Public diplomacy is focus of new Erasmus ISP application

PR as public diplomacy.   This has become the focus of a pan-European application by a number of universities across Europe including Turkey to the EU for funding for an Erasmus ISP or integrated study programme.

There is increasing interest in the concept of public diplomacy by the PR and communications industry particularly its application in the business context where some have called it corporate diplomacy.  This draws on work in political communications and international relations and other disciplines and highlights developments where diplomacy rather like lobbying has come under pressure to move into the public arena from the metaphorical "smoke filled room" - a much loved phrase by journalists to describe a secret deal hidden away from public gaze.

The concept of public diplomacy and its application to business draws on these influences as well as from lobbying, inter-cultural communications, PR, growing transparency agendas and wider societal pressures for business to show its contribution to society not just to the bottom line.

The application for an Erasmus ISP in this field seeks to help develop definitions, curricula, and best practice in industry for an emerging area of strategic communications.  Greenwich was part of an earlier Erasmus IP on lobbying and government relations in the EU with a number of universities across Europe (Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania, Spain and  Sweden).  Nearly all the same team have come together for a new application but this time with the addition of Bilgi University in Istanbul.  A notable feature of ISP applications is they have to show strong links with industry, and that is something which very much plays to the strengths of Greenwich.    Part of the proposal will include a planned conference at Greenwich in 2018 bringing together all partners and industry stakeholders.  

The academic team making the application include the following universities: University of Lorraine, University of Bucharest, University of Bilgi, CEU, Cardinal Herrera, University of Greenwich. 

Leadership styles and decision making in a crisis - sub-text to CIA report

The Senate Intelligence report on torture by the CIA after 9/11 published this week, has an important sub-text which to date has not really been covered by the media.  George Tenet, Director of the CIA (1997-2004) as the report highlighted, allowed "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", by CIA operatives and contractors during his time at the CIA.  However the FBI, under Robert Mueller, who took over the FBI, just two weeks before 9/11 refused to countenance torture, in spite of coming under great pressure from the White House to allow it.

                                         

                                           
                              George Tenet, CIA Director, receives Presidential Media of Freedom, 2004.

It is not often that we can see two leaders of major organisations facing the same decision in the same timescale and the reputational damage incurred (and in the case of the FBI avoided) by a decision taken many years before in the heat of the moment.

I, only became aware of this a few weeks ago, buying a remaindered book in the local bookshop in Greenwich, titled The Black Banners, the inside story of 9/11 and the war against Al-Queda.  Turns out to be a fascinating book written by one of the leading FBI interrogators of the time, called Ali Soufan, an Arabic speaking operative with great insight of Al-Queda.  He highlighted the very different approaches of the FBI and the CIA and the fact that the CIA as an intelligence gathering operation, never had a tradition of formal interrogation for criminal justice - in stark contrast to the FBI.   As a result, the CIA after 9/11, instead of drawing on the FBI's expertise, took its own path under great pressure from the White House to produce instant results, with heavy consequences for the USA and the CIA.  The hiring of outside contractors to undertake the torture is an element of the report which is particularly shocking.

Ali Soufan's role in the early interrogations of Al-Queda operatives using traditional techniques; witnessing early CIA torture; alerting FBI senior management to CIA behaviour and later evidence to Congressional committees has made him a powerful and credible witness in the US and globally.  He has gone on to found a commercial security intelligence service.

His story provides a demonstration also, of the behaviour, that a manager in the front line, under great pressure, may have to resolve drawing on expertise and personal ethics.  Not often, do such decisions come back many years later, with brickbats or laurels, but certainly they have this week for the CIA, the FBI and Ali Soufan.

UK Treasury shows its skill at media framing although politicisation of government announcement raises questions

The Conservatives must be delighted by the coverage which the announcement by the UK Treasury has received for its decision to repurchase £218M of bonds issued in the 1920s by Winston Churchill and related primarily to Britain refinancing First World War costs.  The story has received good coverage not only the financial media where such a story would normally be covered but across mainstream media as well, even international media - I think I saw it in Le Figaro.

Bond repurchases do not normally gain much attention but the Treasury press announcement is a master class in media framing:

• 2014 is a 100 years since the start of the First World War and the UK is just about to commemorate those who died at Remembrance Sunday so timing was excellent.
• Exceptional public interest in the display of poppies at the Tower of London has highlighted that the First World War has a strong hold on the imagination of the British people further enhancing impact of story.

Picture: Daily Telegraph. 

• A new biography written by Boris Johnston on Winston Churchill has just come out and Winston Churchill was Chancellor when the bonds were first issued. Links with Churchill are key requirement for any Conservative future leader.
• The Treasury has managed to link the story back into much earlier British history including the South Sea Bubble (18th century) which it claims the bonds, when first issued were also clearing up.  This aspect of the story seems a bit far fetched however the overall message which the Treasury clearly wanted to emphasise is that Britain pays its debts.  This is always a good message to remind international capital particularly as UK bonds are no longer AAA with all credit rating agencies.  Certainly the announcement has been well received going by comments from bond analysts. 

Apart from the media framing by the Treasury, the rather clunky message by the Chancellor in the announcement, even stronger in his tweet “We’ll redeem £218m of 4% Consols, including debts incurred because of South Sea Bubble. Another financial crisis we’re clearing up after ...” shows that a UK election is not far away and political point scoring in a government announcement even from such a powerful department as the Treasury is now standard.  (What would former No.10 press secretaries Harold Evans and Henry James have said - having worked with them, I am sure they would not have approved.)       

Building identity for United Kingdom

One of the results of the Scottish referendum is it has made us think what does it mean to be part of the United Kingdom or related terms such as Great Britain.   The UK as a concept and as a narrative is something which many of us have been re-learning in recent weeks.   In fact, the concept of the UK made up of differing nationalities such as Scottish, Welsh, English is not straightforward and so the referendum, particularly the thought that the UK might be broken up has made us reflect on the concept. One person who has helped us think through the concept and the benefits which it brings, is Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and Chancellor and still a Scottish MP in Westminster.   His speech the day before voting in Glasgow is magnificent; in its rhetoric, its persuasive content, its narrative and for helping us realise the benefits of the Union and the dangers of nationalism.  As well as being available on Youtube, transcripts of the speech are on both the Independent and the Mirror.

Public sphere-like communications develop in UK financial sector

We are starting to see a number of organisations realising that the issues they are facing are too great to be resolved by their own actions.  They need help.  They need to share the pain, even the guilt in the public sphere.  The method which seems to be developing is by commissioning a report from an outside expert or organisation and by doing so opening up problems and agendas to public debate.  

This is what might be termed an emerging form of public sphere communications which Inger Jensen from Roskilde University anticipated in her 2001 paper titled Public Relations and emerging functions of the public sphere. To gain legitimacy, companies need to "launch problems in public as being of common concern."

We are seeing this develop most noticeably in the banking sector.

• In 2012 Barclays commissioned Anthony Salz, to lead an external review of Barclays' business practices. 

• This approach has now been followed by RBS which following receipt of the Lending Review Report which it commissioned from Sir Andrew Large, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England has today commissioned a further report from Clifford Chance to investigate further. 

While in contrast, these are very different from the process which has been inflicted on the poor Co-operative Bank with major government and regulatory enquiries heaped upon it.  There is no sense that the Co-op Bank is in control of the gathering debate even terminal crisis facing the brand at least in banking.   A media firestorm created around the Chairman of the bank has influenced the Treasury and government to use the bank as a political football which may do immense damage to the mutual sector in the UK.  A very different form of communicative process with very little rational discussion at the heart of it.

This is an area which I am wanting to explore in my doctorate and I would welcome input from practitioners and academics.

Euprera 2013 in Barcelona

The European PR Research Association, Euprera, has just completed its 2013 conference in Barcelona. Great location and great networking event and appeared to be much more international than two years ago when I last attended.  Highlights on the presentations and events I attended included:

                                              (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/45068230)

• A very impressive opening speech from Robert Heath, Emeritus Professor at University of Houston placing organisational agendas at heart of PR practice.  Some good lines such as "organisation is product of communicative events" and "legitimacy is prerequisite for institutionalisation."  Encouraged PR as a discipline to think of what it has to offer other disciplines not just draw on them.  
• Professor Ralph Tench at Leeds Metropolitan University has led important pan-European research programme to assess competences and skills of European PR practitioners.  This will enhance the professionalisation of the industry over time and provide very useful insights for academic teams running PR programmes.  There is also a new site being developed for practitioners and students to assess their own competences.  
• Social media is now being supported by some major research into how organisations are using it and the answer is not very well particularly when it comes to using the interactive potential of the media. Dr Uta Russman at the University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication in Vienna presented data on the top 500 companies in Austria and use of social media.  This was similar to data from German companies presented by researchers from University of Leipzig.  Don't be fooled by social media leaders, many companies are happy using it as a form of one way communication. 
• Attended the opening meeting of the European Public Relations History Network, a development of Professor Tom Watson's successful History of PR Conference at Bournemouth.  This is opening up important new avenues of research and links with other academic disciplines.  Currently reading The Sleepwalkers - How Europe went to war in 1914 by Christopher Clark, Professor of Modern History at Cambridge and it is interesting to note the author's focus on  public opinion and media coverage in the lead up to war, reflecting the potential opportunities for this new initiative as both historians and PR historians focus on the role of communications.  In fact the book is a fascinating resource and argument for the role of public diplomacy in the modern age - something significantly lacking in 1913/14 as the author highights.

Propaganda - Power and Persuasion

The British Library in London has been hosting a very interesting exhibition on Propaganda by the state which is in its last few weeks.  The exhibition and accompanying book by Professor David Welch of the University of Kent  provides a good framework for understanding its origins around the role of persuasion as part of rhetoric in Ancient Greece; its use in building national identity; its use in fanning the flames of hatred through the centuries and in wartime particularly in the last century; but also its use in public information campaigns around health and nutrition.  The exhibition felt as though it was covering too much ground and both the book and exhibition are perhaps stronger when looking at propaganda in the context of war.                                  
                                               

                                   http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/propaganda/index.html

David Welch says that "...in 1991 the military were firmly in control of the media (Gulf War) but by 2003 and the invasion of Iraq, power had shifted to politicians who were now in control of state-media relations and the information environment...resulted in an unprecedented concentration of "communications power" within political elites." (Welch, D, 2013, p.194).  Has this "concentration" survived the last 8 years as Facebook, Twitter and the growth of social media are all products which have come to the fore since this period?  He does finish his book with a section entitled "Are we all propagandists now?"  However perhaps his earlier statement is not far off, with the news which came out in the last two months of the vast monitoring undertaken by the NSA and GCHQ of online communications and social media, as a product of the "War on Terror" suggesting that "communications power" takes many forms.

The exhibition comes at an interesting time with PR increasingly researching the history of propaganda and its influence on PR as recent papers at the International History of PR conference at the University of Bournemouth highlight.  A recent history of Sir Stephen Tallents who was a pioneer of cultural activity as a form of nation branding is just one example.  Sir Stephen was part of a very influential generation of PR practitioners from the 1930s onwards who were influenced according to his biographer, Scott Anthony, by the strong reaction after the First War where Britain's crude use of atrocity propaganda against the Germans led to a breakdown in trust in government communications as the "truth" came out and led to new approaches in government communications led by the Civil Service.