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“RADIO IN A BOX”: PSYOPS, AFGHANISTAN AND THE AESTHETICS OF THE LOW-TECH
JUN 23, 2011
 Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by Monroe E. Price


Co-Author: Sam Jacobson During research on media and conflict in Afghanistan, Professor Price came across the interesting phenomenon of "Radio in a Box," or RIAB. Captivated by the phrase and concept, he sought to find out more about it. There are too few accounts—mostly newspaper stories—about this aspect of psyops, or psychological operations. RIAB is a technique used by the U.S. military, in part, for improving communication with the Afghan National Army. RIAB is already a large enough phenomenon to support various military contracts. Here, for example, is an advertisement for a “creative trainer” in RIAB content. Fortuitously, Professor Price…... Full Text
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XINHUA, CHINA’S SOFT POWER INITIATIVE AND THE RETURN OF THE NEW WORLD INFORMATION ORDER
JUN 7, 2011
 Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by Monroe E. Price


I’ve been tracking elements of China’s complicated and ambitious policy of expanding its information sphere to a possibly waiting world. In late May, I heard Dr. Hu Zhengrong, one of China’s most distinguished ambassadors to the international academic world, give a talk on this “going out” policy to the International Communications Association in Boston. Then in early June, Li Congjun, president of the extraordinarily important Chinese global news service, Xinhua, published a statement in the Wall Street Journal as part of the process of being more public. In the opinion essay, Li declared a set of principles that, he thought,…... Full Text
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THE BATTLE OVER INTERNET REGULATORY PARADIGMS: AN INTENSIFYING AREA FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
AUG 3, 2010
 Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by Monroe E. Price


As global framing contests go, one of the most spectacular is the transnational effort to define proper regulation of the Internet (and in the process characterize China’s information policy). In June, China’s State Information Office issued a White Paper on the Internet. It could be seen as a response to another important text, Hillary Clinton’s much acclaimed January Newseum speech on the same subject, called "Remarks on Internet Freedom." These papers, especially the China White Paper, have not received the attention that they deserve. A variety of fairly uncritical comments have acclaimed the Clinton speech as a wholesale endorsement of…... Full Text
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TRANSFORMATIVE MOBILIZATION: FROM OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN TECHNIQUES TO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
NOV 9, 2008
 Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by Monroe E. Price


It may be peculiar to comment on one’s own blog. But, having just provided a post on possible directions for Obama’s international broadcasting and public diplomacy strategy, I realized I had missed the elephant (or donkey) in the room. In thinking about a strategy for the new administration, the obvious question (so obvious that it’s already three-quarters asked) is: what would it mean to harness, for global understanding, the Obama campaign’s approach to “movement” thinking and its brilliant exploitation of the potential of the Internet? International broadcasters have been struggling with the question of how to adjust to new technology.…... Full Text
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CHANGING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING IN THE OBAMA ERA?
NOV 6, 2008
 Posted by Monroe E. Price
All posts by Monroe E. Price


Can two late thinkers, a French philosopher and British media scholar, point the way to a new American public diplomacy— or at least an American international broadcasting strategy— for the Obama era? Let’s start with two unarguable points. The very election of Barack Obama shifts the world of public diplomacy and automatically alters the dynamic of U.S. messaging abroad. As Timothy Garton Ash put it in the Guardian, “Obama is himself a weapon of mass attraction.” Second, as commission after commission and report after report found this decade, without addressing underlying foreign policy initiatives, attention to the form and technique…... Full Text
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