=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" option. For information about RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Understanding Jargon: A Short Bibliography Phil Agre http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/ Version of 21 November 2001. Please forward this article to anyone who can use it. Americans are upset at the blizzard of irrational jargon that now substitutes for political discourse in the United States, and they increasingly recognize that it isn't going away until it is named and confronted. To that end, I have enclosed a short list of books about propaganda, public relations, ideology, and related topics. (I sent out another list on the topic last year, and for convenience I've attached that list to the end of this one.) I've included books from several perspectives, including manuals for practitioners. If you want a single starting-place for your reading, I recommend the works of Robert Jackall. Jackall is an ethicist who does field studies and writes powerful books about the ethical nightmares he finds. I recommend his book "Moral Mazes" to students who are about to start working in the real world, and he has a recent book about the world of issue advocacy. Otherwise, there's something for everyone. People on the left will enjoy Alex Carey's excellent "Taking the Risk Out of Democracy", people on the right will enjoy Marvin Olasky's history of the public relations department at AT&T, those seeking a blood-curdling PR manual will enjoy Philip Lesly's "Overcoming Opposition", those wishing a more analytical approach to PR might consult James Grunig and Todd Hunt's "Managing Public Relations" (I've used it in teaching the subject myself -- it's a little dated but still useful), those seeking pure scandal will enjoy the works of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, and those wishing to understand conservative policy campaigns might consult Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado's "No Mercy". Also, here is a page that contains my own informal articles about the currently fashionable political jargon: http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/jargon.html It's in reverse chronological order, so if you don't want to relive the 2000 presidential election then you can skip down. Many of the articles on this page could use more work -- they're full of small editing errors and so on -- but I've left them as they were when I sent them out. Just to be clear, I do believe that public relations can be done in an ethical fashion. But I also believe that the basic methods of public relations lend themselves to dishonest manipulation and that public relations was quite explicitly founded with the purpose of manipulating the minds of the majority so that society could be controlled for the benefit of a narrow elite. People talked that way quite openly until perhaps forty years ago, and anyone who doesn't believe me can read the historical books that are listed below. By "jargon" I mean the systematic application of public relations methods to politics, both by political parties and by privately funded think tanks and advocacy organizations. Jargon systematically twists language in order to subvert rational thought and reduce political discourse to the making and breaking of mental associations among vaguely defined symbols, often by means of extreme emotional manipulation -- thus the shouting. In the process, political discourse is reduced to the most primitive psychological level, and the toxic rhetoric that results can be best understood using psychological ideas such as projection. This is not an accident, given that the founder of public relations, Edward Bernays, was quite explicitly using techniques from psychoanalysis in his work. I believe that jargon is incompatible with democracy, not to mention mental health, and it will only retreat if citizens develop antibodies to it by learning to name it when they see it. Here, then, are the books that that didn't appear in my earlier lists. Theodor W. Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality, New York: Harper, 1950. Theodor W. Adorno, The Psychological Technique of Martin Luther Thomas' Radio Addresses, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. C. Fred Alford, Group Psychology and Political Theory, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. J. M. Balkin, Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. David Barsamian and Noam Chomsky, Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations With Noam Chomsky, Cambridge: South End Press, 2001. Sharon Beder, Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism, Chelsea Green, 1998. W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, eds, Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy, Cambridge University Press, 2000. Carl Boggs, The End of Politics: Corporate Power and the Decline of the Public Sphere, New York: Guilford Press, 2000. Craig Calhoun, ed, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992. Albert H. Cantril and Susan Davis Cantril, Reading Mixed Signals: Ambivalence in American Public Opinion About Government, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Peter A. Coclanis and Stuart W. Bruchey, eds, Ideas, Ideologies, and Social Movements: The United States Experience since 1800, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999. Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, St. Martin's Press, 2000. Ann N. Crigler, ed, The Psychology of Political Communication, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Scott M. Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations, A History, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1994. Daniel J. Czitrom, Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982. John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems, New York: Holt, 1927. Eric Dezenhall, Nail 'em! Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses, Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1999. Gary Dorrien, The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture, and the War of Ideology, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. William N. Elwood, ed, Public Relations Inquiry as Rhetorical Criticism: Case Studies of Corporate Discourse and Social Influence, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. James S. Fishkin, The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. Alec Foege, The Empire God Built: Inside Pat Robertson's Media Machine, Wiley, 1996. Amy Fried, Muffled Echoes: Oliver North and the Politics of Public Opinion, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. George Gerbner, Hamid Mowlana, Herbert I. Schiller, eds, Invisible Crises: What Conglomerate Control of Media Means for America and the World, Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. George Gerbner, The Future of Media: Digital Democracy or More Corporate Control, Seven Stories Press, 2000. Theodore L. Glasser and Charles T. Salmon, eds, Public Opinion and the Communication of Consent, New York: Guilford Press, 1995. Jordan Goldman, Public Relations in the Marketing Mix: Introducing Vulnerability Relations, Chicago: Crain, 1984. Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, translated by Thomas Burger, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. Susan Herbst, Reading Public Opinion: How Political Actors View the Democratic Process, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. John W. Hill, The Making of a Public Relations Man, Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, 1993. Christopher Hitchens, Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, London: Verso, 2000. Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress, Language as Ideology, second edition, London: Routledge, 1993. Godfrey Hodgson, The World Turned Right Side Up: A History of the Conservative Ascendancy in America, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Todd Hunt and James E. Grunig, Public Relations Techniques, Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1994. Robert Jackall and Janice M. Hirota, Image Makers: Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. John Keane, The Media and Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Sam Keen, Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986. Otto F. Kernberg, Ideology, Conflict and Leadership in Groups and Organizations, Yale University Press, 1998. Russ Kick, ed, You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide To Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths, RSUB, 2001. Neil J. Kressel, ed, Political Psychology: Classic and Contemporary Readings, New York: Paragon House, 1993. Paul V. Kroskrity, ed, Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities and Identities, School of American Research Press, 2000. James H. Kuklinski, ed, Citizens and Politics: Perspectives from Political Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Howard Kurtz, Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine, New York: Free Press, 1998. Philip Lesly, ed, Lesly's Handbook of Public Relations and Communications, fourth edition, New York: American Management Association, 1991. Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, New York: Macmillan, 1922. George C. Lodge, Ideology and National Competitiveness: An Analysis of Nine Countries, Harvard Business School Press, 1987. Gene Lyons, Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater, New York: Franklin Square Press, 1996. John Anthony Maltese, Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Jarol B. Manheim, All of the People All the Time: Strategic Communication and American Politics, Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1991. David R. Mayhew, America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison Through Newt Gingrich, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Brian McNair, Journalism and Democracy: An Evaluation of the Political Public Sphere, London: Routledge, 2000. Patricia Moy and Michael Pfau, With Malice Toward All? The Media and Public Confidence in Democratic Institutions, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. David Noebel and Tim F. LaHaye, Mind Siege Leader's Guide: The Battle for Truth in the New Millenium, Word, 2001. Jerry Palmer, Spinning into Control: News Values and Source Strategies, Leicester University Press, 2001. Philip Pettit, The Common Mind: An Essay on Psychology, Society, and Politics, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Trust Us, We're Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future, New York: Tarcher, 2001. Stanley A. Renshon, ed, The Political Psychology of the Gulf War: Leaders, Publics, and the Process of Conflict, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993. Stanley A. Renshon and John Duckitt, eds, Political Psychology: Cultural and Crosscultural Foundations, Houndmills, UK: Macmillan, 2000. James D. Retter, Anatomy of a Scandal: The Undermining of the Clinton Presidency, General Publishing, 1998. Bruce Robbins, ed, The Phantom Public Sphere, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Michael Rosen, On Voluntary Servitude: False Consciousness and the Theory of Ideology, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Stewart Halsey Ross, Propaganda for War: How the United States Was Conditioned to Fight the Great War of 1914-1918, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996. William A. Rusher, The Coming Battle for the Media: Curbing the Power of the Media Elite, New York: Morrow, 1988. Charlotte Ryan, Prime-Time Activism: Media Strategies for Grassroots Organizing, Boston: South End Press, 1991. Charles T. Salmon, Information Campaigns: Balancing Social Values and Social Change, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989. Michael S. Sitrick and Allan Mayer, Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage, Regnery, 1998. John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995. Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado, No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Changed America's Social Agenda, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. Bertrand Taithe and Tim Thornton, eds, Propaganda: Political Rhetoric and Identity, 1300-2000, Thrupp, UK: Sutton, 1999. Susan B. Trento, The Power House: Robert Keith Gray and the Selling of Access and Influence in Washington, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Joseph Turow, Media Systems in Society: Understanding Industries, Strategies, and Power, New York: Longman, 1992. Teun A. van Dijk, Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach, London: Sage Publications, 1998. Robert Weissberg, Why Policymakers Should Ignore Public Opinion Polls, Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2001. John K. Wilson, The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. Slavoj Zizek, ed, Mapping Ideology, London: Verso, 1994. And here are the books that I sent out last year. Roger Ailes, You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are, New York: Doubleday, 1988. Edward L. Bernays, Public Relations, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952. Edward L. Bernays, ed, The Engineering of Consent, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Lobbyists: How Influence Peddlers Get Their Way in Washington, New York: Times Books, 1992. Jeff and Marie Blyskal, PR: How the Public Relations Industry Writes the News, New York: William Morrow, 1985. Bill Cantor, ed, Experts in Action: Inside Public Relations, New York: Longman, 1984. Alex Carey, Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda Versus Freedom and Liberty, edited by Andrew Lohrey, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, On Ideology, London: Hutchinson, 1978. Cynthia Crosson, Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin, New York: Basic Books, 1996. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., Waging and Winning the War of Ideas, Washington: Heritage Foundation, 1986. Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Beyond Agenda Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1982. James E. Grunig and Todd Hunt, Managing Public Relations, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984. Daniel C. Hallin, We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and the Public Sphere, London: Routledge, 1994. Robert L. Heath, ed, Strategic Issues Management: How Organizations Influence and Respond to Public Interests and Policies, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, New York: Pantheon Books, 1988. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds, The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Robert Jackall, ed, Propaganda, New York: New York University Press, 1995. Gareth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion, third edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1999. Robert Kendall, Public Relations Campaign Strategies: Planning for Implementation, Addison-Wesley, 1996. Gideon Kunda, Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology, London: Hutchinson, 1979. Philip Lesly, Overcoming Opposition: A Survival Manual for Executives, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984. Jacquie L'Etang and Magda Pieczka, Critical Perspectives in Public Relations, London: International Thomson Business Press, 1996. Bill Mallinson, Public Lies and Private Truths: An Anatomy of Public Relations, London: Cassell, 1996. Roland Marchand, Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Karen S. Miller, The Voice of Business: Hill and Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Ian I. Mitroff and Warren Bennis, The Unreality Industry: The Deliberate Manufacturing of Falsehood and What It Is Doing to Our Lives, New York: Carol, 1989. Joyce Nelson, Sultans of Sleaze: Public Relations and the Media, Toronto: Between the Lines, 1989. Marvin N. Olasky, Corporate Public Relations: A New Historical Perspective, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1987. David Protess and Maxwell McCombs, eds, Agenda Setting: Readings on Media, Public Opinion, and Policymaking, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991. Marc Raboy and Peter A. Bruck, eds, Communication For and Against Democracy, Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989. Caryl Rivers, Slick Spins and Fractured Facts: How Cultural Myths Distort the News, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Charles T. Salmon, ed, Information Campaigns: Balancing Social Values and Social Change, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989. Herbert I. Schiller, Information Inequality: The Deepening Social Crisis in America, New York: Routledge, 1996. Christopher Simpson, Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. James Allen Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite, New York: Free Press, 1991. Ted J. Smith III, ed, Propaganda: A Pluralistic Perspective, New York: Praeger, 1989. J. Michael Sproule, Propaganda and Democracy: The American Experience of Media and Mass Persuasion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995. Lawrence Susskind and Patrick Field, Dealing With An Angry Public: The Mutual Gains Approach To Resolving Disputes, New York: Free Press, 1996. Esther Thorson and Jeri Moore, eds, Integrated Communication: Synergy of Persuasive Voices, Erlbaum, 1996. Noel M. Tichy, Andrew R. McGill, and Lynda St. Clair, eds, Corporate Global Citizenship: Doing Business in the Public Eye, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997. Elizabeth L. Toth and Robert L. Heath, eds, Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1992. Larry Tye, The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations, New York: Crown, 1998. end
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