Main Page | Month Archive | Email Updates | RSS Feed

The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Posts by Alvin Snyder

THE JIHADIST BEE, HAMAS’S STRATEGIC COMMUNICATOR
JUL 26, 2007 - 1:50PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

There’s a new “bee” character on a Hamas TV children's show that encourages viewers to be martyrs.

Nahoul the bee wants kids to follow him into “martyrdom” along with his Mickey Mouse look-alike “cousin” Farfur, who was beaten to death by an “Israeli” in a previous episode, reports BBC monitoring.

Outrageous as it is, what we see here fits snugly under the heading of strategic communication, a Madison Avenue advertising/marketing term generally defined as getting the right message to the right person at the right time, to sell an idea, a product, or whatever.

Why, it’s asked, if Madison Avenue... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (1) | Add Your Own

IRAN’S ENGLISH SATELLITE CHANNEL DEBUTS, FURTHER CROWDING COMPETITION FOR COVETED AMERICAN VIEWERS
JUL 3, 2007 - 11:11AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

Iran is the latest entry in the international satellite news channel sweepstakes. Its 24-hour English service, "Press TV," debuted July 2. It is funded by the Iranian government, and one supposes by each of us when we gas up our cars. But Press TV is sharing attention today with a planned Middle East "Adult" channel, which is said to be in the works.

Here we are mixing English, Arabic, and adult international channels, our rationale being that each offering, no matter what the language or fare, competes for a limited "share" of viewers as a given time.

Let’s first examine... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (4) | Add Your Own

THE IRAQ WAR’S ARABIC YOUTUBE
JUN 26, 2007 - 2:01PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

Sunni insurgents in Iraq have found a way to get their message to the world. It's via Internet, of course, but just look at this, from a new U.S. Government report released today.

The message from the insurgents, who are responsible for killing more U.S. troops in Iraq than anyone, has something for all; including "camera ready" short video clips for the satellite TV news channels that can be turned around and put on the air with a minimum of editing; longer-form videos including a feature on the "legendary sniper of Baghdad... who reportedly has killed more U.S. troops than... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (3) | Add Your Own

GLOBAL WARMING AT ARABIC NEWS CHANNELS
JUN 22, 2007 - 4:57AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

Tempers at the TV newsrooms of Al Jazeera and Alhurra are flaring with the summer heat, so one can only imagine what August may bring.

Journalists at Al Jazeera have begun leaking stories to the media and Western politicians, expressing fears that new members of its board of directors in Doha, Qatar, including the former Qatari ambassador to America, Hamad Al Kuwari, will pressure AJ's journalists to go soft on Washington to curry favor with the Bush administration. This follows leaks from the newsroom at Alhurra, America's Arabic news channel, where news coverage had too hard an edge for some,... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (0) | Add Your Own

GROWING PAINS AT THE ‘NEW ALHURRA’
JUN 11, 2007 - 11:59AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

The "New Alhurra" is on a fast track. In just over half a year, two of its embattled top leaders either slipped off the track or were pushed.

Larry Register is the latest news chief to exit the American government's Arabic satellite channel. The embattled former CNN newsman came in to lead Alhurra only last November.

Such a revolving door is business-as-usual in the highly-charged profession of broadcast news in America, and Alhurra is no exception. (Although in Arabic, Alhurra broadcasts from a Washington, D.C. suburb, so the American revolving door rule applies here, we maintain).

Statistics compiled by the... FULL TEXT
 
Read Comments (3) | Add Your Own

Previous posts  1 2 3 >  Last »