Communicating with the World of Islam: Volume 556 (Hoover Institution Press Publication) - Softcover

Johnson, A. Ross

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817948228 ISBN 13: 9780817948221

Verlag: Hoover Institution Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Western broadcasts had a remarkable impact in the USSR and Eastern Europe during the cold war reaching both mass audiences and key elites. The effectiveness of these broadcasts was clearly attested to by the massive resources the communist regimes spent in trying to counter them.

Communicating with the World of Islam draws from the lessons learned in the cold war broadcasting experience to suggest the best ways of organizing U.S. efforts to communicate with Islamic people around the globe.

Drawn from discussions at the seminar "Communicating with the Islamic World," sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, this report examines the impact of the Voice of America, Radio Liberty, the BBC, Radio Free Europe, and other broadcasting tools had and suggests how the United States can use these instruments today to counter extremism effectively, promote democracy, and improve understanding of the United States in the Islamic world.

It details current broadcasting efforts into Islamic countries and the Muslim communities of Europe and explains each of the critical factors necessary to influence the world of Islam in a positive direction, such as stressing women's content programming, maintaining pressure on the rulers of Qatar over the content and programming of Al Jazeera, and keeping news content candid, tailored to local audiences, and unsparingly accurate.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

A. Ross Johnson is a Hoover fellow and former director of Radio Free Europe.

A. Ross Johnson is a Hoover fellow and former director of Radio Free Europe.

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Communicating with the World of Islam

By A. Ross Johnson

Hoover Institution Press

Copyright © 2008 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8179-4822-1

Contents

Preface, 
Communicating with the World of Islam George P. Shultz, 
Appendix A. Dilemma of the Middle East: Policy and Prospects for Public Diplomacy, 
Rapporteur's Summary of Rancho Mirage Seminar Discussion Gregory Mitrovich, 
Appendix B. Briefing on Cold War International Broadcasting: Lessons Learned A. Ross Johnson and R. Eugene Parta, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Communicating with the World of Islam

George P. Shultz

This publication seeks to answer three questions:

1. What can we learn from the broadcasting experience of the Cold War, particularly by examining the experiences of Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, the BBC, and the Voice of America?

2. What are current broadcasting efforts into the world of Islam and, in particular, into countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Egypt, and the Muslim communities of Europe?

3. What are the best ways of organizing U.S. efforts to communicate with the world of Islam?

LESSONS LEARNED

Drawing on a recent summary of lessons learned from the Cold War broadcasting experience, we set out below a number of the reasons for the success of that experience, along with some discussion of those lessons.

1. Cold War broadcasting efforts were guided by a clear sense of purpose with emphasis on strategic objectives. The objectives were to constrain Soviet power (without provoking suicidal revolt), to keep alive hope of a better future, to limit tyranny, and to broaden the boundaries of internal debate, all in order to make the Soviet empire a less formidable adversary. These strategic objectives emerged after some fumbling in the early 1950s with notions of early "liberation," "rollback," and "keep[ing] the pot boiling."

2. Methods for appraising effectiveness were developed to guide fiscal allocations, but even more importantly, to suggest new ways of going about the effort.

3. A strong capability for sophisticated appraisal of the adversary was developed and a cadre of specialized researchers with deep area expertise was assembled. This information and analysis function was not envisaged at the outset; it was developed at Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty (RL) over time in response to operational need. It became in turn a major contributor to U.S. government and scholarly analyses.

4. Differentiated and tailored programs were developed for multiple audiences among and within target countries. Balanced world and regional news was a staple for all audiences. Programs for Communist elites included coverage of conflicts within and among Communist parties and reports on social democracy in Europe. Programs for non-Communist elites covered Western culture and intellectual life and, as internal dissent developed, amplification of that dissent. Programs for general audiences covered everything from agriculture to religion to labor to sports. Banned Western and internal music was featured. Willis Conover of Voice of America (VOA) introduced a generation of Russians and Poles to jazz; the RFE Hungarian Service "Teenager Party" program attracted a generation of Hungarian youth to RFE; and Western music attracted listeners in the other RFE target countries as well. In the USSR, the magnitizdat phenomenon introduced banned Soviet underground music to a wide public.

5. The programs were purposeful, responsible, and relevant to their audiences, and a great effort was made to develop their credibility. Events of the day were covered, but thematic programming was important as well (e.g., a series on parliamentary institutions in a democracy). Commentary was included along with straight news and news analysis, and audiences were attracted to star-quality commentators. It was essential that programs built and maintained credibility by reporting the bad news along with the good, as in coverage of Watergate and Vietnam. Responsible programming was, at its best, calm in tone and, after the early 1950s, it avoided transmitting tactical advice and, especially, any encouragement of violent resistance. Programming emphasized local developments and was attuned to the listeners through constant audience feedback obtained from traveler surveys and listener mail, and through continuous management of quality control.

6. The broadcast organizations believed in decentralization and in a large measure of autonomy for country broadcast units. This led to wider audiences and to the improvement and quality that typically stem from competition.

7. The broadcasts were accompanied by multiple-media operations beginning with balloon leaflets in the 1950s, and later including periodicals, Western books, and locally unpublished texts.

8. Funding was provided by Congress at levels that were adequate without being lavish and was subject to careful fiscal oversight.

9. Distance and insulation from official government policies were sustained and a tradition of journalistic independence nourished. The authorizing legislation, Section 2 of the Board for International Broadcasting Act of 1973, provided for "an independent broadcast media, operating in a manner not inconsistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the United States and in accordance with high professional standards," giving RFE and RL considerable journalistic flexibility. Advocacy of specific U.S. policies was not required and was, in fact, avoided. The BBC enjoyed similar autonomy in the British context. VOA's journalistic independence, affirmed in 1976 by law in the VOA Charter, was sometimes challenged by administration policy interference and complicated by the requirement to broadcast administration policy editorials.

10. The target audiences lived in an "information poor" environment subject to continual propaganda and censorship, which created receptive listeners, a key ingredient for success. East Europeans, in particular, felt especially cut off from the rest of Europe and were predominantly pro-American.

11. The participation of émigrés in broadcasts was handled carefully. This was no simple task because émigrés frequently exaggerate both positive and negative news. Nevertheless, the Cold War experience showed that it is possible and important to use known figures who are fluent in the language of the country in which a program is broadcast.

12. A flow of events offered opportunities because people denied information by propaganda sources are generally eager to know what is going on. Chernobyl is an interesting example because the endangered population got all its initial news about the event from the West and either nothing or a distorted view from the Soviets. Credibility makes it possible for broadcasters to take full advantage of these events.

In brief, Western broadcasts had a remarkable impact in the USSR and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. They reached mass audiences, as documented by traveler surveys at the time and confirmed now by evidence from the formerly closed Communist archives. And they reached essential elites, both within the Communist regimes and among regime opponents. The main keys to the mass and elite audiences were the credibility and relevance of the broadcasts. Government mechanisms were geared to providing public funding and oversight while ensuring management autonomy and journalistic independence.

Current Efforts

The United States and other...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Hoover Institution Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0817948228
• ISBN 13: 9780817948221
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 74
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar