The Army’s planners found “that you can neither wage nor resist a guerilla war successfully unless the local population is with you… To win over native populations, a personal approach may be more effective [than] radio broadcasts.” So says a story titled “Secret Weapon: The Con Man” from The Washington Daily News published May 18, 1961.
Personal approach may be more effective than broadcasts
would be an interesting article to read!
The more things change the more they remain the same.
Different purposes, no? Broadcasting is typically news-based, and ideally that operation is separate from strategic communications and direct persuasion efforts, the types of things that are greatly enhanced with a personal approach.Also, a “personal approach” probably means something different today when compared to 1961. Whereas in 1961, that almost certainly is a reference to people-to-people, direct contact, a modern “personal approach” may include a “personal” selection, e.g. information based on the target audience’s specific preferences, of news articles emailed to their laptop.
The PSYOP community has never moved away from this premise. Face-to-face dissemination of the message is _THE_ most effective means of communication. However, that is not always possible and you can reach a much larger target audience via radio/TV than you can with people on the ground.