From the “strategy of truth” to the “weapon of truth”: The Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry, 1942

The aim of this article is to advance in a hidden part of public relations history: the Archibald MacLeish's ‘strategy of truth’ and its implementation to film industry to influence American public opinion. The attempts during the Second World War to fight the enemy through factual propaganda also found, in the film industry, the ideal medium to offset the enemy's propagandising audiovisual products, particularly Nazi propaganda. For this reason, the government drew up the Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry (1942) following the line established by the Office of Facts and Figures and Archibald MacLeish's ‘strategy of truth’. Thus, the Manual for the Motion Picture Industry became a good example of the use of ethical propaganda.     

MEDIA REVIEWS

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN [Motion Picture]. United States: Focus Features & Universal Studios. 135 Minutes. Ossana, D., Schamis, J. (Producers), & Lee, A. (Director), 2005. Reviewed by Brian L. Ott, Susan A. Sci.

LESBIAN WIDOWS: INVISIBLE GRIEF. Whipple, V. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2006. Reviewed by Karma R. Chávez.

SONS TALK ABOUT THEIR GAY FATHERS: LIFE CURVES. Gottlieb, A. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2006. Reviewed by Rafael Cervantes.

TRANSAMERICA [Motion Picture]. Moran, L., Bastian, R., and Dungan, S. (Producers) & Hunter, D. (Director). Solana Beach, CA: Genius Products, 2005. Reviewed by Isaac West.     

The Power of The Right Stuff: A Quasi-Experimental Field Test of the Docudrama Hypothesis

A field test of 966 moviegoers found that a significant numberof them were favorably influenced toward John Glenn's candidacyfor president by the film The Right Stuff. The docudrama reinforcedpositive images of Glenn and sustained those impressions fora longer than expected period.     

Sweet-Talking the Fourth Branch: The Influence of Interest Group Comments on Federal Agency Rulemaking

Students of politics have identified a variety of actors whoappear to influence the federal bureaucracy's implementationof public policy, including Congress, the president, and interestgroups. These lines of research, however, have often portrayedinterest groups as actors with indirect influence (who, forexample, work through or with Congress), rather than assessingthe direct influence of interest groups on bureaucratic policyoutputs. I conduct a test of direct interest group influenceby analyzing an original data set composed of 1,444 interestgroup comments in reaction to forty federal agency rules. Ifind, contrary to the expectations of the extant literature,that the formal participation of interest groups during rulemakingcan, and often does, alter the content of policy within the"fourth branch" of government. I conclude that those who voicetheir preferences during the notice and comment period rulemakingare often able to change government policy outputs to bettermatch their preferences.     

Can a Poll Affect Perception of Candidate Traits?

During presidential elections, poll results frequently are presentedin the news. Reporters use these polls to tell the public whatit thinks about the presidential candidates. We argue that pollingresults tell the public what it should think about the presidentialcandidates as well. This study outlines how a character traitthat is not usually used to assess presidential candidates wasput into play during the 2004 presidential campaign. By repeatedlyascribing "stubbornness" to incumbent president George W. Bush,Democratic challenger John Kerry may have prompted this trait’sinclusion in a Los Angeles Times summer 2004 survey. The poll’sevidence that the public saw Bush as more stubborn than Kerrythen produced an attribute agenda-setting effect that strengthenedthe link between that term and Bush. Using data from the NationalAnnenberg Election Survey, we argue that the news coverage ofthis Los Angeles Times poll increased the salience of the trait"stubborn" in assessing President George W. Bush during Juneof the 2004 presidential campaign.     

Robert M. Teeter, 1939-2004

Robert M. "Bob" Teeter—political pollster, key strategistin the campaigns of every Republican president from 1968 to1992, co-director with Peter Hart of the Wall Street Journal/NBCPoll, board member and consultant to major corporations—diedof cancer at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on June 13. Hewas 65. "Teeter’s work with Hart evoked respect on both sidesof the political aisle," said Tim Russert, NBC News’sWashington bureau chief and host of Meet the Press. "You could always take Bob Teeter’s     

Comment on Charles Baird

Mr. Stanton E. Smith has long been an active unionist. He was the first president of the Chattanooga Local of the American Federation of Teachers (1933–1939); served as the Educational Director of the ILGWU-Southeastern Region (1945–1949); was president of the Tennessee Federation of Labor (1949); and was coordinator of State and Local Councils of the AFL-CIO (1960). Currently, Mr. Smith is a delegate to the Chattanooga Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO.     

Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics

Revolutionary Horizons, by Forrest Hylton and Sinclair Thomson,is a highly readable work that contributes to understandingthe recent events that have placed Bolivia, once erased fromthe map by Queen Victoria following the expulsion of her emissaryin the nineteenth century, in the spotlight of observers ofprogressive movements around the world. With an insightful introductionby Adolfo Gilly, the book provides an accessible analysis ofthe events that led to the inauguration of Evo Morales, thefirst indigenous president in Bolivian history, in January 2006,ending the epoch of Andean apartheid. More than a simple recounting,     

Frank Capra's Why We Fight and film documentary discourse in public relations

This article analyzes the influence of Archibald MacLeish's “strategy of truth” and the principles of the Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry in the production of Frank Capra's documentary series Why We Fight. One of the main contributions of this research is to show how this series is the most important example of the application of the strategy of truth and, at the same time, one of the main examples of public relations audiovisual product realized to be addressed to American Army as well to the American public opinion. It is argued that Capra's Why We Fight made a substantial and long-lasting contribution to public relations, particularly in terms of its discourse and the use of analepsis has PR narrative resource. Overall, the article positions Why We Fight as one of the greatest efforts ever made in the history of military public relations.     

Testing the Permanence of the Permanent Campaign: An Analysis of Presidential Polling Expenditures, 1977 2002

Many presidential observers argue that the modern White Houseis the site of more-or-less permanent campaigning. In a recentPOQ piece, Murray and Howard (2002) [Public Opinion Quarterly66:527–558] explore one indicator of the "permanent campaign,"the extent to which Presidents Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush,and Clinton commissioned independent opinion polls and focusgroups to assist in policymaking and political maneuvering.Murray and Howard suggest that while a sophisticated pollingoperation has been institutionalized in the White House, thereis substantial variation in how much a president uses this operation.In this article, we model presidential polling expendituresover time using monthly figures. We find that presidents donot vary significantly in the average amount spent per monthon polls. There are, however, two recurring patterns of variationwithin presidential administrations: Presidents tend to spendsignificantly more on internal polling during the most intensemonths of a presidential reelection campaign; and polling expendituresincrease over the course of each presidential term. These findingssuggest that there are common forces (e.g., elections, naturaldecline in support) that have driven all presidents since Fordto poll.     

THE IMPACT OF OWI ON BROADCASTING

A MARKED difference between the public opinion situation facinginformation specialists in this war and that in 1917 is thefact that during the last twenty-five years radio has come ofage. Never before have governments had available for use suchan important instrument of propaganda. Has the OWI taken fulladvantage of its potentialities? Mr. Landry was asked to appraiseAmerica's use of this weapon since Pearl Harbor. For ten years the author has been observing American radio fromthe platform of the radio editorship of Variety. He has listenedto and analyzed thousands of radio broadcasts. At present heis director of program writing for CBS and also a member ofthe Writers War Board.     

Community Development and Government Response

The article contrasts two programmes aimed at improving thequality of life for older women in Australia. The CommunityOptions programme is a wellfunded Government initiative directedat personal care within the home. The Older Women's Networkis a grass-roots community development initiative. The articleexamines the relationship between control and resourcing interms of preventative and crisis care.     

Elena Andreevna Shvarts (17 May 1948–11 March 2010)

Abstract

A critical exploration is provided of the path and building metaphors used in the speeches of the former Russian president Vladimir Putin. We use the concepts of 'discourse metaphor' and 'frame' in our analysis of a corpus of Putin's speeches written and delivered between 2000 and 2007 in order to reveal the rhetorical strategies employed in them, and establish the ideological patterns of metaphor use. The metaphors are identified, analysed according to source domains, and then explored for their contribution to the overall project of the Russian president. Our findings suggest that, although the metaphorical expressions used by Putin are conventional and have a strong experiential grounding, in pragmatic terms, the choice of them appears to be in line with the legitimization and delegitimization strategies adopted by the former Russian president during his two terms in office.     

Briefly Noted

A federal audit of opioid treatment programs (OTPs) — methadone clinics — in New York City found that of 115 random sample claims, 35 did not comply with Medicaid requirements, and that of 598 claims in a non‐random sample, 299 were billed in error. Extrapolating these errors, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the state improperly claimed at least $39.3 million in the federal share of Medicaid reimbursement, and owes that money back. Improper claims were mainly due to failure to record patients in the central registry, which exists to make sure patients aren't enrolled in multiple OTPs (18 of the 35 noncompliant claims). This was not an audit alleging fraud. Extrapolation as an accounting method for OTPs, where patients often come in every day, so that each patient has more than 300 claims a year, is questionable, but OTPs are used to this even in state audits. In other words, one OTP patient comes in six days a week, with six claims, and the database balloons. “You're extrapolating over our universe, and our universe becomes large because people come in for medication,” said Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of Medication‐Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates, a New York–based membership organization, and board member of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence. “When you're just trying to get money, this counts,” said Schorr. “They hit the lottery when it comes to an audit because of that extrapolation.” However, Schorr, who is also an owner and vice president of West Midtown Medical Group, a Manhattan‐based group that was the first OTP to dispense buprenorphine in New York state, stresses that compliance is always important. “It's critical that there is oversight,” she told ADAW. Meanwhile, the state is reviewing the audit and will respond. “The Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), in partnership with the NYS Office of Medicaid Inspector General, intends to review the specific findings of this audit cited by OIG [Office of Inspector General] to verify its accuracy and to determine an appropriate course of action,” said Evan Frost, spokesman for OASAS. “As a proactive measure, we will remind our OTP providers of their obligations to comply with state and federal laws and rules for providing and claiming Medicaid reimbursement and ensuring the quality of care for those receiving OTP services.” OA SAS regulates OTPs in the state. For the audit, go to https://oig.hhs.gov/oas/reports/region2/21701021.pdf     

Assumptions, Motivations and Neutrality in Rural Development: The Portuguese Paradigm

Development agents need to examine their underlying assumptions,motivations, neutrality, and their terminology, which is oftenimprecise and misleading. In addition, development is frequentlycharacterized by self-created dichotomies that obscure the veryproblems that need to be solved. The combined cooperativistand constructivist approach has proved itself successful inovercoming these problems. "A lady once said to him, ‘My maid must be pleased, Igave her my dresses.’ ‘That's nice’, he replied,‘does she give you hers?" Jean-Paul Sarrte, Saint Genet "You name it, you claim it." Max Roach, Black American jazzmusician, referring to whites, and jazz.     

Social capital, the social economy and community development

Social capital is increasingly used in the field of communitydevelopment and the social economy. This article describes someof the results to emerge from a three-year research project(CONSCISE Project), which looked at the contribution socialcapital can make to the social economy within local economicdevelopment. Following the definition of social capital, thearticle examines how it can be assessed and then goes on tolist the main findings on the significance of social capitalin the understanding of the social economy and community development.It concludes with a number of policy implications on how socialcapital can be used within the context of community development.     

PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR PUBLIC: SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS

THE recent British White Paper on post-war education in Englandleaves little doubt that Britain looks to a new era of education.The work has already begun. The British soldier of today willbe the key citizen of tomorrow. Cognizant of this fact, theBritish War Office has established a far-reaching program ofeducation for citizenship among England's troops. It is being carried out by the Army Educational Corps. Thisarticle is the story of their work. Mr. Bickersteth, educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and theUniversity of Paris, is Director of Army Education in the BritishWar Office. He is on leave as Warden of Hart House, Universityof Toronto.     

Improving Coding Reliability for Open-Ended Questions

One of the basic measurement problems in survey research isthe reliable coding of open-ended questions. A posteriori methodsfor improving coding reliability are distinguished from a priorimethods. An a posteriori method has been shown to be of limitedvalue for improving reliability for certain coding tasks. Thisarticle proposes and illustrates a multi-step, a priori procedurefor generating coding categories for open-ended items. Preliminaryevidence is presented indicating that this method may yieldreliability levels far superior to those typically obtainedin coding open-ended questions     

Saraband

Abstract

SARABAND (2005). Ingmar Bergman (Director), Sony Picture Classics. Reviewed by Rina Youngner.     

The British Community Development Project: Lessons for today

This paper looks back at the experience of the first Britishpoverty programme, the national Community Development Project(CDP), which operated from 1969 to 1978. The "radical" projectswithin CDP comprehensively rejected the official governmentview of the nature and causes of, and solutions to, povertyand urban deprivation. The roots of the radical CDP perspectiveare to be located within the political character of the periodamong other factors. The paper offers a retrospective accountof the strengths and limitations of CDP.