The Film on Media Management by the allied forces at the beginning of the Iraqi war

I was privileged this week to watch a BBC documentary film which shed light on how the allied forces used the media to spread the message that the war in Iraqi was worth supporting and watching.

Their main objectives can be said to have been:

• to gain public support for the war and
• manage possible objection to the war

The strategies used to achieve these objectives were

• to provide reasons for the war
• to keep control of the message
  

The allied forces adopted several tactics under their strategies. Prominent among these tactics was the used of embedded journalist.

• 700 journalist were embedded into the military to provide front line images and information. The challenge here may be that because the journalist were clothed and protected by the military it might have been difficulty for them to unbiased in their reportage.
• They also used reality TV through the collection and creation of profiles of soldiers on the front line.
• They also used new technology which allowed immediate real time pictures to be release to TV networks back home and around the world (breaking news).
• There was therefore active representation of what happened in the battlefield. They shot photos of people surrendering, purposeful to show they were winning the war. Troops were also shown playing football with locals to show they are warming up to them. There were also several cameras as images from the battlefield were deemed important to win support.

On the whole the allied forced can be said to have managed and control the media effectively at the start and in the course of the Iraqi war, which is in its fifth year running.

Is there a distinction between Propaganda and PR?

Many people argue that PR is a direct offspring of propaganda whilst other cannot see any distinction between PR and propaganda.

My argument is that the history of PR may have links with propaganda because Edward Bernays, whom many people refer to as the father of PR, is believed to have adopted the positive use of propaganda ( which was its ability to control the masses in times of war) for social use, yet the two are quite distinct models of communication. Unlike propaganda (manipulation), PR ideally should aim at building a mutually beneficial relationship between an organisation and its stakeholders or 'publics'.

This distinction is clearly identified by Grunig and Hunt (1984) in their theory on the four models of communication. They argue that where as "press agentry" (propaganda) is a one way communication which does not allow feedback thus being manipulative, PR ideally should be a two way symmetrical communication which allows for dialogue between an organisation and its 'publics'. However propaganda seems to still exist in politics and government communications where people are manipulated by not given the chance to speak back.

For instance I think the private Jessica script (a film made by Pentagon for Hollywood), which we watched in class was purely a propaganda material made by the US army to win public support for the Iraqi war. Although they insist the war is not about propaganda but about truth I saw in the film the deliberate attempt by the army to cover up the truth.

The story was about private Jessica a US military person serving who served on the front line in Iraqi. Jessica's convoy was bombed which led to the death of nine 0f her colleagues and she being seriously injured. The US military special forces branch staged a rescue mission for her by alleging she was not being properly cared for in an Iraqi hospital.- "saving private Jessica". The operation was successful and the team was praised by Donald Rumsfeld the Secretary of Defence at that time.

However, I realised there were two contradictory stories on the same situation. According to the Iraqi doctors interviewed in the film, they gave Jessica the best treatment like any other patient would receive whilst the US military opposed this assertion. In the documentary that followed the film, the Defence Ministry declined to give the full video of the story but gave out the five minutes edited version when asked for it whiles the American doctor said he had forgotten the whole story.

In conclusion it is fairly evident that the military tried to withhold vital information and controlled the message to paint a good picture about their mission in Iraqi. To me this was propaganda at its very best.

Crisis Management theories and practice.

Crisis management is very important to PR people. Wednesday, the 23rd of January's lecture on Crisis Management was very interesting and insightful. We started by defining crisis and then moved on to the different types of crisis organisations could face. Lastly we looked at how best to manage crisis as an organisation.

What I enjoyed most was the practical exercise on crisis management. The exercise was about 30 kids from a recognised school being struck by a mystery illness and how best the institutions involved should communicate with stakeholders to keep the situation under control . It put me on the spot and I had to think fast and carefully about what I will do in such a situation.

I learnt that in times of crisis, I as, the Communications Director of an organisation, has to stay in control. The organisation has to take responsibility immediately for what has happened and most importantly empathise with the affected people. This depicts the organisation as being caring and helps to retain the trust and confidence of their stakeholders.

The communication team has to act promptly to reassure stakeholders that all is being done to revert the situation to normal. I also realised that depending on the nature of the crisis, the organisation can either issue a press release or organise a press conference to inform stakeholders. You don't have to organise a press conference if there is not enough information to answer questions from attending journalist. The best thing in this situation will be to write a press release.

I also agree to the fact that, there is absolutely no need to speculate and cause panic in a crisis situation but rather the exact information should be communicated to stakeholders and the media. Whilst the organisation co-operate with other bodies involved, if any, to launch an investigation into the cause of the crisis.

Although crisis has the potential to open new opportunities for companies, it can have negative effects if handled poorly. In my attempt to find out more on crisis management, I read Dowling (2001) which gave me valuable insights on the topic. He observes that the Chinese use the words danger and opportunity to describe crisis and whilst crisis may generate opportunities it can have serious negative impacts if not controlled. Further to this he identifies three factors which contribute to the impact a crisis can have on an organisation. These are:

• Their current corporate reputation, is it negative or positive.
• "The magnitude and type of crisis."
• "The amount and tone of media publicity" (p.253-276)

It is highly informative and I would advise any PR person who is interested in crisis communications to have a look at it. (Dowling, G., (2001).Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image and Performance, New York, Oxford University Press.)

The introductory lecture for Public communication and PR issues

The 2nd semester began in earnest on the 16th of January and almost all my classmates were present for the first lecture. It was nice to see them back from the Christmas holidays, looking fit, healthy and quite refreshed. They seemed to be in high spirit and well prepared for the semester ahead. Today's class was used to welcome us back to the university and also to introduce us to this semester's core courses, which are Public Communication and Public Relations issues and our individual dissertations.

I learnt about the timetable for the dissertation classes and what is expected of me through out the rest of the course. Hopefully, it should be a busy and challenging semester, but I look forward to giving it my best shot.

We also looked briefly at last semester's assignments on consumer PR campaign pitch documents and the critical reports through an interactive discussion led by the course leader, Pam Williams.

Personally, I found the discussion very useful and informative because it has broaden my knowledge of how to critically assess a PR campaign pitch document and any document for that matter. I learnt that professional presentation of a pitch document is very important. In addition setting SMART i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable Realistic and Timely objectives were very important in determining how successful or not a PR campaign will be. The objectives will be used in the evaluation of the campaign.

I have also realised that the qualitative and quantitative research inputs I put into planning a PR campaign will be crucial to success of the campaign. This is so because it will me in the problem identification and the specific target audience I need to address. I now understand how best to write a campaign pitch document and a critical report which will be very helpful when I begin my career in PR.