International Communication

International Communication

In approaching persuasive communication, Stevenson delves first into the idea of propaganda and what that means in the context of international relations and the way nations promote their views abroad. As he points out, even though the word takes on a certain nefarious and deceitful character, it is still little more than an effort at persuasion no matter which moniker is chosen (346-7). From here, Stevenson goes on to describe public diplomacy, that is the efforts of countries to influence other peoples by various means. In particular, he focuses on the activities of the United States Information Agency, an arm of the government developed after the start of the Cold War whose most notable activity was that of promoting a US view and ideal of the world in the face of the continued Soviet communist presence, certainly a role of propaganda (347-350). Though the organization has grown into a much larger cultural representative of the US and provider of information from foreign countries for the US government, this was its original role.

But the idea of a propaganda arm coming from a country who prides itself on freedom and its advancement in the world seems strange since it would go against that very ideals of freedom, as Shawn J. Parry-Giles points out. In his article, he illustrates how the notion of propaganda was adjusted so as to serve the foreign policy goals of the US under the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, and how the two administrations differed in their approach to using propaganda when the concept itself conflicts with US conceptions of democracy (117). Parry-Giles quotes Jacques Ellul in summarizing this tension between propaganda and democracy: "...it is evident that a ...

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...his way it could distinguish its real actions and ideological positions and hide what Parry-Giles calls "the rhetorical paradox of a democratic government engaging in the restriction of free flowing information and the subterfuge of rational thought" (127).'

It is this dichotomy between ideology and action that has always been a characteristic of US foreign policy, but one particularly evident for the duration of the Cold War in its effort to stamp out what was perceived as the threat of Soviet Communism.

Works Cited:

Parry-Giles, Shawn J. "The Rhetorical Tension Between Propaganda and Democracy: Blending Competing Conceptions of Ideology and Theory." Communications Studies 44 (1993): 117-130.

Stevenson, Robert L. Global Communication in the Twenty-First Century. "Persuasive Communnication." 343-368. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992