|
|
home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
|
STEPHEN GREEN reports on the real motivations behind Israel's MISSILE STRIKE on SYRIA. PETER MONTAGUE on the NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE or How the Nuke Industry is using Gore's Prize and Global Warming to Plot Its Big Comeback. WILLIAM BLUM on the DEVALUING of "ANTI-SEMITE" or How to Make a Term Meaningless. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now
|
|
October 19, 2007 John
Ross
October 18, 2007 Saree
Makdisi Meg
Dwyer Alevtina
Rea Norman
Solomon Kristoffer
Larsson Harvey
Wasserman Website
of the Day
October 17, 2007 Steve
Niva Andy
Worthington Alan
Farago Russell
Mokhiber Sharon
Smith Mike
Whitney Robert
Fantina Chris
Irwin Website
of the Day October 16, 2007 Peter
Linebaugh Paul
Findley Robert
Bryce Uri
Avnery Paul
Craig Roberts Ray
McGovern Norman
Solomon Martha
Rosenberg William
S. Lind Joel
S. Hirschborn Website
of the Day
October 15, 2007 Gary
Leupp Andy
Worthington Heather
Gray John
Walsh Joshua
Frank Dave
Lindorff Matt
Vidal Ali
Khan Sen.
Russ Feingold Johnny
Barber Website
of the Day October 13 / 14, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Wajahat
Ali Jeffrey
St. Clair Ralph
Nader David Heleniak Laura Carlsen Brian Cloughley Richard Rhames Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner John Ross Russell Hoffman Missy Beattie Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Cindy
Sheehan Brendan
Cooney Alan
Farago Jan
Oberg M.
Shahid Alam David
Macaray Julia
Kendlbacher Peter
Rost, MD Website
of the Day
Al
Giordano Saul
Landau Jacob
G. Hornberger William
S. Lind Joshua
Frank Josh
Mahan Pat
Williams
October 10, 2007 Michael
Yates Gary
Leupp David
Macaray Alan
Farago Tom
Clifford Col.
Douglas MacGregor Sunsara
Taylor George
Wuerthner Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz Michael
Dickinson Website
of the Day
October 9, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Andy
Worthington Alan
Farago Brian
Eno David
Rovics Farzana
Versey Andrew
Buncombe Website
of the Day
October 8, 2007 David
Macaray Jeff
Ballinger Brian
Eno Christopher
Brauchli Louay
Safi Matt
Reichel Dave
Lindorff Thomas
P. Healy Martha
Rosenberg Richard
Rhames Website
of the Day
October 6 / 7, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Norman
Finkelstein James
Bovard Patrick
Cockburn Jeffrey
St. Clair Ralph
Nader Ray
McGovern Saul
Landau Ben
Tripp Terry
Lodge Seth
Sandronsky Kevin
Funk / Steve Fake Missy
Beattie Website
of the Weekend
October 5, 2007 Andy
Worthington David
Macaray Lee
Sustar Dan
La Botz Aaron
Hess William
A. Cook Website
of the Day
October 4, 2007 Uri
Avnery Dave
Marsh Valerio
Volpi Cecilie
Surasky Dave
Lindorff Norman
Solomon Laura
Carlsen Walter
Brasch Ben
Terrall William
S. Lind Website
of the Day
October 3, 2007 Vijay
Prashad Anita
Sinha Winslow
T. Wheeler Sharon
Smith Jeff
Leys Sen.
Russ Feingold Mohamad
Bazzi Brenda
Norrell Robert
Weissman Website
of the Day
October 2, 2007 Ibrahim
Warde Gary
Leupp David
Macaray Conn
Hallinan John
Ross Alan
Farago Sonja
Karkar Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Website
of the Day
October 1, 2007 Al
Giordano Paul
Craig Roberts Moshe Adler Ingmar Lee John V. Walsh Norman Solomon Roger Burbach Ramzy Baroud Stephen Lendman Susie Day Website of the Day
September 29 / 30, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Uri
Avnery Andrew
Cockburn Jeffrey
St. Clair Wajahat
Ali Andy
Worthington Don
Santina Ralph
Nader Fred
Gardner Seth
Sandronsky Gideon
Levy William
S. Lind Reza
Fiyouzat Richard
Rhames David
Michael Green Zach
Mason Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
September 28, 2007 Kathleen
and Bill Christison Roberto
J. González / Saul
Landau Tom
Clifford Christopher
Brauchli Martha
Rosenberg Dave
Zirin Laray
Polk Binoy
Kampmark James
McEnteer Website
of the Day
September 27, 2007 Alan
Farago Andy
Worthington Jonathan
Cook William
Hughes Ray
McGovern Ron
Jacobs Dave
Lindorff Joshua
Frank Anne
Dachel Website
of the Day
Bill
Quigley Paul
Craig Roberts Jeff
Kisseloff China
Hand Behzad
Yaghmaian Sonja
Karkar Mike
Ferner Col.
Dan Smith Clifton
Ross Brenda
Norrell Website
of the Day
September 25, 2007 Nicole
Colson Uri
Avnery Brendan
Cooney Harry
Browne Marjorie
Cohn David
Macaray Ralph
Nader Dan
Bacher Anthony
Papa Christopher
Ketcham Website
of the Day
September 24, 2007 George
Ciccariello-Maher Saree Makdisi David
Keen Sherwood
Ross Ron
Jacobs Donna
Saggia Mike
Ferner Malini
Johar Schueller Monique
Dols Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn Jennifer
Loewenstein Linn
Washington, Jr. Jeffrey
St. Clair Alan
Farago Brian
Cloughley Robert
Fantina Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz Jason
Hribal David
Rosen Mike
Whitney John
V. Walsh Dave
Lindorff David
Michael Green Fred
Gardner Cassandra
Jones Roger
van Zwanenberg Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
September 21, 2007 Karim
Makdisi M.
Shahid Alam Alan
Farago Joshua
Frank Dave
Zirin Kenneth
Couesbouc Dr.
Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein Ben
Terrall Steve
Fournier Frederico
Fuentes, et al Website
of the Day
September 20, 2007 Kathleen
Christison Zoltan
Grossman Paul
Craig Roberts Stan
Cox Russell
Mokhiber Charles
Modiano Raymond
J. Lawrence Brendan
Cooney Website
of the Day
September 19, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Paul
Krassner Sgt.
Martin Smith Seth
Sandronsky Claud
Cockburn Victoria
Buch Robert
Weissman Mike
Ferner Dan
Bacher Website
of the Day
September 18, 2007 Mike
Whitney Alan
Farago John
Ross Ron
Jacobs Alex
Doherty September 17, 2007 Marjorie
Cohn Paul
Craig Roberts Ricardo
Alarcón Marc
Levy Eva
Liddell Website
of the Day Sept. 15-16, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Vicente
Navarro Mike
Whitney Herman
Mindshaftgap Ellen
Cantarow Jordan
Flaherty Zachary
Hurwitz September 14, 2007 Debbie
Nathan Franklin
Lamb Patrick
Cockburn Farzana
Versey Alan
Farago Hank
Edson September 13, 2007 Patrick
Cockburn Scott
Vest, former Air Force Captain at Minot Andy
Worthington Michael
Baney Dr.
Susan Block September 12, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Stan
Goff William
Blum Manuel
Garcia Debbie
Nathan
Subscribe Online
|
October 19, 2007 A Case Study in the Limits of PropagandaShared Values RevisitedBy SHELDON RAMPTON I received a request recently from a university professor who teaches a course about media literacy. She was wondering if I could help her find videos of the "Shared Values" television ads that the U.S. Department of State produced to improve the image of the United States in Muslim countries shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, so she could show them to her students. I was a bit surprised to realize that the ads are fairly hard to locate online, but after some searching, we were able to find copies. To ensure that they will remain available, I uploaded the videos to two popular internet repositories: YouTube, where people can easily find them and drop them into their own web pages; and the Internet Archive, which should ensure that they survive for posterity. Twenty or fifty years from now, scholars wishing to understanding the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world will certainly be interested in studying the "Shared Values" campaign. As my professor friend wrote back after finding the videos, "The ads are a great teaching tool about propaganda." Like most propaganda, they tell us a great deal about how the propagandists see themselves as well as how they want to be perceived by others. "Shared Values" was part of a public relations campaign launched by Charlotte Beers, a former Madison Avenue advertising executive who was appointed by Colin Powell as U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and asked to help "rebrand" the United States to improve its image in Muslim countries. In practice, the Shared Values campaign ran up against rising Muslim anger following the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and then Iraq. As we have pointed out on this website on numerous occasions, the U.S. image has plummeted internationally - especially among Muslims. Here is how John Stauber and I analyzed Charlotte Beers and her rebranding effort in our 2003 book, Weapons of Mass Deception:
Viewed today, the Shared Values campaign, and even our critique of it, looks rather quaint and naive. Since John and I wrote those words, America's reputation has been further eroded by the ongoing violence in Iraq and by photographs of America soldiers gleefully torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The idea that the United States is a tolerant nation has been undermined by the behavior of the war's strongest supporters, as pro-war columnists like Michelle Malkin and blogs like Little Green Footballs regularly refer to Arabs and Muslims as "vermin" in need of "sterilization," while campaigning for the "free speech" of U.S. soldiers who compose humorous songs about killing Iraqis, or rallying to the defense of a student after his arrest for stealing stealing copies of the Koran and flushing them down toilets.
After reviewing opinion polls that found steep declines in America's public image in every Muslim country surveyed, John and I concluded in Weapons of Mass Deception that the Shared Values campaign was an "abject failure." Most observers at the time agreed. The TV ads were controversial in the countries where they aired, and government-run channels in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan flatly refused to run them at all. Less than a month after the launch of "Shared Values," the State Department abruptly suspended it. "Islamic opinion is influenced more by what the U.S. does than by anything it can say," commented an advertising executive in the Wall Street Journal. Charlotte Beers resigned two weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and comments at O'Dwyer's, a leading public relations industry trade publication, greeted her departure with cries of "good riddance" and dismissive comments about her competence. More recently, a couple of communications professors, Jami Fullerton and Alice Kendrick, have argued that the Shared Values ads were more effective than people realized. Fullerton and Kendrick reached their conclusions by conducting a survey that involved showing the ads to a test audience of university students in London and surveying their reactions. They first announced their findings in 2004, prompting a blistering critique from journalism professor Lawrence Pintak, who pointed out that only six of the 105 students surveyed were even Muslims. Since Pintak wrote his critique, Fullerton and Kendrick have attempted to bolster their research by conducting a second survey in London and additional surveys in Singapore and Cairo. They have published their findings in a book, titled Advertising's War on Terrorism: The Story of the U.S. State Department's Shared Values Initiative. However, much of the substance of Pintak's criticism still applies. For one thing, all of their surveys involved small samples of students at international universities. (Can the reactions of English-speaking students at American University in Cairo really predict how the rest of the Muslim world will respond to the ads?) As one book review noted,
Beyond these methodological concerns, moreover, Pintak correctly observed that "the whole issue of the effectiveness of the commercials is actually beside the point." Whatever positive impression the ads might have generated in people who viewed them was countered by the generally negative public outcry throughout the Muslim world about the very fact that they were being broadcast, and the Fullerton/Kendrick survey had no way of measuring this factor. More importantly still, any positive effects of the ads have been vastly outweighed by the negative attitudes that the U.S. has created toward itself through its invasion and occupation of Iraq. Monologue About Dialogue Regardless of whether the Shared Values ads were effective, they were in any case dishonest. Each "Shared Values" video ended with a tag line that said, "Presented by the Council of American Muslims for Understanding ... and the American people." But although "the American people" supposedly co-sponsored the ads, few Americans had ever heard of the Council of American Muslims for Understanding (CAMU). This is because CAMU was actually a PR front group, created and funded by the U.S. State Department. Front groups are an example of a PR tactic known as the "third party technique," in which the sponsor of a message seeks to put their words in someone else's mouth. Usually this is done because the sponsor thinks the message will seem more credible if someone else says it. Here is how John and I described CAMU in Weapons of Mass Deception:
The striking thing about the CAMU web site, however, is how little real dialogue it enabled. This is, after all, the twenty-first century. Internet newsgroups, web forums, email listservs and even web cams have long ago perfected the technologies that enable real dialogue to occur in real time between people throughout the world. The absence of opportunities for genuine dialogue may explain why OpenDialogue.com has been irrelevant to most people seeking information about U.S.-Muslim relations. A Google search on April 8, 2003 found only 58 other web pages that link to OpenDialogue, most of which were sites run by U.S. embassies or other government agencies. For comparison's sake, there were 2,200 links to IslamiCity.com, a site that discusses world affairs from a Muslim point of view. After the Shared Values campaign ended, CAMU's government funding dried up, and the group quietly disappeared, as did its website. When I visited OpenDialogue.com just now, I found a commercial spam site with popup ads that crashed my web browser. You can still find a copy of the original website, however, at the Internet Archive. On its "questions and answers" page, CAMU described itself as "a private, non-profit, non-partisan and non-political organization." This, of course, is deliberate deception. An organization created by the U.S. State Department is certainly not "private," and it is only "non-political" if we interpret that term in the narrow sense of "not involved in electoral politics." (Malik Hasan, its chairman, is a wealthy Republican activist who subsequently became a founding member of "Muslims for Bush.") One of the hallmarks of propaganda is that its practitioners are wholly preoccupied with the question of whether their message "works" and are indifferent to the question of whether their message is "true." At the risk of sounding like a moralist and scold, I believe that honesty is important in communications, even if dishonest messages sometimes "produce the results we want." This, however, is a point that Fullerton and Kendrick do not seem to have considered in their analysis. Ultimately, though, I think propaganda fails even the "effectiveness" test. Propaganda is the language through which power expresses itself. By its very nature, it is incapable of sustaining the sort of dialogue that creates genuine understanding between different cultures. If Americans truly wish to be respected and appreciated by the rest of the world, we have to find other ways of communicating. Sheldon Rampton is the co-author, with John Stauber, Weapons of Mass Deception and The Best War Ever.
|
How the Press Led the US into War  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!  Click Here to Buy! Click Here for Dates & Venues Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz  Click Here to Buy! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order! How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism            The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn     Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont                CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed       Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
