Global media in foreign policy and public engagement (pertains to "narrative" as a foreign policy tool)

How governments and civil society use media and journalism to promote narratives

bbg.gov; text (not image) via LJB by email; see also; my planned question, not meant to be provocative, to the below distinguished panel:

The question, most simply put: "Is making up a 'narrative' just a respectable way of lying"?

In more detail:

Traditionally, "narrative" (if it can be defined, which I doubt) has been an artistic instrument of fiction meant to tickle/challenge the imagination. So, my question: Is the current, "fashionable" use of the term "narrative" by USA powers-that-be (military, governmental, think-tank-"thinkers") just a "real-world" way of making things up (undiplomatically put, "lying"?) to "persuade" audiences (mostly abroad) so that they (the powers-that-be) can further their own rather unimaginative, narrow "homeland" interests (by receiving increased funds for their "innovative" programs [but the funding part is of course not part of their "narrative"])?

Global media in foreign policy and public engagement

How governments and civil society use media and journalism to promote narratives

Please join The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) for a public panel on international media’s effect on policy. CSIS’ Project on Prosperity and Development will be joined by John Lansing, the CEO and Director of the BBG, for a conversation on how journalism and media steers opinion and policy around the world.

CSIS and BBG will discuss forming narratives which can alter public opinion. Some countries increasingly use messaging as a soft-power tool to promote a particular viewpoint, while external actors like civil society advance alternative policy agendas. As part of this event, we expect to cover the closing civil society and public diplomacy space in Russia.

The panel will also feature Shannon Green, the Director of CSIS’ Human Rights Initiative, and Jeffrey Mankoff, the Deputy Director of CSIS’ Russia and Eurasia program to steer social and regional topics.

WHEN: 9:50 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.,
October 31, 2016
WHERE: CSIS Headquarters
1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Register for this Event
For more information, please contact Aaron Milner at (202) 775-3236 or by e-mail at amilner@csis.org.

Speakers
John F. Lansing
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Daniel F. Runde
William A. Schreyer Chair and Director, Project on Prosperity and Development
Shannon N. Green
Director and Senior Fellow, Human Rights Initiative
Jeffrey Mankoff
Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program
MEDIA INQUIRIES
H. Andrew Schwartz
SVP for External Relations
Tel: 202.775.3242

Contact the BBG
330 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20237

(202) 203-4000

publicaffairs@bbg.gov