Mid-Week Quote: “information consequences of policy ought always be taken into account”

Today’s quote comes from the Fourth Semiannual Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information, submitted to the Congress in April 1951.

Sometimes policy is “made” by the junior officer who writes an original memorandum. Sometimes it is made by an unexpected utterance at a top-level press conference. But the information consequences of policy ought always be taken into account, and the information man ought always to be consulted.

The Mid-Week Quote will be a recurring feature of the blog, although it may not appear every week.  Email me to suggest a quote.  See below for more on the report this quote is taken from.

The 22-page report (available at the website of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy) assessed that the State Department’s information program is being effectively administered, that the personnel has greatly improved, and that most of the Commission’s previous recommendations had been put into effect.  The Commission expressed concern whether taking the program outside of the State Department to the about to be established United States Information Agency would be an improvement or a detriment to operation.

The Commission recommended that the program should be expanded, better evaluated, and remain closely tied to the policy-making and public affairs areas of the State Department.

It is worth taking a look at the number and purpose of committees the Commission recommended the State Department establish.

The Commission has been most desirous to carry out the purposes of Public Law 402 by opening up wider channels of contact with appropriate professional and private sources. To that end, under the authority of the Act, it has recommended and the State Department has set up seven advisory committees.

Radio Advisory Committee:

  • Judge Justin Miller, Chairman (& member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information)
  • William S. Paley, Chairman of the Board, Columbia Broadcasting System
  • Theodore C. Streibert, Chairman of the Board, Mutual Broadcasting Company
  • Charles Denny, Executive Vice-President, National Broadcasting Company
  • Wesley I. Dumm, President, Associated Broadcasting, Inc.
  • Donley F. Feddersen, President, University Association for Professional Radio Education, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
  • Jack W. Harris, General, Station KPRC, Houston, TX
  • Henry P. Johnston, General Manager, Station WSGN, Birmingham, AL
  • Edward Noble, Chairman of the Board, American Broadcasting Company
  • John F. Patt, President, Station WGAR, Cleveland, OH
  • Mefford R. Runyon, Executive Vice-President, American Cancer Society
  • G. Richard Shafto, General Manager, Station WIS, Columbia, SC
  • Hugh B. Terry, Vice President and General Manager, Station KLZ, Denver, CO

General Business Advisory Committee

  • Philip D. Reed, Chairman (& member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information)
  • James A. Farley, Chairman of the Board, Coca Cola Export Corporation
  • Ralph T. Reed, President, American Express Company
  • W. Randolph Burgess, Chairman of the Executive Committee, National City Bank of New York City
  • Sigurd S. Larmon, President, Young & Rubicam, Inc.
  • William M. Robbins, Vice President for Overseas Operations, General Food Corporation
  • David A. Shepard, Executive Assistant, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey
  • J.P. Spang, Jr., President, Gillette Safety Razor Company
  • Claude Robinson, President, Opinion Research Corporation
  • Warren Lee Pierson, Chairman of the Board, Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc.
  • Meyer Kestnbaum, President, Hart, Shaffner & Marx

Ideological Committee

  • George Gallup, Institute of Public Opinion
  • George S. Counts, Teachers College, Columbia University
  • Allen W. Dulles, Director and President, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Elmer Davis, News Analyst, American Broadcasting Company
  • Alexander Inkeles, Harvard University

The following were Members of the Advisory Commission on Information at the time of the report:

  • Erwin D. Canham, Chairman
  • Philip D. Reed
  • Mark A. May
  • Justin Miller
  • and Ben Hibbs was nominated but not yet confirmed

Senate Report on the Broadcasting Board of Governors

The most extensive report on the issues facing the Broadcasting Board of Governors and US international broadcasting was released this week. “US International Broadcasting – Is Anybody Listening? – Keeping the US Connected” (1mb PDF) was prepared by the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under the leadership of senior professional staff member Paul Foldi, and is the best, if not the only, substantial review of its kind.
The report describes the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) as transforming from its intent of a political “firewall” to a modern political “football” that has resulted in an average vacancy on the board of over 470 days. Even now, the new slate of members of the BBG has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

Beyond staffing difficulties and the resulting repercussions, the report describes the fierce competition and imbalance, particularly with China and Russia, to engage listeners, viewers, and readers around the world. The report also recommends changes to the Smith-Mundt Act, describing the firewall as “anachronistic and potentially harmful.”

Some highlights from the report:

Continue reading “Senate Report on the Broadcasting Board of Governors

Public Diplomacy: Books, Articles, Websites #47

Courtesy of Bruce Gregory, Professor of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University.

September 9, 2009
Intended for teachers of public diplomacy and related courses, here is an update on resources that may be of general interest.  Suggestions for future updates are welcome. 
Bruce Gregory
Adjunct Assistant Professor of
  Media and Public Affairs
George Washington University
(202) 994-6350
BGregory@gwu.edu

Continue reading “Public Diplomacy: Books, Articles, Websites #47

House Appropriations Concerned Pentagon’s Role in Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy (updated)

American public diplomacy wears combat boots. That was the first sentence of my chapter in the Handbook of Public Diplomacy published last year. I argued that public diplomacy and its related strategic communication had gone too soft and that the Defense Department necessarily, if unwilling and sometimes clumsily, stepped in to fill a gap left by an absent State Department. Today, the situation is different with Defense running increasingly sophisticated efforts, often with the collaboration and support of State and other entities within the Government. And of course, the Smith-Mundt Act has an effect here on public diplomacy and strategic communication.

Continue reading “House Appropriations Concerned Pentagon’s Role in Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy (updated)

New GAO Report on Public Diplomacy is out (Updated)

U.S. Public Diplomacy: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight, GAO-09-679SP, May 27, 2009. Download here (PDF, 566kb) or read online here.

Highlights:

The United States’ current national communication strategy lacks a number of desirable characteristics identified by GAO, such as a clear definition of the problem, desired results, and a delineation of agency roles and responsibilities. …

The United States’ current national communication strategy lacks a number of desirable characteristics identified by GAO, such as a clear definition of the problem, desired results, and a delineation of agency roles and responsibilities. …

State faces a number of human capital challenges that influence the effectiveness of its public diplomacy operations. …

Security concerns around the world have led to building practices and personnel policies that have limited the ability of local populations to interact with Americans inside and outside the embassy. …

[GAO] provided a draft of this report for review and comment to State, BBG, USAID, and DOD. Each agency declined to provide formal comments. State, BBG, and USAID provided technical comments, which we incorporated in the report, as appropriate.

The report includes a Strategic Communication (not “public diplomacy”) budget breakdown:

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Continue reading “New GAO Report on Public Diplomacy is out (Updated)

Summarizing Public Diplomacy Reports

image GAO, CRS, academics, and anyone else interested in Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication must look at Steve Corman’s quick and dirty and most coherent summary ever of eighteen major public diplomacy reports from the most recent White Oak report back to a 2004 Brookings Report.

The raw numbers don’t tell the complete the story, but that half or more of the reports shared four recommendations is significant.

Somebody, perhaps one of Steve’s student’s, should take this a step further: look at the reports’ definition of public diplomacy and weigh the recommendations accordingly. Is Public Diplomacy an active component in the struggle of minds and wills using “fast” and “slow” communications or a passive informational tool primarily based on the “slow” communications of exchanges? 

Either way, Steve’s analysis is unique and the top values are certainly common and yet elusive? Why? Because we had, until last year, no real understanding of the value of people to people engagement after we came out of thirty years of state on state diplomacy followed by the End of History. Congress is eager to help change the system and the Defense Department is eager to help, but will the system, now “owned” by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, be changed?