A small collection of links you may find interesting.
Public Diplomacy Chief Predicts Turnaround in US Standing Abroad by David Gollust, VOA, May 27, 2009
McHale, whose company operated in some 170 countries around the world, said the key to America reaching foreign populations and particularly youthful audiences is through new media – not only cable television but cellular communications and Internet social networking.
What Obama should tell Muslims by Juan Zarate and James Glassman, Boston.com, May 27, 2009
While the United States will continue to be a partner against extremism and a supporter of Muslims building better societies, the ultimate outcome will be determined by them, not us.
Edward R. Murrow, ABC TV’s “Issues and Answers,” August 4, 1963 (from Asiang)
It has always seemed to me the real art in this business is not so much moving information or guidance or policy five or 10,000 miles. That is an electronic problem. The real art is to move it the last three feet in face to face conversation.
NATO Conference on Strategic Communication Steve Corman, COMOPS Journal, May 16, 2009
…I was attending a conference entitled Strategic Communication for Combating Terrorism sponsored by the NATO Center of Excellence for Defense Against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey. The workshop featured 15 experts on strategic communication, including fellow blogger Matt Armstrong of MountainRunner.
Considering that we did not coordinate our subject matter in advance, there was a remarkable amount of convergence among the presentations. I summarize six main themes here for your reading enjoyment, as a way of documenting the current thinking on the main problems of strategic communication against terrorism.
Irish student hoaxes world’s media with fake quote by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press, May 11, 2009
When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.
His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.
The sociology major’s obituary-friendly quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer’s death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India. They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote’s lack of attribution and removed it.
Iraqi Media: Freedom or Chaos by His Excellency Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie, Ambassador of Iraq to the U.S.
The media is pivotal to the development of Iraq’s democratic institutions and practices. Western ideals often focus on the media constituting a “fourth estate,” providing governmental transparency and fostering an informed electorate. Iraqi journalists definitely perceive themselves as the guardians of freedom, monitors of bureaucratic excesses, and the disseminators of political and other information. During the 2009 provincial elections in Iraq, the media played a crucial role in informing the public about the candidates, exposing wrongdoing, and educating the electorate.
So the media in Iraq is now free, but is it responsible? This is an ongoing debate in Iraq. On the one hand, some in the government argue that journalists are irresponsible in their reporting. On the other hand, journalists argue that responsibility is not something for the government to regulate.
A Web Site’s For-Profit Approach to World News by Elizabeth Jensen, The New York Times, March 22, 2009
Overseas reporters have been a casualty of budget-chopping news organizations, leaving an opening for the online start-up GlobalPost. But at a time when many news executives are exploring nonprofit business models to keep specialized reporting flowing, GlobalPost, which made its debut on Jan. 12, is intended to be a moneymaking venture.
The Rolling Stone 2009 Hot List
…we’re banking on an assortment of movers, shakers and muckrakers that runs the gamut from the warfare digest "Small Wars Journal"
