Simon Moore

Public Relations and the History of Ideas

Chapter 1. Public Relations in the History of Ideas Chapter 2. Virtuous PR - Confucius, Analects Chapter 3. Noble Falsehoods and PR - Plato, The Republic Chapter 4. The Problem of Perfection - Al-Farabi, On the Perfect State Chapter 5. PR and the Subjugation of Reason - Luther, The Ninety-five theses Chapter 6. Willpower and the Expansion of PR - Clausewitz, On War Chapter 7. PR, Scientific Inquiry and Utopian Mysticism - Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto Chapter 8. Proofing Against Puffing - Mill, On Liberty Chapter 9. Modern Campaign Management? - Gandhi, An Autobiography, or the Story of My Experiments with Truth Chapter 10. Accepting and Fearing PR - Hayek, The Road to Serfdom Chapter 11. PRs Choice: Creating Audiences or Discovering Individuals - Jung, The Undiscovered Self Chapter 12. PRs Future: Irrational or Rational? Magical or scientific? Individual or collective?

The Origins of Strategic Communication: Precedents and Parallels in Ancient States

When, where, and why did communication strategy originate? Global communication strategy is a present-day preoccupation, but ancient states were the first to manage messages over large distances and time periods. They did this to entrench a permanent, convincing identity that embodied political power. To achieve their goal other forms of power were exploited and expressed as organized communication including religion, armed force, and administration. Early states created a distinct process to legitimize leadership and counter time and space obstacles like slow communication media, regional diversity, and the challenge to collective memory posed by limited access to written information and instruction. This article examines historical research and suggests that advanced strategic communication knowledge existed in premodern societies.

Leaving the Cave: Government, Culture, and the Information Age

According to the Jerusalem Post, “If the U.S. wants to deal effectively with anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world … the question of political boundaries is less significant than that of regional and cultural ones.”1 Communicating with regions and cultures has indeed become a preoccupation since 9/11. Diplomats, politicians, scholars, nonprofits, Web sites, grant foundations, and media attack the problem with urgent curiosity.

The role of landscape and strategic communication in managing legitimacy between a state and its citizens

The physical landscape has historically played a vital role in defining a polity to people, but modern states have not adjusted it to the needs of the information age. We argue in this conceptual paper that: (1) Modern states should include landscape when communicating their identity. (2) Landscapes possess an emotional equity that could be magnified by social media and other information age media. (3) History demonstrates that premodern and later states understood the communication power of landscape. (4) A shift from natural landscape to culturally perceived boundaries undermined the legitimacy of many states partly by weakening their identity. (5) A return to historical, often premodern perception of landscape as a communication asset would help states harness landscapes communication power.

Communicating Identity in the Ottoman Empire and Some Implications for Contemporary States

Do premodern states have anything to suggest to governments managing their identity in this era of communication volatility? The techniques used by the Ottoman Empire repay close study. The Empire lasted for more than six centuries, almost living up to its imperial motto: “The Eternal State.” It faced the problem of cultivating an identity for a remarkable range of geographic, religious, cultural, and ethnic identities. How did it project an identity strong enough to counterbalance potential internal stresses? We investigate the communication techniques used by the Ottomans and the relationship between centralized and decentralized identities in their Empire. Finally, we discuss the pressures on modern governments created by the collision between information technology, globalization, and current “Westphalian” approaches to identity. We offer alternative approaches for modern states and superstates like the European Union, seeking to create or renew their identity with their diverse inhabitants.

Integrating emotion with identity in European Union strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a more extensive and overt use of emotion in building popular support for the EU.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of identifying and analyzing historical and modern evidence for the uses of emotion by organizations and states attempting to build or protect their identities, and proposing a new EU communication strategy that builds on existing and previous experience.Findings – Emotion was extensively used by early states; its value is being relearned by corporations and national governments. However, the EU has not been making effective use of emotion.Practical implications – The EU must manage its communication needs in a new way.Originality/value – The EU has neglected a critical area of communication effectiveness, and should address this problem by applying historical precedent to the activities of modern non‐government organizations.