http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newsroom/pdline_main en USC Center on Public Diplomacy Copyright 2011 2011-02-21T20:44:02+00:00 #When:20:44:02Z Libya's deputy ambassador at the United Nations, surrounded by fellow diplomats, called Monday for Moammar Gadhafi to step down as the country's ruler. Government PD, Non-State PD, Africa, Arab Spring Media Coverage 2011-02-21T20:44:02+00:00 #When:06:32:00Z Click here to listen to audio of this event (29mb MP3, 1:13:37)Click here to download the podcast in iTunes.Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation (506kb PDF). Cory Doctorow, the U.S.-Canada Fulbright Chair in Public Diplomacy, welcomed Jason Schultz for a presentation on lessons learned during his career as an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit geared toward protecting digital freedoms. Schultz, who leads EFF's Patent Busting Project, focused his talk on areas where internet freedoms and the law perpetually butt heads- such as privacy, speech, copyright infringement and patents. He discussed the importance of vigilantly defending those freedoms, as well as the consequences for individuals if such rights aren't protected. Schultz delved into fascinating Internet litigation battles from the past and present. He also made insightful points about future cases. Could Wikipedia be sued for inaccurate or libelous information? Could patent owners of common audio and video streaming technology start charging users? What would an Internet like that look like? Schultz urged that the spirit of innovation and creativity on the internet should be protected. When they are, both experiments and 'net staples like Google, MySpace.com and YouTube.com flourish, stimulating other breakthroughs. Prior to joining EFF, Schultz worked at the law firm of Fish & Richardson P.C., where he spent most of his time invalidating software patents and defending open source developers in law suits. He has also served as a law clerk to the Honorable D. Lowell Jensen and as a legal intern to the Honorable Ronald M. Whyte, both in the Northern District of California federal court system. Schultz's presentation was the first of a multi-part Technology and Public Diplomacy colloquium at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. To find out more about Jason Schultz's current work with the EFF, visit http://www.eff.org. 2006-09-07T06:32:00+00:00 #When:01:36:00Z USC Diplomat-in-Residence Stephen Seche delivered a speech addressing U.S. public diplomacy efforts to the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication on Wednesday, September 5. Seche, the deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. mission in Damascus, offered a unique perspective as a diplomat working with the Middle East. Seche highlighted the challenges facing U.S. public diplomacy efforts, focusing in particular on how the United States needs consider how others in the region work to portray the intentions and motivations of the United States. In the wake of a relative public diplomacy "vacuum," other public opinion studies have revealed considerable degradation of opinion about the U.S. At the same time, Seche suggested that it might be difficult for Americans themselves to sense that public diplomacy is needed, given their relative insulation from the rest of the world. Seche argued that public diplomacy cannot be ignored, because the U.S. has policy goals that can be negatively impacted by its decreasing credibility. Seche suggested that resolving the crisis of U.S. credibility in the region does not lend itself to an easy or "quick fix." America's image problems reflect a reaction to U.S. policies. Arab audiences for U.S. public diplomacy may share the principles it promotes, but are just as concerned with the very tangible security concerns that overshadow opinions about the United States. Seche argued that the U.S. needed to increase its efforts at cultural diplomacy, while look to build relationships with Islamic moderates that might reflect a nascent political center in the Middle East. Words matter, as Seche said; especially when other interlocutors work to define the United States in opposition to U.S. interests. The problem, Seche argued, is that public diplomacy cannot be another form of "policy Kool-Aid," but should reflect a serious consideration how opinions can impact U.S. policy interests. Thus, U.S. public diplomacy needs to be cognizant of local contexts, language, and beliefs -- while at the same time work in the interests of U.S. policy objectives. Balancing these two concerns offers no easy solutions for public diplomacy practitioners and foreign policy strategists. Seche cautioned that foreign policy should not be predicated on anticipated public opinion. Nevertheless, if a foreign policy provokes a reaction that ultimately renders its objective as unattainable, then the public diplomacy dimension cannot be ignored. Seche argued that the nature of contemporary foreign policy today reflects the basic fact that strategic interests and public opinion are increasingly entangled, making public diplomacy an indispensable aspect of U.S. foreign policy. The challenge remains for practitioners of foreign policy to sustain this balance; sustaining U.S. objectives while rebuilding the arguably damaged U.S. credibility. 2006-09-07T01:36:00+00:00 #When:22:06:00Z Los Angeles, CA (June 8, 2006) – Tabulating the results from the most heavily-voted video streaming poll ever on MSNBC.com combined with votes by its illustrious VIP Jury and ThinkTank, FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE today announced its five winners of the unprecedented national competition for 30-to-60 "issue films" from all U.S. residents 18 to 26 year olds: Innocence Lost, about child abuse, by Gabriel Veenendaal, 25, from Murray, Utah; Orphans in Africa, about poverty in Africa, by Tim Leaton, 22, from Midlothian, Va; Thumbs Down to Pity, decrying stereotypes of the disabled, by Benjamin Snow, 19, of Woodland Park, Colorado; Strike It Up, about isolation in our technology bubbles, by Molly Conners, 26, from Albany, New York; It's the Buzz, about safe-sex, by Brian Gonzalez, 19, from San Antonio, Texas. Launched January 26, 2006 at Park City, Utah during film festival season, FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE (www.filmyourissue.com) invited all young Americans to create personal "issue films" as a way to engage young people in pressing contemporary issues, add their voices to the public dialogue, and take a contemporary snapshot of what's on young people's minds, circa 2006. More than 300 films were received by the submission deadline of May 21, 2006. 35 semi-finalists were posted on May 26 for public voting on MSNBC.COM, which tabulated more than 76,000 votes by deadline of midnight, June 7, 2006 – and breaking the record as the most heavily-voted video streaming poll in MSNBC.COM history, leaping past the 61,598 votes for the MSNBC.COM poll for best ads broadcast during the Super Bowl, the largest-viewed annual television event. The filmmakers will receive their awards at the 2006 FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE Awards Ceremony, co-hosted by USA TODAY, MSN Spaces and MSN Video on Monday, June 19, 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The event co-host, United Nations Under Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, will be joined at the podium by Academy-Award winning actor Ellen Burstyn and Judy Woodruff, Special Correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. In addition to the 5 filmmakers being awarded, the inaugural Walter Cronkite Civic Engagement Leadership Award will be presented to Illinois State University for its student outreach on behalf of both civic engagement and in support of FYI. The FYI Award trophy designer is New York artist-designer Frank Carfaro. Finalist films will be presented at the FYI awards ceremony at the U.N., presented at a private reception hosted by MSN Spaces in Park City, Utah during film festival season 2007, and air this summer on mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, and be available on demand on broadband channel mtvU Über at mtvU.com. Select films will also be selected as part of "Generation Next," an ambitious project produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and headed by correspondent Judy Woodruff, which will similarly provide a contemporary snapshot of what's on the minds of young Americans, circa 2006. "Generation Next" will use multiple platforms of a PBS documentary, multiple segments on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and online websites. Production begins in June 2006, with airdates planned for late 2006 and early 2007. The FYI films will be presented on the "Generation Next" internet platform, and evaluated for broadcast consideration. "As FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE has evolved in its second year, it has provided us with layers of pleasure, excitement, delight and surprise as it has unfolded. First, the number and quality of entries, which were powerful, illuminating, raw, indignant, conscious. The voting platform on MSNBC.COM, where the numbers climbed and we eventually saw it surpass the marker of the votes for Super Bowl, the granddaddy of public events," notes HeathCliff Rothman, Founder and President of FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE. "Ultimately, it's a testament to this young generation who show such vivid consciousness of the world around them, understand nuances of issues, and comprehend with perhaps greater clarity than any generation before them their own equality, in each of their individual categories, identities, ethnicities and life choices, and that of animals." Adds Thomas Brew, executive editor at MSNBC.com: "We have been delighted and surprised by the success of the FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE voting competition. We knew its potential to make a difference, and provide a platform for young people to tell us what's on their minds. And we expected it to be of interest to our millions of users to view and vote on these films. But when you consider that there are more than 20 videos to choose from, and FYI is not tied to a major television event, the fact that it outpaced the Super Bowl ad vote, which received more than 61,000 votes to become the largest video streaming poll ever on MSNBC.COM, is outstanding." The esteemed roster of VIP Judges, headed by distinguished Jurist Walter Cronkite, include George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Senator Barack Obama, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Ellen Burstyn, Anderson Cooper, Brian Williams, USA TODAY President Craig Moon, Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Tom Rothman, Universal Studios CEO Ron Meyer, Disney Chairman Dick Cook and others. Some of the world's largest companies, organizations and national and international leaders have come together behind an unprecedented initiative to engage young Americans in the pressing social issues of our time, including Presenting Sponsors MSN Spaces and MSN Video, MSNBC.com, USA TODAY, Entertainment Weekly, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., mtvU, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Independent Pictures, The United Nations, The Humane Society of the United States, ASCAP, Motorola, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, The Maui Film Festival, The Vail Film Festival, and all the major higher education academic organizations. FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE academic partners include the leading organizations of higher education: The Association of American Colleges and Universities, The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (The American Democracy Project), The American Association of University Professors, Campus Compact and Imagining America. Visit www.filmyourissue.com for more information, to view the winners and finalists, and read about the filmmakers and their inspiration for making their films. 2006-06-08T22:06:00+00:00 #When:00:54:00Z On October 12 the USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to join Mr. Quincy Jones and Adam Clayton Powell III in celebrating the 50th anniversary of a critical event in U.S. public diplomacy history: Dizzy Gillespie's 1956 State Department-funded world musical tour. The tour was considered a turning point in U.S. cultural outreach to the world. We will host a special event here at USC. Details will be posted on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy events calendar section. The below speech, which Quincy Jones delivered on May 26 in Beijing, is reprinted with permission of Quincy Jones with special thanks to Adam Clayton Powell III. The speech, which was delivered on Mr. Jones's first visit to the People's Republic of China, highlights the importance of Cultural Diplomacy and Mr. Jones's thoughts on the cultural reach of arts and entertainment exports across countries. We are pleased to share it with you. Download/read (.pdf). Quincy Jones Beijing University Beijing, China May 26, 2006 DA ZSA HAH-OW (3 times with gesture). (Big house hello.) WOR TEE-OW QUINCY JONES. (I) (am) (Quincy Jones.) TIN TEE-AN WOR-HAN WRONG SHEEN (Today) (I very) (honored) LIE-DOW TEUR-LEE. (to come here.) WAR-DA NESE JOAN WEN BOO-HOW, (My Chinese) (No good,) WAR-SEE IN TAI GUY-EEYOWN ENGLISH. (Now) (Switch and use English.) MAYO WENTE. (No problem). I’ve been looking forward to sharing some thoughts and experiences with you today, in and out of music... and giving you a glimpse of my journey and evolution as an artist... and of some of the people who have touched my life. I’d also like to attempt to offer some bold visions for China’s future in the arts and entertainment. I just celebrated my 73rd birthday. During the last 50 years, I’ve had the good fortune to travel all over the world, including Hong Kong since 1962. But this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to visit the People’s Republic of China. Seeing, feeling and experiencing your country and your culture has inspired and enriched me beyond my wildest imagination. The arts and entertainment bring people together. They allow the ties between us to flourish and grow, even during times when differences between governments arise. The creative expressions of artists like my good friends and brothers Yo Yo Ma and Jackie Chan help build bridges between cultures, giving us a better and more peaceful understanding and appreciation of each other. These first 73 years of my life have been an amazing journey. It began in 1933 in the biggest black ghetto in America, Chicago, Illinois... where I grew up during America’s worst economic depression. During our summer vacations, my daddy used to drive me and my brother Lloyd down to stay at my grandmother’s in Louisville, Kentucky. My grandmother, who was an incredible woman and a strong, coal-black ex-slave, lived in what was called “a shotgun shack”, with no electricity, no water and a coal stove. The high-tech security system in this neighborhood in 1939 was a bent rusty nail to lock the door. Next to our home, hers looked like the Grand Hyatt. We were almost as poor as Ah-Q. In those days, Chicago was the number 1 spawning ground for the most notorious gangsters in the country, black and white. Where we lived, there were gangs on every block. My biggest role models were the Jones Boys, also black, but no relation... although my father, who was a master carpenter, worked for them. They invented the policy racket and many other illegal activities. They dominated the ‘hood until some powerful white gangsters “gently” persuaded them to get out of town fast and move down to Mexico. My father got the message immediately and decided it was time for us to take a trip, too. This was during the middle of World War II, 1943, when I was 10 years old. He took my brother and I straight from the barber shop onto the first Trailway bus to the Pacific Northwest, then we took an hour ferry ride to the city of Bremerton, in the state of Washington in the northwest region of America... not Washington, D.C., our capital. Bremerton was a little town that was located on the far outskirts of the city of Seattle. The bus stop in Bremerton ended at the bottom of a hill. From there, we walked an extra 5 kilometers up the hill. Shortly after that, I met my new classmates... They were all white. My father worked as a master carpenter in the Bremerton Navy shipyard, but I was still dreaming of becoming a thug. We were the first black kids in town and Chicago had provided us with all the training we needed to take over the turf. One night, we broke into an armory – which was also our recreation center – to steal some food. We stuffed ourselves with lemon meringue pie and ice cream, which then led to a food fight. I was like the Monkey King, eating all of those peaches of immortality in Heaven. Afterwards, we split up and I broke into an administration room... and in the dark, I spotted a little spinet piano. I was about to leave, but for some reason, I didn’t... and I slowly walked over and stared at that piano, then I let my fingers slowly slide down to touch the keys. This was the moment of truth for me – every cell in my body knew in a heartbeat that music would be the dream of my life forever. Food and water would feed my body, but music would nourish my mind, heart and soul. I gave up gangs from that point forward and started channeling my life to music. Our family eventually moved to Seattle – and when I was 14, I met an important mentor, who was then 16... my best friend, Ray Charles, the great jazz and rhythm & blues musician, who was also blind. They made a wonderful movie about his life called Ray, which won an Academy Award Oscar for best actor. I was also depicted in it, and all those things happened and more. Back then, there was no black literature, no tv, no Colin Powells or Muhammad Ali’s or Michael Jordans available to identify with. All we had was the radio, but the black characters on the radio dramas, soap operas and comedies were either servants or whites imitating blacks. Radio was great for my imagination because I was able to use it to imagine the white characters as black role models. The music and movie business came of age in the U.S., and began to thrive, in the 1920 and ‘30’s. But for black Americans, there were limited opportunities – not only in the entertainment industry... In every industry. It’s like we didn’t exist, so we had to figure out who we were going to be as black kids. Ray and I used to talk and dream about the day when we’d be able to sit in a restaurant and order any food we wanted, and get on planes and fly anyplace we wanted to go to, and do records and symphonies and movies together and meet lots of JIER-MUR (women). And all those things happened, especially meeting JIER-MUR. We lived out each and every one of our dreams together. Unfortunately, he died two years ago before I moved into my dream home. But I know he would have loved it because he knew it was a symbol of what the entertainment industry has done for my life and has allowed me to do for others. More about my dream home later. When I was 19 years old, I was lucky enough to go to Europe as a trumpet player in Lionel Hampton’s great jazz big band. The first time I saw Paris opened my heart and mind and changed it from that one dimensional conflict of just black and white people. I was perceived as a creative person, without regard to color. It gave me hope and inspiration. Traveling taught me that not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I have to accept myself first. In 1957, I moved to Paris for 3 months as a musical director for Barclay Records... and wound up staying for 5 years. Four years later, I was living in New York when Frank Sinatra, one of the greatest American singers and entertainers, called me. He said he loved the arrangement I did on a tune on an album with the great Count Basie Orchestra... because it was in 4/4 rather than 3/4. He asked if I’d like to do an album with him and Basie. Would I like to do an album with Frank Sinatra? Is the Pope a Catholic? As fate would have it, the song he loved, “Fly Me to the Moon”, turned out to be the first music played by the astronauts landing on the moon. The first album I produced for Michael Jackson was called Off the Wall. It was the biggest black album in history. Our next album together was Thriller. Its impact exceeded our wildest expectations, selling 56-million copies – the biggest selling album in history. My first film production was in 1985 when I turned the novel The Color Purple into a film. I got Steven Spielberg to direct it for only $192,000 rmb because it was just a $42-million rmb movie. He wound up making $280 million rmb in profits. I also found two unknown actresses to play the leads... Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. They each received $280,000 rmb for their roles. Today Oprah is worth 12 billion rmb. She’s so popular that she could run for President of the United States and get elected. If you don’t know who she or Whoopi are, go online and find out. That would be like me not knowing who Hung Huang or Chen Lu Yu are. The studio projected The Color Purple would only make $210 million rmb because it was a black film. But the mutual sense of love, trust and respect everyone shared – Yo guanshe, may guanshe... May guanshe, you guanshe – translated to a mega box office success of $1.8 billion rmb. We received 11 Academy Award nominations, including ones for Best Actress for Whoopi and Best Supporting Actress for Oprah, Best Song, Music and Picture. The seminal idea of the book became the foundation for another form of expression – the theatre. Last year, on the 20th anniversary of the movie, Oprah and I produced The Color Purple as a Broadway musical. It has been playing to sold-out audiences every night... and just received 11 Tony nominations, the theatre equivalent of the Academy Awards. A Rapper had never appeared on a tv series in America, but by 1989 I was convinced the time was right. Besides, I’d rather lose taking a chance than win playing it safe. But the network executives were afraid of a young Rapper I had in mind to star named Will Smith. Imagine Will Smith being dangerous. Pleeze! 　　　But they finally trusted me about him, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air got on the air and ran for six years. Will walked in the door as a $160,000 rmb a week ex-Rapper and walked out as a $160-million rmb a picture international movie star. And he just made $800 million rmb in profits from his last film, Hitch. Collective creativity is the most powerful creativity on earth... it can also inspire people to come together and shine a light on something other than themselves. In 1985, with hundreds of thousands in Ethiopia starving to death as a result of famine and civil war, I produced an all-star recording event “We Are the World,” featuring a chorus of 46 American music superstars. The song raised $504-million rmb to feed the hungry in Ethiopia and our government followed our lead by spending $6.4-billion rmb more. The only useful aspect of fame and celebrity is to use it to help somebody. Bono, the lead singer of the great Irish rock band U2, has said, “Celebrity is like currency... you have to know how to spend it.” In 1999, I joined Bono and another Irish rock star, Bob Geldoff to take a shot at reducing the Third World debt. Here we are – begging for 25 minutes at the Vatican with the Pope to help. He responded by reading a 4-page affirmation back to us. As a result of this Vatican visit, three days later Bolivia, Mozambique and the Ivory Coast received debt relief to the tune of 220 Billion rmb. We couldn’t believe it. Here we are again – grinning like three foxes eating HIGH - CHIEN. One of the greatest thrills of my life is having shared the planet with Nelson Mandela, and my 36-year friendship with him. In 1999, through my Listen Up Foundation, we had a great opportunity to take 5 male and female at-risk gangbangers from South Central Los Angeles to visit South Africa. We watched the spirit of African ooboontu take over their souls. Ooboontu, the African collective spirit that is bigger than any one individual. We saw it, we witnessed it transforming their lives. Now, they’re productive citizens in Los Angeles and trying to help other kids to a better life. Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote, “My peace of bread only belongs to me when I know everyone else has a piece... that no one has to starve while I eat.” A few years ago, I was approached by a Palestinian named Hani Masri, who happened to be best friends with an Israeli named Yuri Savir, to be a third partner. I passionately accepted and we called the project We Are the Future. It sets up child centers for kids from the most in-crisis, in-trouble cities in the world... and provides services in education, health, water purification, nutrition, information communications technology, sports and the arts. As a serial father of 7 kids – 6 girls from 13-54 and one son – you can imagine how much being a part of this means to me. Two years ago at the We Are the Future concert in Rome, I asked my daughter Kenya, who was 11 at the time, to share her thoughts about how she’d like to see the future in 2020. That concert, featuring musical artists from all over the globe, entertained and inspired the 750,000 people in attendance... and showed that love sings louder than hate. Music is as powerful a force and one of the most powerful cradles of spirituality that you’ll ever find in the universe. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can’t taste it and you can’t smell it. But Tian knows, you can feel it. It can lift you up and it can fill you up. Always remember that melody comes straight from Tian. The entire world in the last 90 years has accepted our music as their esperanto. It walked right by kabuki, bagpipes, Viennese waltzes and German lieder – and they adopted our American jazz and blues, a black American creation, as the music that most expresses their souls. Jazz is the classical music of pop music. It’s the best balance there is between soul and science. Hip-Hop has also been a big part of my life for a long time. It was introduced as the newest black musical baby on the Grammy-award winning album I recorded in 1989, called “Back on the Block”... which gave hip hop mainstream credibility. Professor Adam Clayton Powell III has said recently “Technology is the New Jazz.” From jazz, I learned to leave my mind open and have a curiosity... like in 1953, when I embraced a brand new musical invention – the first amplified bass guitar, called the Fender Bass. Before the millennium, a number of us were asked what were the most important technological advances in our field during the 20th Century. My response was the Fender Bass. Without it, there’d be no rock & roll or Motown. It’s the one technological breakthrough that changed American music forever... and affected music throughout the world. In 1964, I found something else called the Moog synthesizer to write the theme song for a tv series... the first time the public ever heard one. The synthesizer became one more color in my orchestral palette... not meant to substitute, but to enhance the orchestra. I also used it on my Oscar-nominated music for In Cold Blood. Alan Kay, a distinguished computer scientist, who’s also a dear friend and a jazz musician, and Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of MIT’s Media Laboratory, are co-developing 200-million wireless, web-enabled lap top computers for students around the world that will cost only $800 million rmb... and could be manufactured in China and help bring the next generation closer in communication, harmony and peace. I’m privileged to have been schooled by many visionary business leaders... but none more so than Steve Ross, the founder & Chairman of Warners Communications... which is known today as Time/Warner. Steve recognized my creativity, hard work, discipline, entrepreneurial, marketing and promotional skills. He also knew that bottom line, I create movies, music and other products that the consumer enjoys and values – and therefore, they’re willing to pay for them. So Steve did something unprecedented back in the 1980’s – he joined forces with a black man, in a 50-50 joint venture multimedia company called Quincy Jones Entertainment. It was a historical move for a $50-billion company and reverberated throughout the country... because he also understood what 98 percent of corporate America didn’t get – the influence of black American culture on mainstream America. This deal also enabled me to buy radio stations and start my own magazine about the hip hop culture called Vibe. Quincy Jones Entertainment is still the model for every other black-owned entertainment business that seriously aspires to join forces with a major media company. Many of these businessmen & women have also branched out into the fashion industry. Look at the results – hip hop has swept the planet... From Croatia to Chile to China, every young person, even down to 18-months old, wears their baseball cap backwards and listens to Rap. I’m lucky to have Steve Ross’s son Mark still in my family and the President of my company... and I love and respect him like my own son. The arts can also be a launching pad to produce leaders in business... and in other professional fields, such as politics. Former President Ronald Reagan, who was once a movie and television actor, is a prime example. So is California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenneger. I was fortunate enough to gain the wisdom and insight way beyond the call of duty before I arrived here this morning from two genius friends who gave with love – John Sie, the man behind the technology and evolution of American television, and who also happens to be Chinese... and Chris Stamos, who with his brother Basil, grew up in China and speaks perfect Mandarin and Cantonese and is proud about the country he loves and believes in. Creativity also creates wealth and progress. That’s why the entertainment industry is as big and as important a part of United States industry as high-tech and manufacturing, both for domestic consumption and export. Look at the 2006 estimate for the U.S. entertainment industry in ren min bi: Consumer Spending Movies 320 billion rmb Cable & Satellite TV 792 billion rmb Subtotal 1.1 trillion rmb Advertising & Fees TV Channels 496 billion rmb Radio 200 billion rmb Subtotal 696 billion rmb Music Industry 88 billion rmb Total Entertainment Industry 1.9 trillion rmb The 1.9 is equivalent to 6300 rmb per person in America. This compares to 12,000 per person for all of China’s GDP for its 1.3 billion people... more than half of the total economic output of China on a per capita basis! The growth of the entertainment industry in America is nothing short of a miracle. Just 25 years ago, in 1981, the size of the total economic industry was only 42-billion rmb per year. That’s a whopping 16% per year compounded growth every year for the last 25 years! Because I was able to tap into the public’s appreciation of music with records, movies, concerts and TV shows in an entrepreneurial way, I was the direct beneficiary of that explosive growth in the entertainment industry. I became very successful and accumulated wealth along the way. Today, I live in a dream house in Hollywood that I really couldn’t dream of when I was a kid in Seattle. I know that in China you have the familiar saying, Have Food is Heavenly. In the American entertainment industry, we have a similar saying, Content is King. China has been extraordinary in its economic growth for more than a decade. I recently read in the New York Times that China is at a crossroads... but from the bottom of my heart, I believe that the government will steer the ship of state in the right direction. I am not trying to pai ma pi (hand motion of patting your ass), but it’s true – Your economic miracle and your technical advances are an unprecedented story in world history. Your GDP has grown on an average of 10% per year for the last 15 years to almost $15 rmb trillion in 2005... and you’re becoming the manufacturing source for the world with export exceeding $5.6 trillion rmb in 2005. Your export is continuing to grow in 2006. China's technological progress is also impressive with its high tech export enjoying the highest growth rate. The fundamental reason for this stunning progress is because China is manufacturing goods that the world consumer enjoys and values... and therefore is willing to pay for. These manufacturing goods can be called hard goods... because they’re physical products that you can touch and feel, like refrigerators or DVD players. But that’s today. What is China’s next big economic wave? What is the next new, new thing? As we look out 5 years, 10 years from now, China may not be able to sustain its torrid export growth pace, since it would have saturated the world's hard goods needs. We all know that nothing lasts forever. Having witnessed, contributed and profited from the rapid growth of the entertainment industry in America... I'd like to make a bold suggestion: China embark on a long range plan to develop soft goods as its next growth engine, both domestically and internationally. It’s a win-win proposition, which will also bring peace and understanding around the world. The entertainment industry is a soft goods business. You cannot physically touch it, like a hard good. A song, movie or television program only has value and enjoyment when you listen or watch it. China has the opportunity to develop its soft goods industry better than the rest of the world – The United States included – for two very significant reasons... First, it has the largest domestic audience in the world to market its soft goods, as a springboard to create a dominant export soft goods industry. Second, as I mentioned before, Content is King. China has more than four thousand years of rich history, culture, legends, and stories to develop content. You have content you can mine for as long as the eye can see. When you add those advantages to the vast creative and entrepreneurial pool of China to explore this rich field, I can predict that with the proper governmental focus, encouragement, and support, China's future soft goods will be the largest export to the rest of the world. Chinese culture and entertainment will be as commonplace in the rest of the world, just as Chinese cuisine is continually enjoyed by all around the globe today. This becomes a triple-win situation – economic growth for China, the world's deep understanding and appreciation for China’s culture and heritage... and world peace. Jazz and movies have enjoyed success as they told the story of America around the world. Similarly, Chinese soft goods can tell the story of who you are as a nation and as a people. I’m so inspired by these possibilities, that I just entered into a joint venture with “What a GUR-MUR” Chairman Liu Chang Lur and his Phoenix Television, similar to the one I entered into with Time/Warner. And also with his sweet daughter “2-Quarters”, and the man who we managed to match souls with in a nano-second, Alan Mandel. It’s one of my most exciting partnerships ever and my whole life has prepared me to realize it. We’re taking about movies, tv, records, book publishing and concerts. However, like we all realize that hard goods are of value to consumers and must be protected until the consumer pays for them. We cannot just manufacture the goods and then let anyone take them without paying for them. Soft goods are also of value to consumers and must be similarly protected. It's a bit more difficult and complex since the soft goods are not physical things, but rather intangible assets. In order for this vision to become a reality, the government must have the will and the support to create new laws and regulations, and develop a comprehensive infrastructure to provide such protection to the creators of these soft goods. This is a cornerstone for the entertainment industry, which has the protection of Intellectual Property at its core. Imagine for a moment a young boy named Lee Ming from Hunan... or a young girl named Jong Ling from Shanghai. He or she could even be one of your sons or daughters or a relative or neighbor. Let’s say he or she composes a song that turns out to be a major hit in China... as popular as a song by Deng Li June or a hip hop tune by Jay Chou. Then, the song becomes a hit worldwide. But all the other countries say, “We’re not going to pay you.” How would Lee Ming or Jong Ling feel? Would you think that’s fair? You may have the next Eminem or Mariah Carey and they’re not going to get paid? The music you hear on the radio or that you download and is protected in America by BMI and ASCAP, came from part of a process of more than one person. There are singers, songwriters, musicians and engineers who also have to feed their families and send their kids to school. If they’re not getting their fair share, they won’t be able to do that. The movie business involves even more people. It’s like an army – screenwriters, producers, directors, actors, film editors, sound editors, cinematographers and movie music composers. They also have families... and are human beings who have a right to get compensated for their work. By protecting all of them, you’ll also become partners with other artists and industries worldwide. It's a long road to reach this bold, but very important objective. I hope that this august group can study my proposal and give it some serious consideration. If there is anything that I can assist China on this quest, it would be my honor and privilege. Music is the only thing that affects the left and right brain simultaneously. That’s why it has so much power. It’s soul and science. It also has the ability to make people think and feel. Integrating music, and the arts, into the educational curriculum, produces better rounded and more productive students. It can also be a spawning ground for future artists in China, just like school is for future engineers, doctors and lawyers. It will also help every province more readily identify the creative people within its community and encourage them. There’s a parallel between jazz and education. Traditional Confucian education is based on memorization and learning. China has done very well using this traditional system... and I take my hat off to you for it. At the same time, more and more Chinese are asking whether there are other ways of learning and understanding... and changing the world... more suited to the digital and innovative world that’s growing around us. John Kao, in his book Jammin’, writes that symphony music is to industrial age learning as jazz is to post-industrial age learning. Think improv... less hierarchy... experimentation and playfulness, which by definition means jazz. Dr. Ernest Wilson, a college professor in the U.S, recently brought a leading educator from China to his classroom. He sat in on Dr. Wilson’s software classes, certain that students can only learn by the teacher standing in front of the class lecturing and taking very few questions. But instead, he saw idea sharing... students being interactive with Dr. Wilson... students in small groups teaching and learning from each other, jamming like jazz trios and quartets, learning new ways to learn. It surprised him big time... and caused him to re-think his teaching methods. China and the U.S. and other nations should add more jazz to their approach to education. And hip hop is an even further extension of this because it takes bits and pieces of what others have done and re-mixes it... re-mixing traditional and modern. Imagine the power if the Chinese are able to combine the best of the Confucian system with the best of jazz/improv approach. This is something American students also need to learn. In fact, maybe we’re too much free style and not enough discipline. Yo Yo Ma is an artistic example of applying the best of both styles. He can play his classical Bach’s Suite No. 1 for cello... then play his Obrigado Brazil, which is more improv and funky. The same goes for Astor Piazzola modern tangos from Argentina. Inspired in the right way, I believe Rappers using positive content could revolutionize education... paving an educational dirt road into a superhighway as they communicate their message all over the planet. I only wish that powerful governments today took people-to-people…... 2006-05-31T00:54:00+00:00 #When:22:29:01Z Download / View the Complete Press Release (.pdf). USC Center on Public Diplomacy is proud to present FYI - Film Your Issue, an unprecedented "issue film" competition inviting young Americans to add their voice to the public dialogue on contemporary issues via 30-to-60 second films. The competition, presented in conjunction with partners including Microsoft, MSN Spaces, USA TODAY,mtvU, Entertainment Weekly, The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, Motorola and Toshiba; national and international organizations like The United Nations and U.N. Millennium Campaign, The Humane Society of the United States, A.S.C.AP., launched January 24, 2006 at the Sundance Film Festival. Young Americans 18 to 26 are invited to create 30-to-60 second films -- live action or animated -- on any issue, as a way to empower young adults in being engaged, involved citizens and giving them a voice. Students may also choose from six suggested sub-categories, which will offer additional presentation platforms to winners: Global issues/ UN Millennium Development Goals; Animal Welfare; Arts as a Global Diplomat and Cultural Bridge; Music-driven, featuring solo, band, or music-video styled film in which music presents the issue; and Integration of Film and New Media, in which an issue will be expressed via the creation of an issue-based webpage on MSN Spaces which merges film and internet-based technologies. Submission deadline is May 1, 2006. George Clooney and Walter Cronkite have each written an open letter to young Americans, currently being distributed across the U.S. on college campuses. The candid letters urge young Americans to engage in the pressing social issues of our times, and add their voices to the public dialogue. Clooney and Cronkite are members of a VIP jury that will judge submissions. Ben Bradlee, Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama, Brian Williams, Nicholas Kristof and Antonio Villaraigosa will also participate on the jury. 2006-03-01T22:29:01+00:00 #When:02:07:06Z USC Center on Public Diplomacy Research Associate Reza Aslan discussed the printing of controversial cartoon images of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad in the European press on February 3 on NPR's All Things Considered The Iranian-born Aslan, author of the book No god but God, explained to NPR's Robert Siegel: "...[W]hile there is absolutely this prohibition against the depiction of Mohammad... the real situation here is not simply that there are cartoons of Mohammad but the deliberately offensive and provocative way in which Mohammad was depicted in the cartoons -- that's where I think alot of the rage originated." Click here to listen to the interview. 2006-02-05T02:07:06+00:00 #When:22:08:01Z This Peer-Reviewed article by Nicholas J. Cull, professor of Public Diplomacy and director of the Master’s in Public Diplomacy in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, was originally published in the Spring 2006 TBS Journal. Abstract This article reviews the performance of the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the Gulf Crisis and War of 1990-91. It pays particular attention to the role of USIA as a major participant in the Inter Agency Working Group on Public Diplomacy, to Voice of America broadcasting and USIA's counter disinformation work. In its conclusion, the article contrasts the effective US use of public diplomacy during this period with the problems encountered following 9/11 drawing attention to the amalgamation of USIA into the State Department in 1999 and the downgrading of public diplomacy which accompanied it. Introduction Since the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 much hot air has been vented and angry ink spilled on the subject of the failings of American public diplomacy.(1) Reports routinely note that the United States was not always so ill-equipped to address public opinion around the world. From 1953 to 1999 the US benefited from the presence of an independent United States Information Agency charged with the task of conducting international advocacy, broadcasting and information activities and coordinating the US government’s exchange programs. This case study will look at how USIA and its key charge Voice of America operated during the Gulf crisis and war of 1990 and 1991 and in so doing show a little of what was lost when the Clinton administration, under pressure from Republicans in the Senate, folded the agency into the unsympathetic arms of the State Department in 1999. US policymaking during the Gulf Crisis and War—Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm—was dominated by media considerations. Washington displayed a marked eagerness to apply the supposed lessons of Vietnam. This time the US presence would firmly be associated with an international coalition, supported by multiple UN resolutions, and strictly limited in its scope. US planners assumed that sustained American losses would undercut domestic support for the war and hence planned a largely aerial campaign with a brief ground war at its end. The war saw intense media management, as the US government established a system of pools to coral foreign and domestic journalists covering the fighting and deployed psychological warfare against their enemy. One of the enduring images of the Gulf War would be the dusty columns of Iraqi troops surrendering while clutching air-dropped leaflets and safe conduct passes. It is not remembered as an especially heroic episode in the history of the domestic US media; rather, coverage seemed superficial and dominated by an uncritical patriotic agenda. From the US military point of view, this was a triumph.(2) Unlike the case of Vietnam, theatre media and psychological operations for Desert Shield and Desert Storm were not the task of the United States Information Agency, but rested with the Defence Department. USIA, however, played a valuable support role as a key point of contact with the members of the fragile allied coalition. More significantly, Desert Shield and Desert Storm would see arguably the single most sustained example in the history of the agency of USIA opinion research, cultural awareness and experience being channelled directly into policy making. Tom Korologos, vice chairman of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, told Congressional hearings: “The agency’s professionals were full partners ‘at the table’ in developing a public diplomacy strategy and in carrying it out.” In an overview prepared as part of the director transition in 1991, the agency itself reported “close daily coordination with a number of White House, State Department and Pentagon offices, both in Washington and in the field” and noted: With that coordination, we were able to mobilize the full array of resources in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm rapidly and effectively, putting into action a public diplomacy plan and revising its thematic and operational portions many times as the crisis unfolded and we faced new challenges. From the start, USIA kept US policy makers informed of trends in international public opinion as reflected in the foreign media and by means of our own polling. Armed with well calibrated information and products provided by USIA in Washington, USIS foreign service officers were able to advocate US Gulf policy vigorously and effectively.(3) The result of the immense attention to media relations at home and abroad was an unprecedented and carefully controlled combination of force and image in the Persian Gulf. In media scholar Douglas Kellner’s ironic phrase, it was “The Perfect War.” The Bush administration’s achievement only became truly apparent a decade later when American enterprises in the same region went awry to the detriment of the US image in the Middle East and the world.(4) The Buildup to the Crisis For VOA’s editorial writers, the first taste of the Gulf Crisis came not in August 1990 but five months earlier when the Voice ran foul of State Department attempts to “appease” Saddam Hussein. On 15 February 1990, Voice of America broadcast an editorial in multiple languages discussing the changes in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Written by Bill Stetson under the title “No More Secret Police” it noted that despite the collapse of dictatorships in places like East Germany and Romania in 1989, many totalitarian regimes remained elsewhere: Secret police are also widely entrenched in other countries, such as China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba and Albania. The rulers of these countries hold power by force and fear not by the consent of the governed. But as Eastern Europeans demonstrated so dramatically in 1989, the tide of history is against such rulers. The 1990’s should belong not to the dictators and secret police but to the people. Saddam Hussein apparently heard the editorial and sent a formal complaint to the luckless US ambassador in Baghdad, April Glaspie. He objected to the comparison of his regime to that of Ceausescu in Romania, which he felt invited rebellion. The King of Saudi Arabia also objected and, on the orders of Secretary of State James A. Baker, Glaspie apologised profusely. The State Department investigated the matter and found that Iraq was not yet on the list of subjects requiring special State Department clearance before an editorial could be broadcast. They took no further action against VOA but insisted that further editorials on Iraq be authorised. Smarting from the rebuke, Stetson noted that it was odd that VOA could not even name Iraq on a list of dictatorships while the US Ambassador to the UN Armando Valladares, speaking to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva on 16 February, could devote an entire paragraph to Iraq’s “abysmal” human rights record, as documented by a recent State Department report on torture. Stetson felt that certain quarters in the State Department had failed to grasp that the aim of public diplomacy was to reach out to other peoples not their governments.(5) Some weeks later the issue emerged once again. On 12 April, Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas raised the case during a meeting with Saddam. As part of an effort to assure the dictator that the US sought “better relations with Iraq,” Dole informed Saddam that the VOA “commentator” responsible for the editorial had been “fired.” Saddam secretly recorded the meeting and published a transcript on Iraqi radio. William Safire of The New York Times mentioned this story in March and April in columns attacking the appeasement of Iraq, delighting in informing readers that Stetson had not been fired. In September, Safire published the complete story based on material obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, to the embarrassment of Dole and the Bush administration.(6) The incident served as a reminder that the policy needs of diplomats in time of crisis and the duties of international broadcasters could easily come into conflict, and that there were plenty of observers in the domestic media eager to magnify any slip into a critique of the administration’s foreign policy. Responding to the Invasion of Kuwait In the early hours of 2 August 1990, Iraqi tanks crossed the border into neighbouring Kuwait and began a thrust towards the capital. The invasion followed several months of diplomatic wrangling and increasingly ferocious propaganda broadcasts from Baghdad. It came as a surprise to the Kuwaiti royal family who had confidently expected a diplomatic solution. It did not come as a surprise for VOA. Eight days before the invasion, the Voice attempted to broadcast another editorial by Bill Stetson headed “New Persian Gulf Threats,” which noted aggressive Iraqi language towards Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and the alarming build-up of Iraqi forces on the Kuwait border. The editorial stated that “US officials have stressed that there is no place in a civilized world for coercion and intimidation.” The State Department spiked this editorial in an apparent last minute bid to avoid antagonising Saddam.(7) In the wake of the invasion of Kuwait, the Bush administration began the slow and delicate process of building a coalition to deploy troops in Saudi Arabia to head off further conquest and prepare to fight for Kuwait. VOA initiated a series of emergency program measures to support these ends. The Arabic Service expanded from seven to nearly 10 hours. It would eventually fill 15-and-a-half hours a day. English-language programming doubled to the Middle East, and expanded to fill the entire schedule round the clock, borrowing transmitter space from RFE/RL inaugurating a special Middle East network on 5 September over 45 medium and short wave frequencies. During the course of the crisis, USIA worked to increase its medium-wave capacity in the Gulf region. Russia loaned transmitter time and Bahrain agreed to host a portable VOA transmitter but then refused to carry VOA Arabic broadcasts. VOA found an alternative site in Kuwait following the liberation. But VOA’s own transmitters were not the sole channels for its signals. Early in Desert Shield, the Voice created a dial-in service to allow anyone to pick up a VOA news feed in Arabic. The service received over 200,000 calls in its first year, including calls from inside Iraq. Stations in seven Arab nations, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, ran VOA news reports in Arabic, while worldwide VOA news could be heard in some form on 1,800 local stations in 75 countries. Programming at the start of the conflict included full coverage of the UN Security Council debate on Iraq in 43 languages and, from October to December, a special program called Messages from Home that enabled relatives of Americans stranded in Iraq or Kuwait to speak directly to their loved ones. US, Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Egyptian diplomats appeared on VOA Arabic Service call-in shows during the Desert Shield phase. Needless to say, the Voice also had correspondents in the field covering the crisis as it unfolded.(8) VOA broadcasting to Middle East during the crisis proved controversial. The American approach to news baffled the US government’s Arab allies. Both the Saudis and Egyptians objected to VOA interviews with Iraqi and Palestinian supporters of Saddam. The Saudi government noted that its people had nicknamed VOA the “Voice of Baghdad.” In at least one instance their objection was justified. VOA broadcast a Reuters story with a Cairo dateline describing a pro-Saddam demonstration in Damascus. Despite a second source, the story proved untrue and VOA had to transmit an apology. For the domestic US media, the hint of VOA disloyalty proved irresistible. Voice staffers caught the sour reek of McCarthyism on the breeze. VOA’s deputy director, Bob Coonrod met the criticism head on by commissioning two independent studies of VOA during the Desert Storm phase from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and Hudson Institute of Indianapolis. USIA director Bruce Gelb also commissioned an investigation from the USIA’s Office of the Inspector General.(9) Early Initiatives The first major set piece in the propaganda war against Iraq was President Bush’s message to the Iraqi people, taped at the White House on 12 September and broadcast unedited on Iraqi television on 16 September as part of an exchange of messages with Baghdad. “We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq,” the President explained. “I've said many times, and I will repeat right now, our only object is to oppose the invasion ordered by Saddam Hussein.” Standing in front of his desk like a teacher experimenting with informality, Bush stressed the international nature of the response. “Never before,” the President noted, “has world opinion been so solidly united against aggression.” His final parry was to quote Saddam Hussein himself in a speech to Arab lawyers from 1988. Taking a slip of paper from his pocket the President read: An Arab country does not have the right to occupy another Arab country. God forbid, if Iraq should deviate from the right path, we would want Arabs to send their armies to put things right. If Iraq should become intoxicated by its power and move to overwhelm another Arab State, the Arabs would be right to deploy their armies to check it.(10) USIA’s television service worked into the night preparing the tape to be handed to the Iraqi Ambassador. VOA’s Arab service provided both on-screen subtitles and a voice over translation in Arabic. Iraqi-born Near East and South Asian division chief Sam Hilmy insisted on locating the Arabic source text for Saddam’s remarks, mindful of the potential for disaster if translators merely guessed at the original form of words. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Mack delivered the finished cassette to the Ambassador who, he recalled, “received it as one might a large turd.”(11) Iraqi television carried the message unedited but without any special announcement. Rival attractions included cartoons on another channel and a deliberately timed nation-wide street demonstration in support of Saddam. Bush had little audience. But the President’s message also was intended to explain the US response to the uncommitted quarters of the world. Here USIA proved its worth. The President later acknowledged the “extraordinary efforts” of USIA director Bruce Gelb and the agency in preparing this message for international dissemination. “Your success in getting the message around the world so quickly in every language and on such short notice was quite an achievement. The professionalism and dedication of your staff is to be commended,” he said.(12) The Inter-Agency Working Group on Public Diplomacy As the White House contemplated the delicacy of the coalition building process, it became clear that the Arab world was a minefield in which the unguarded President could swiftly stumble into disaster. In the new world of CNN and real-time satellite news coverage, a mistake could get around the world instantly and the damage considerable. In countries like Turkey and Egypt, the population did not share the government’s support for the US position. There was no room to allow the message to drift. In September, the White House assembled an Inter-Agency Working Group on Public Diplomacy for Iraq to oversee the media aspects of the crisis. The group needed to ensure that the US government spoke with one voice on the Gulf Crisis and that that one voice was sensitive to the delicate cultural concerns of the Arab world. The assistant director of USIA for the Near East, William A. Rugh, chaired the group with Gerald B. Helman, the State Department’s director of the Office of International Communications. Bill Rugh was USIA’s most respected Arabist, having served in Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh and Damascus and then as US ambassador to Yemen. The full committee of 20 or so—including several USIA members—met weekly, but an executive steering group met a couple of times a week. A smaller group also met weekly to consider intelligence materials. Working Group members included the former US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, and the deputy assistant secretary of state (and former Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates), David Mack. The committee structure supplemented existing daily liaison between the State Department and the Pentagon. Rugh and his colleagues twice briefed the president on world public reaction, coached him before a major interview with the Arab media, and kept him posted with information on reaction and suitable themes for inclusion in his speeches.(13) There was a marked divergence between the international message of the Bush administration, with its emphasis on clear limited aims, references to “President Hussein,” and respectful awareness of Iraq’s cultural heritage, and the rather more bellicose tone used for the domestic American audience. Within the USA, Saddam was depicted as a monstrous equivalent to Hitler. The Inter-Agency Working Group deliberately played down such rhetoric overseas and avoided the domestic impulse to characterize the war on Bush’s side as personal. Their international line stressed the workings of Congress and US democracy, international condemnation enshrined in multiple UN resolutions, and the role of the coalition.(14) The Inter-Agency Working Group produced papers channelling specific pieces of detailed research relating to the allied mobilization, investigating press reports collected in particular problem places like Algiers or Tunis, tracking the path and impact of Iraqi propaganda gambits. The group monitored demonstrations against the coalition, paying particular attention to their size. A demonstration of 20 people in Cairo was nothing to be concerned about, but gathering of a thousand sparked concerns. By the same token, positive press would be rapidly relayed. If the committee noticed a helpful editorial in an Egyptian paper, this would be reproduced and hurriedly faxed to posts and distributed quickly. The Working Group knew that an indigenous voice had much more impact that the most eloquent US spokesman relaying the same information.(15) The Working Group also paid particular attention to the slower media, creating supporting materials for Public Affairs Officers (PAOs), generating guidelines, and—in what Rugh considered one of their most effective projects—writing and disseminating talking points for personnel in the field. Rugh asked USIA’s PAOs attached to posts in the Middle East and North Africa to compile a running survey of local opinion and their sense of the weak and strong points of the US case. A team of Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) in Washington then developed talking points, which were cleared by the State Department’s policy team and then distributed back to ambassadors and their staff in the field and used around Washington DC. This became an ideal mechanism to counter the tide of Iraqi disinformation that began to flow from that country’s diplomatic posts around the world. (16) Facing Iraqi Propaganda The raison d’etre for the Working Group on Public Diplomacy was, of course, the phenomenal output of propaganda from Baghdad. From his emergence as the dominant figure in the Ba’athist government in the 1970s, Saddam Hussein had made skilled use of propaganda at home and abroad. His image had been carefully crafted by poet and journalist Abdul-Amir Malla with copious references to the glories of the Iraqi past. In vast murals and ubiquitous posters Saddam rendered himself as the successor to Nebuchadnezzar or Saladin. He claimed direct descent from Ali the fourth caliph of Baghdad. He styled himself as a leader for the Arab masses against the West and their own corrupt regimes, and a defender of Islam. Iraq’s powerful radio stations and frenzied press operations hammed this message home in Arabic. Gambits following the deployment of US troops included a number of stories around the theme that American Christians were desecrating Mecca. USIA hit back with an immediate and worldwide denial.(17) As Desert Shield progressed, Iraq also spread stories that coalition forces in Saudi Arabia included Israelis in disguise, were spreading AIDS, and had imported thousands of Egyptian women to serve as prostitutes. In the autumn, they claimed that Saudi leaders were drinking alcohol on US bases, Americans were building churches, and that Iraq had only invaded Kuwait to head off an American/Saudi plan to seize the kingdom for themselves. Not all Iraqi stories were effectively quashed. Iraq scored an early success in September by releasing the transcript of an interview between Saddam and Ambassador Glaspie in the run up to war. Shamelessly manipulative editing created the impression that Glaspie had given a green light to the invasion of Kuwait and the State Department took no steps to correct the record at the time, allowing the Iraqi version of events to gain unnecessary credence.(18) Saddam proved less effective at playing the Islamic card than the team had feared. Early reports revealed that even where populations disliked the idea of a US military response they were frequently sceptical of Iraq’s pretence to Islamic leadership. But Rugh and his colleagues had to work hard to keep the issue of Israel out of the equation. Yasir Arafat’s vociferous support for Saddam did not help matters. Saddam, for his part, quite cynically championed the Palestinian cause, despite a history of violence between Iraq and representatives of the PLO. Moments of particular crisis included the clash on 8 October between Orthodox Jews and militant Palestinians near the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Police opened fire, leaving 17 Palestinians dead and over 100 injured. The incident raised the profile of the Arab-Israeli conflict at exactly the wrong time.(19) WORLDNET and Visual Communication Early in the course of Desert Shield, the Inter-Agency Working Group commissioned a film called A Line in the Sand. As Rugh recalled, it took an agonizingly long time to create, largely because of the need for complicated clearance of military footage culled from various Pentagon and coalition sources. Its purpose was simple: to showcase the collective response of the world to Saddam’s aggression from the consensus in the United Nations to the superbly equipped coalition military force deployed in Saudi Arabia. A US military production team working in Saudi Arabia edited the compilation footage into a dynamic form and added a soundtrack, which included wall-to-wall narration, quotes from the Koran, and much Arabic music. At USIA’s satellite TV service—WORLDNET—a veteran agency filmmaker named Jerry Krell acted as a film doctor on the final version of the military’s cut, further sharpening its impact by eliminating the music, minimizing the commentary and allowing the images and associated sound effects to speak for themselves. The film had a target audience of just one man: Saddam himself. The Working Group hoped that the show of power might deter the dictator, and cut through the presumed poor advice and underline the resolve of the West and its coalition. The US presented copies of the video to Arab embassies including Iraqi embassies around the world, and trusted that the film reached its intended viewer. But Saddam’s forces in Kuwait held firm.(20) WORLDNET also mounted a series of special programs that allowed journalists around the world to interact with the senior administration figures concerned with the crisis. John Kelly, the assistant secretary of state for the Near East, did three WORLDNET sessions. David Mack also became a regular guest sometimes working in Arabic.(21) The ‘Rape of Kuwait’ USIA based its approach to the Gulf Crisis soundly on sober appeals to international law. Its principal publication during the crisis would be an anthology of the apposite UN resolutions, however some material touched on more emotive issues. The Inter-Agency Working Group also placed considerable emphasis on the story of the so-called rape of Kuwait to establish the morality of the coalition case. Kuwait led the way, forming a group called Citizens for a Free Kuwait, which in turn hired the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton. H & K launched an $11 million campaign to publicise the plight of Kuwait before the American public under the direction of a former USIA FSO, Lauri J. Fitz-Pegado. Rugh travelled to New York to work with the US ambassador to the UN, Thomas Pickering, and the Kuwaiti ambassador to present the Kuwaiti case to the world. USIA’s output on the theme included a couple of 30-page chronologies, created in magazine form, showing the evidence for Iraqi brutality. The agency took care selecting its text and pictures, checking not only accuracy, but political and cultural acceptability. USIA did not merely repeat Kuwaiti allegations, which proved wise. Testimony presented to a congressional Human Rights Caucus hearing on 10 October about babies being turned out of incubators by marauding Iraqi troops and left to die proved to be untrue and delivered not by a genuine eyewitness but by the ambassador’s teenage daughter. Plenty of domestic politicians were less skeptical, and the incubator story figured in numerous speeches on the Hill running up to the vote authorising military action. The President himself told the story on eight occasions, initially flagging it as unverified but then giving credence by repetition. Some commentators questioned the story at the time. Liberating troops found incubators still in place in Kuwaiti hospitals and in January 1992 an op-ed piece by John R. Macarthur in The New York Times revealed the true identity of the anonymous witness. Rugh noted that while the revelation of the Kuwaiti sleight of hand became a big story in the West, the Arab media paid little attention to it.(22) USIA emphasised the quest for a peaceful solution to the crisis. At the end of November, President Bush proposed a fresh round of talks “going the extra mile” with Saddam Hussein in preference to bloodshed. The agency monitored international press response in the first week of December and was delighted to report that seventy five percent of editorials on the subject supported Bush’s position. Figaro in France called it “the act of a responsible statesman.” Critics generally felt that the time to negotiate had passed and the time to act had come. It was an ideal foundation for the next act of the drama.(23) The Deadline Approaches On 8 January 1991, President Bush addressed the allied nations of the anti-Iraq coalition over USIA’s WOLRDNET television. He stressed the final deadline of 15 January for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and reiterated the history of US attempts to resolve the crisis peacefully.(24) With the deadline approaching, the National Security Council prepared a message from the president to the Iraqi people to be read on 14 January. The text emphasised yet again that war would be the choice of Saddam and the US and the 28 other members of the coalition had no quarrel with the Iraqi people. He stressed the importance of Voice of America telling Iraq “the truth about Saddam Hussein—the truth about the world’s determination to stop his aggression.”(25) In addressing his own people and the wider world, President Bush broadened the stakes, arguing that the coalition would be fighting for more than just one country. On 16 January, in his address to the nation announcing military action, President Bush spoke of an “opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order.” The phrase “new world order” became a mainstay of his rhetoric thereafter. (26) At the time of the outbreak of war, USIA’s Media Reaction Staff could at least report widespread admiration for George Bush, appreciation for his efforts at compromise, and an understanding that the blame for the bloodshed ahead rested with Saddam.(27) During the crisis and war, the Iraqis tried a range of tactics to undermine the coalition position. Iraqi broadcasters championed the Palestinian cause, paraded prisoners of war, and attempted to demoralise the American forces by alleging that their wives might be at home having sex with Hollywood stars. Saddam variously appeared petting a British child hostage, praying (despite his secular Sunni background) in the manner of a religious Shiite, posing in a variety of other garbs and pledging to unleash “the Mother of all Battles.” His use of Scud missiles to attack non-combatant Israel was as much a propaganda play for the Arab street as a military move.(28) Countering Disinformation Iraq continued to make extensive use of disinformation. Fortunately, the US government still had its Cold War counter-disinformation apparatus. At USIA, Todd Leventhal, the senior policy officer for countering disinformation and misinformation, served as the US government’s chief analyst of and spokesman on Iraqi propaganda, monitoring the spread of rumours and moving swiftly to refute them. Leventhal’s activities included a marathon nine-and-a-half hours on WORLDNET, taking questions on Iraqi disinformation from journalists from 35 countries. He had no shortage of stories to rebut. Following the outbreak of the air war, Baghdad focused on exaggerated Iraqi successes in shooting down coalition planes, false claims that Israel was secretly participating in the air campaign, and colourful reports of mutinies and clashes between US and British troops and Muslim members of the coalition. On 16 January, the Pakistani newspaper Markaz claimed that Pakistani troops had opened fire on Americans and killed 72. Shortly thereafter, the Pakistani government expelled the Iraqi press counsellor in Baghdad for “providing financial assistance for publication of propaganda materials against the state” and “inciting street demonstrations.” Other stories included a report in Pakistan that the notorious singer Madonna had arrived in Saudi Arabia to entertain the troops, in Algeria that coalition casualties were being secretly buried on the island of Crete, and in Indonesia that the CIA was plotting to overthrow King Hussein of Jordan. USIA’s media reaction staff drew comfort from the fact that these stories were almost never dignified by editorial comment in the Middle East. They were, however, repeated on Cuban and Soviet channels and even found their way onto the Arabic service of Radio Monte Carlo.(29) Saddam’s most effective propaganda mechanism would be the same tactic used by the British during the Nazi blitz on London—merely opening his home front to selected foreign journalists and specifically the reporters and cameras of CNN. From the beginning of the air war on 16 January, the Iraqi regime alleged that coalition bombs had hit civilian facilities and invited CNN along to see. Early examples included a “baby milk factory” bombed on 20 January and displayed on CNN the following day. USIA used its “talking points” and counter disinformation team to circulate refutation, noting that the site was protected like a military installation. The civilian target theme struck a chord around…... 2006-01-31T22:08:01+00:00 #When:20:16:01Z January 31 -- The United States is not drawing the right lessons from Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that they underestimated Hamas' strength and made it clear that they had hoped for a different outcome. But that's not the critical issue. Read the original at the Los Angeles Times website here. 2006-01-31T20:16:01+00:00 #When:09:00:53Z Norman Pattiz, a radio executive who launched the Arabic-language media outlets Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television, has resigned from the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, The Wall Street Journal reports. Pattiz, founder and Chairman of Westwood One, was appointed by President Clinton in 2000 and served as the Chairman of the Middle East Committee of the BBG. Pattiz acknowledged his accomplishments with pride in a statement to colleagues: "It's been nearly four years since the launch of Radio Sawa and two years since the launch of Alhurra television. Since then, these Middle East networks regularly reach over 35 million unduplicated listeners and viewers throughout the Arabic speaking Middle East weekly according to independent research from ACNielsen and others. The same research shows that over 70 percent of its audience finds the news to be reliable. I am proud to have played a role in that success" Pattiz said that he wants to devote his time to other ventures and that his decision to quit the BBG had "noting to do with politics." Fellow Governor Joaquin Blaya is expected to replace Pattiz at the end of February. For previous commentary on broadcasting in the Middle East, visit Alvin Snyder's Worldcasting and Adam Clayton Powell III's Washington Journal on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy web site. 2006-01-12T09:00:53+00:00 #When:23:26:15Z Secretary Rice's Statement (transcript and video). | Dean Geoffrey Cowan's remarks (.pdf). Click here to view the official press release (.pdf). The Edward R. Murrow Journalism Fellows Program — a partnership among the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Aspen Institute, and six American universities — will invite 100 international media professionals to spend time at leading journalism schools in the United States, honing their skills, sharing ideas, and gaining first-hand understanding of American society and democratic institutions. The goal is to not only inform the fellows about the United States, but also to promote journalistic freedom and excellence around the world. "The Department of State is determined to forge partnerships with our private sector so that Americans of all stripes, all traditions, all ethnic groups and also all walks of life might be able to help to carry the story of democratic progress and the progress of liberty," said Secretary Rice. "We especially look forward to working with our partners." "Democracy cannot work without the free flow of information and ideas that is made possible through an independent and effective press," said Geoffrey Cowan. "The Murrow Program adds an exciting and important new component to those that the USIA and State Department have offered in the past. It harnesses the resources of American journalism schools. All of our schools expect the international journalists to learn from our courses ‹ and we all expect our students to learn from our visitors." The six journalism schools involved in the new program are the University of Kentucky, University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Oklahoma. The Edward R. Murrow program will culminate in April 2006 with an international symposium for the fellows and other journalists to be organized by the Aspen Institute, through its Communications and Society Program. Named after the renowned journalist and former director of the United States Information Agency Edward R. Murrow, this program will emphasize many of the democratic principles that guided Mr. Murrow¹s practice of his craft: integrity, ethics, courage, and social responsibility. This new journalism program is an innovative public-private partnership, led by the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. Leading the initiative for the State Department are Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, and Dina Habib Powell, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives a football autographed by USC Football Coach Pete Carroll from Annenberg School for Communication Dean Geoffrey Cowan 2005-12-13T23:26:15+00:00 #When:01:57:57Z The BBG Governors and Alhurra Television testified before the Committee on International Relations' Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Thursday, November 10. This hearing was called to review the challenges facing United States public diplomacy efforts in the Arab world. Click here for streaming video of the hearing (Real player required). Below are links to transcripts of individual testimony (.pdf): Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, BBG Chairman, renounced recent reports alledging "doubts over Alhurra's claimed audience figures." Mouafac Harb, News Director, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, quoted a 2005 ACNielsen survey showing median rates of 28% viewership of Alhurra in satellite-equipped households across the Middle East with a median news reliability score of 73%. Andrew Kohut, Director of the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press discussed the results of recent surveys aimed at measuring the perception of the United States in Arab and Muslim worlds. 2005-11-12T01:57:57+00:00 #When:00:47:44Z On November 10, 2005 the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations held a hearing on public diplomacy featuring a testimony and Q & A with Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes. A complete video webcast of this hearing is available by clicking here (Real Player required). Click here to read Henry Hyde's opening remarks (.pdf) and here for a transcript of Ms. Hughes' testimony. 2005-11-12T00:47:44+00:00 #When:01:34:39Z Click here to view the announcement. The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to welcome two new senior fellows. Professors Benjamin Barber and Ernest Wilson will begin work with the Center in Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, respectively. Both are experts in international affairs and public diplomacy and will offer new perspectives and extensive experience to the Center. In the upcoming year, they will begin research projects and present lectures to USC students, faculty, and public diplomacy practitioners. This collaboration is an opportunity to further develop the mission of the Center and help expand the study and practice of public diplomacy. Professor Benjamin Barber Benjamin R. Barber is the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and the Director of the Democracy Collaborative, an organization that works to strengthen local and global democracy through research, training, and community action. Professor Barber’s commitment to democratic civil practices has manifested itself in many ways throughout his career: as political theorist, fundraiser, educational and political consultant, administrator, public speaker, and television and theater writer. He has been an outside advisor to President Bill Clinton and has consulted with President Herzog and most recently President Rau of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Liberal Party of Sweden, and the European Parliament. He has drafted papers and lectured for the U.S. Information Agency and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and counseled the Corporation for National and Community Service. Professor Barber has written 15 books, including Strong Democracy and the international bestseller Jihad vs. McWorld. He speaks frequently in North America and Europe and was the editor-in-chief for ten years of the prominent international journal Political Theory. Professor Barber studied at the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and the London School of Economics before receiving his B.A. from Grinell College. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Professor Ernest Wilson Ernest J. Wilson III comes from the University of Maryland where he is a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics and the Department of African-American Studies. He has more than 25 years experience in academic, media and policy arenas and specializes in development and conflict, information technology, trade relations and African studies. Professor Wilson was appointed to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and then re-appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004. He is also on advisory boards for the Council on Foreign Relations and the Journal of Democracy and was senior foreign policy advisor to Senator John Kerry and Vice President Al Gore. Previously, he was the Director for International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council at the Clinton White House. There he worked on international economic programs and helped reform U.S. international broadcasting. He also established and directed the Policy and Planning Unit in the Office of the Director of the U.S. Information Agency. Professor Wilson has been actively involved in helping governments make democratic transitions to market economies and in increasing political and economic participation of minority groups in the U.S. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, addressed United Nations agencies, and consulted in the private and public sectors in the U.S. and abroad. Information Revolution and Developing Countries (MIT Press) and Diversity and U.S. Foreign Policy (Routledge Press) were both released in 2004 and Professor Wilson has two books forthcoming in 2005. He has also published more than 40 journal articles. He received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. 2005-11-11T01:34:39+00:00 #When:18:49:00Z Geoffrey Cowan, university professor and holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, discussed the growth of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in an interview printed in the October 26, 2005 New York Sun. The following is a portion of Pranay Gupte's interview with Geoffrey Cowan, that originally appeared in the article "A Focus on the Business of Journalism — Lunch at the Four Seasons" in the Business section of the Sun "We're increasing the ways with which students can better deal with a world that's rapidly changing because of globalization and technological advances," Mr. Cowan said. "Physical geography is no longer what it used to be. It's now the geography of special interests - in America and everywhere else." Because of this shift, it's important that America develop and sustain strong ties with other countries - not only traditional allies and aid-dependent countries but also regions where suspicion of American motives is rising. That's why Mr. Cowan is also "just starting" with a new Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School. It was mostly in connection with advancing the school's programs that he was visiting New York this week. "Every country is interested in public diplomacy - this isn't a topic confined to a particular moment, or simply to America's policies in the Middle East," Mr. Cowan said. "But public diplomacy cannot be about spin or public relations. Everything needs to be smartly thrown into the mix - American popular culture, a better understanding of our political and judicial systems, how policy is made in our country, how American business works. These are all interconnected issues, and we need to tell the American story better, but in a way that's sensitive to other people's cultures." But shouldn't public diplomacy be the domain of government? "It should be a cooperative effort that includes government, educational institutions, and business," Mr. Cowan said. "We all have the responsibility here." 2005-11-01T18:49:00+00:00 #When:16:56:44Z The USC Center on Public Diplomacy is looking for people to showcase their talent with a bit of world class game-making. The challenge to the game mod community, and current and aspiring game designers is as follows: design a prototype or modify a game incorporating the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy. For more, see this article in the Sunday, October 16, 2005 Washington Post. Interested in applying? Please visit the contest web page. 2005-10-17T16:56:44+00:00 #When:00:32:38Z USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to announce the launch of a new scholarly journal. This publication will feature works in the theory and practice of public diplomacy worldwide. Click here to download the announcement (.pdf). 2005-09-23T00:32:38+00:00 #When:22:38:31Z We've just received notice that The Hague Journal of Diplomacy has been launched to be published by Brill Academic Publishers in the Netherlands. The Journal, described as "the premier journal for the study of diplomacy and its role in international relations," is an effort of Jan Melissen of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael,' and Paul Sharp of the University of Minnesota, Duluth. In addition to the editor, members of the editorial board include a number of public diplomacy scholars, including Eytan Gilboa, of Bar-Ilan University (and currently a visiting professor of Public Diplomacy at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy); Geoffrey Wiseman of USC; James Der Darian of Brown University. Of note to public diplomacy scholars, the journal is "open to the wide array of methodologies by which diplomacy may be studied." A link to the PDF file, with call for papers and subscription is here. 2005-09-05T22:38:31+00:00 #When:18:27:38Z Incredibly the the BBC press release does not note the ownership of Al Hurra - the channel that will carry their broadcasts. It's as if VOA cut a deal for BBC radio news !!! BBC Worldwide has concluded its first deal in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Initially a one-year agreement, BBC Worldwide will provide news and current affairs, and history programming to satellite and terrestrial station, Al Hurra Iraq. Through the deal, concluded this week, BBC Worldwide is licensing 45 hours of programming to Al Hurra including Ghengis Khan, Auschwitz, Islamic History of Europe, and editions of Panorama, This World and Correspondent. Announcing the agreement, BBC Worldwide Director of Emerging Markets for EMEIA, Monisha Shah, said: "As Iraq rebuilds its media networks, we are glad to be able to provide a quality source of international news and current affairs, and history programming, to help re-establish schedules and give viewers increased choice." These programmes will also be broadcast on Al Hurra's satellite service across the rest of the Middle East. Complete story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/commercial/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2005/08_august/iraq_programming.shtml 2005-08-17T18:27:38+00:00 #When:20:30:26Z CPD Board Member Joe Nye posits in the Boston Globe about challenges Karen Hughes will face as undersecretary of public diplomacy. Some recommendations: Even the best advertising cannot sell if the product is poor. Hughes will have to be able to coordinate the hard and soft power aspects of government policies. She will also have to work with the private and nonprofit sectors. To accomplish our objective of promoting democracy in the region, the United States must develop a long-term strategy of cultural and educational exchanges aimed at creating a richer and more open civil society in Middle Eastern countries. The most effective spokesmen for the United States are often not Americans but local people who understand US virtues as well as its faults. Visa policies that have cut back on the number of Muslim students in the United States do more harm than good. Much of the work of developing an open civil society can be promoted by corporations, foundations, universities, and other nonprofit organizations, as well as by governments. Companies and foundations can offer technology to help modernize Arab educational systems. US universities can establish more exchange programs for students and faculty. Foundations can support the development of institutions of US studies in Muslim countries or programs that enhance the professionalism of journalists. Private groups can promote the teaching of English and encourage student exchanges. The government can provide encouragement and financing but faces mistrust when it is directly involved. Complete story: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/09/diplomatic_mission/ 2005-08-10T20:30:26+00:00