do, but wish I never got started), support your local public radio and television station and C-SPAN, the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, that provides a real public service, an open forum for free expression, and strengthens the national dialogue.  Cher called C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Monday, October 27, 2003 and said, "I have to tell you, I watch you    [C-SPAN] everyday and I really appreciate it because I go all over the world and I must say that the news we get in America has nothing to do with the news you get outside of this country.  And I think that's why people don't understand why so many of the allies did not join us....There's a source I really like inside the US that gives you special documentaries called WORLDLINK, but I think my favorite source outside the U.S. is BBC because they are our allies, but you still get much more coverage and I think more honest coverage.  They're independent, so they're not owned by any of the major corporations that have vested interest in this war." Highly recommended NPR programs: Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!, On the Media, and Talk of the Nation.

Embed or In Bed?  Two new recommended readings are Danny Schechter's Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception and David Miller's Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq (Pluto, 2004.) The latter contains my chapter, "Brainscrubbing: The Failures of U.S. Public Diplomacy after 9/11.

U.S. Public Diplomacy 2003 marked what would have been the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA).  Defunct as an independent government agency since 1999, its cultural and educational programs were transferred to the U.S. State Department.  It will be very interesting to see how Margaret Tutwiler, the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, handles the PD challenge.  Two recent articles worth reading on the subject are by Wilson Dizard and William P. Kiehl.     

Information Operations The U.S. Department of the Army has just published (November 28, 2003) its Information Operations field manual for public distribution. 

Diplomat Needs Some Southern Steel Magnolias Special to The Birmingham News, November 4, 2003.

Public Diplomacy Bookmarks Compiled by USC Annenberg colleague and fellow PD advocate, Gordon Stables.  A must-read list for the post-9/11 persuasion and propaganda crowd.

Triumph of the People's Will (The California Recall Results)

Misperceptions, The Media and Iraq War October 2, 2003 report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)

Changing Minds, Winning Peace October 1, 2003 report on new strategic directions in U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World. 

U.S. Asks Muslims Why It is Unloved Indonesians reply, "Just talk to us"  (From the files of "Why didn't I think of that")

Finding America's Voice A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy 18 September 2003 report by the CFR Independent Task Force on Public Diplomacy. 

First Iraq Poll (Zogby International and the American Enterprise Institute magazine) Their data challenges the "bad news bias" of the press.  Is there really good news? Read the report:  The American Enterprise: The First Scientific Poll of Current Iraqi Public Opinion
Print copies can be ordered from the CR.
After Two Years Stephen R. Shalom's Z magazine piece               "So now, two years after the horrors of 9-11, given the fact that this administration has staked its future on making its citizens safe from terrorism, it's reasonable to ask what it has actually done to reduce the threat of anti-U.S. terrorism." Must Read!

VOA-TV Political Analyst In October, just in time for the installation of Governor Arnold, I'll be serving as a political commentator for Voice of America TV/WORLDNET Television Service, which airs in over 40 countries.  I will discuss the recall election and all the fruit, flakes and nuts that we call California politics and people.  Check it out online at VOA

U.S. Public Diplomacy: U.S. State Department Expands Effort but Faces Significant Challenges GAO Report released September  2003

CNN DEBUT In case you blinked, I appeared on CNN domestic and international August 14, 2003 to comment on California's recall race, sandwiched between interviews with billboard queen Angelyne and former child star-turned security guard, Gary Coleman.  If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere.  Highlight was being interviewed by Cash Peters, author of Gullible's Travels, who still owes me a VHS copy of my debut.

Is the US fit to run the World?  Adbusters magazine July/August 2003 issue asks readers to weigh in.  On the plus side, we're  idealistic and have that "can-do" attitude; on the minus side, we have over 2 million in prison and can't find Iraq on the map.

What the World Thinks of America   BBC hosts a global television debate about America's place in the world, Tuesday, 17 June at 21 BST.

We're Caught in a Trap New Pew Global Attitudes Survey (3 June 2003)

War and Words: Free Speech and Information Control California State University, Fullerton Titan Magazine, Summer 2003

Global Media Question American/UK Credibility Weapons of Mass Destruction/Distraction?  You Decide.

Trust, Diplomacy & Public Perception  Paper presented to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 5 June 2003

When Truth is a Dangerous Thing   My tribute to Boston Globe war correspondent Elizabeth Neuffer.                 

Operation Media Monopoly Freedom  Remarks to FCC Forum on media ownership, University of Southern California, 28 April 2003                                       

Truth & Media Consequences MSNBC correspondent Ashleigh Banfield bares all about the war coverage in Iraq.

Foreign Media Commentary: Read and React
Each business day, the U.S. Department of State's Office of Research produces an Issue Focus of foreign media commentary on a major foreign policy issue or related event. Feedback: The U.S. Department of State's Office of Media Reaction welcomes public comments regarding the usefulness of this product. E-MAIL your comments or phone them at: (202) 619-6511.

Propaganda Nation - OCWeekly Interview
CSUF professor Nancy Snow on America’s war of words                         

Heritage Foundation Report: How to Reinvigorate U.S. Public Diplomacy  23 April 2003

Flying Over the Iraqi Landscape: Fox News Channel  Interview with John Gibson, The Big Story, 23 March '03