Monday, September 8, 2008

September 8


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“After all, listening is branding, too.”

--Bob Greenberg, CEO and global chief creative officer

"[T]he Americans are just one more militia."


--The viewpoint of journalist Nir Rosen about the US occupation of Iraq, which Prime Minister Maliki and his cohorts appear to have adopted, according to professor of sociology Michael Swartz


PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

An Education on Higher Education for the Next President - The Chronicle of Higher Education: Marlene M. Johnson, executive director and chief executive of Nafsa: Association of International Educators: "[E]ducation is not peripheral to public diplomacy, but rather at its core. It is impossible to conduct effective public diplomacy without accomplishing two things that universities are uniquely positioned to do: first, to ensure that students graduate with basic knowledge and understanding of the world and an ability to communicate in the world's languages; and, second, to attract international students and scholars to be educated in the United States and to experience and develop lifelong relationships with America. The next president should announce a major international education project designed explicitly to foster an America that knows, understands, and is able to communicate with the world, and to strengthen the relationships through which the American people and the world's people can relate to, interact with, and understand each other.”

Surrogate Broadcasting 101 -- Why BBG and RFE/RL Are Failing in Russia - Ted Lipien, Free Media online: The policies of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages U.S. international broadcasting, have forced the semi-private, U.S.-funded surrogate broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to lose much of its independent surrogate status and become more like yet another domestic Russian broadcaster fearful of the Kremlin.

Letter To Editor: International broadcasting - Vello Ederma, Springfield, Washington Times: “For people who care about America's image around the world, these are trying times. Ever since the Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG) was created, the problems surrounding public diplomacy in general and the Voice of America (VOA) in particular have intensified. Isn't it time that the powers that be understand that and do something about it? BBG is the problem, not the solution.”

In the Republican Party platform, the only mention of television is TV Martí - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy: The paragraph on public diplomacy deals only with international broadcasting, and makes no mention of VOA, Alhurra, or Radio Sawa.

India to sell nuclear deal to world, soothe critics - Krittivas Mukherjee, Reuters: India will take its civilian nuclear deal with the United States to the world looking to secure fuel supplies and reactor technology, analysts said, while seeking to soothe critics with a strong non-proliferation pitch. Robinder Sachdev, president of public diplomacy think tank Imagindia, said he expected India would adopt a two-pronged approach: making public announcements on disarmament, while lobbying the two houses of Congress and overseas Indian groups.

RELATED ITEMS

Editorial, Boston Globe: The decision of Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, to accept an invitation from Armenia to attend last Saturday's soccer game between the two national teams could open a welcome new chapter in relations between the historically hostile nations.

Taliban learning how to win key propaganda battles - Paul Koring, Globe and Mail, Canada: The Taliban, once dismissed as too stupid to know they would lose if they dared to fight well-trained Canadian and allied troops, have proved themselves resilient, if still ill-equipped, warriors, learning from their early defeats and adapting to stage sophisticated attacks, inflicting serious casualties and winning key propaganda battles.

Afghanistan's Communications Revolution - David A. Gross and Amir Zai Sangin, Washington Post: Today, Afghanistan bears little resemblance to the nation it was long forced to be. Working together after the Taliban was removed from power, the U.S. and Afghan governments recognized the importance of dramatically increasing access to communications networks and establishing access to the Web. David A. Gross is ambassador and U.S. coordinator for international communication and information policy. Amir Zai Sangin is Afghanistan's minister of communications and information technology.

Urgent aid for Pakistan - Anatol Lieven, International Herald Tribune: Limited American financial help can tide Pakistan over its immediate crisis. At the same time, the United States should urgently craft longer-term aid programs intended to strengthen resistance to the spread of insurgency.

Destroying Democracy - Melik Kaylan, Forbes: As the world's press has generously noted, Moscow conducted its military-strategic maneuvers with great competence. So why on earth don't they acknowledge that the whole thing was planned meticulously ahead of time, including a highly effective disinformation campaign to suggest that Georgia provoked the action gratuitously? Strangely, no one seems willing to acknowledge the Kremlin's successful propaganda offensive, as carefully prepared and executed as the rest.

The Trouble With Saakashvili - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post: All of the funds of the $1 billion aid package Bush administration rushed to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili are earmarked for economic support and reconstruction; none are aimed at strengthening democratic institutions or civil society.

Official American Sadism - Anthony Lewis, New York Review of Books: President Bush and his top officials have evidently succeeded in persuading many with their contention that "enhanced interrogation techniques," as they call torture, produce valuable information. But in any event the cost of the policy to America's reputation -- and its national security -- has been enormous. It has aroused much of the Muslim world to hatred of the United States. And it has sapped the belief of many Americans in the righteousness of their country.

The Darker Side - Benny Morris, The New Republic: The story peddled by latter-day Arab propagandists (and reinforced by some Jewish scholars, who tended in decades past, sometimes for apologetic reasons of their own, to highlight the medieval "Golden Age" of Islamic Spanish Jewry) -- that the Jewish minorities in the Muslim Arab countries before the advent of Zionism enjoyed a pleasant fraternal existence among the majority populations -- has often been trotted out for the benefit of ignorant Westerners, to illustrate Muslim Arab tolerance of minorities and, politically, to promote plans for a multi-ethnic, one-state solution for Israel/ Palestine. Contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism is not all of Qur'anic derivation; it also owes a great deal to modern European hate-merchants.

The next big thing in journalism: At BusinessWeek, we're engaging our readers in new ways. Here's what we've learned - John A. Byrne, Christian Science Monitor: If this were the Renaissance, the Web would be Florence, a place of amazing experimentation where all the old mediums -- in this case, print, radio, and television -- suddenly converge in one dynamic and democratic place. Yet, the multimedia dimensions of digital journalism are only part of the story. The most powerful attribute of this new journalism is how it directly engages our readers as active participants at every stage of content creation. In short, we're turning our readers into citizen editors.

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands: Microblogging lets an airline, for instance, monitor customers' gripes -- and tweet back. Is this a creepy trend? - Rachael King, BusinessWeek: A growing number of companies are keeping track of what's said about their brands on Twitter, a pioneer of microblogging, a way for users to keep others informed of their current status by way of text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, or the Web. The attention to Twitter reflects the power of new social media tools in letting consumers shape public discussion over brands.

You Can't Avoid Ad Avoidance: A new survey shows how far consumers can (and would) go to spurn marketing messages - Greg Stuart, Adweek.com: As is increasingly apparent to everyone -- and as new research confirms -- as all media become digital, the consumer is more in control than ever, and tools for ad avoidance are free and require little to no consumer effort. As a result, the advertising industry can afford less than ever to be unresponsive to consumers' views and preferences.

Are the Army's New Marketing Tactics a Little too Kid-Friendly? - Natalie Zmuda, AdvertisingAge: The Army Experience Center, which opened Aug. 29, is a 14,500-square-foot educational facility that is the centerpiece of a program to test and evaluate new marketing strategies and is not a recruiting tool, Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said. "It's very much geared to show young people today what the U.S. Army is like in a very rich, immersive, educational and factual environment," Mr. Boyce said. "And it's also entertaining."

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