Image Management in Public Diplomacy A Political Psychology Perspective

1
Image Management in Public Diplomacy A Political
Psychology Perspective

• Doris A. Graber, U. of Illinois/Chicago
• Professor Political Science/Communication

2
What is Public Diplomacy?

• My definition
• Government-sponsored activities designed to
  persuade foreign publics to hold favorable
  images about the sponsoring nations nature and
  policies and to soften or erase unfavorable
  images.

3
What is Image Management?

• THREE MAJOR STEPS
• Assessing what your target audience likes and
  dislikes about your country.
• 2. Strengthening the likes side of the ledger
  and weakening the dislike side.
• Do so with words and deeds.
• 3. Avoid contradicting disconfirming
  information.

4
Why Image Management is Crucial in International
Politics

• Bad images make co-existence cooperation
  difficult. They reduce policy effectiveness.
• Bad images increase fears about potentially
  unfavorable economic or military developments.
• To cooperate successfully, China and USA must
  pursue vigorous public diplomacy campaigns in
  words and deeds.

5
Why Image Management is Difficult

• Some Essential Requirements
• Assess current opinions of target audiences.
• Know the causes/contributing events of current
  views including local cultures, stereotypes.
• Know local legal and political environments
  likely to affect PD campaigns.
• Overcome conflicting messages spreading
  simultaneously in the Internet Age.
• Cope with the Mirror Image effect.

6
Multiple Assessment Axes
7
Components of the Mix????What Explains the End
Product?

• ???????????????????????
• Nothing Succeeds like Success
• Economic Benefits e.g. African development
• Coping with Cognitive Dissonance??
• Public Diplomacy Activities, e.g. Confucius
  Institutes, Olympics, Trade Fairs,
  Non-intervention pledges skip HR reports
• ???????????????????????????

8
Credit Public Diplomacy

• Joshua Kurlantzick, said in Charm Offensive How
  China's Soft Power is Transforming the World
  (2007) that
• "China has drastically changed its image in many
  parts of the world from dangerous to benign. It
  may already be the preeminent power in parts of
  Asia, and it could develop China-centered spheres
  of influence in other parts of the globe, like
  Central Asia or Africa" p. 226) .

9
(No Transcript)
10
Favorable View of China, 201114 positive
countries, 8 negative
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Pakistan Kenya Russia USA Jordan Germany India Turkey
Ukraine Britain Israel Japan
Palestine France Brazil Mexico
Indonesia Spain
Lithuania
Poland
Egypt
Lebanon
1 1 4 8 3 3 1 1
11
(No Transcript)
12
Favorable View of U.S. 2011 14 positive
countries, 8 negative
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Japan France Britain Russia Lebanon Egypt Turkey
Kenya Lithuania Germany Indonesia China Jordan
Poland Spain Mexico India Palestine
Israel Ukraine Pakistan
Brazil
2 4 5 3 3 0 1 4
13
Major Image Negatives Economic and Military
Power

• My Searches for Matching Negative Images of the
  U.S. were largely unsuccessful.
• Apologies!
• Patterns suggest that the ratings of China and
  the U.S. are quite similar

14
Major Image Negatives Economic and Military
Power

• Negative 40 Econ 63 Military

15
(No Transcript)
16
Fear of Chinas Military Power tage of
respondents to PEW Global Attitudes polls, Spring
2011 in percentages

• Japan 87
• France 83
• U.S.A. 79
• Germany 79
• Russia 74
• Spain 74
• Britain 71
• Poland 68
• Turkey 66
• Israel 66

• Lebanon 57
• Ukraine 57
• Mexico 55
• Jordan 52
• Brazil 51
• India 50
• Egypt 48
• Indonesia 36
• Kenya 29
• Pakistan 5

17
Fear of Chinas Economic Power tage of
respondents to PEW Global Attitudes polls, Spring
2011 in percentages

• Turkey 64
• France 59
• U.S.A. 53
• Germany 50

• Mexico 43
• Poland 46
• Spain 40
• India 40
• Japan 35
• Lebanon 29
• Pakistan 5

18
Barriers to Image Management SuccessPsychologic
al Hurdles Culture

• Established schema structures, including shared
  collective memories and stereotypes.
• Cultural barriers to communication, e. g. taboos,
  symbolic meanings.
• Cultural patterns of message framing, e.g. norms
  of politeness, class distinctions, story-telling.
  
• Cultural differences in message meanings, e.g.
  value labels like family or religion.

19
Barriers to Image Management SuccessGroup
Loyalties

• Ingroup/outgroup barriers weaken outgroup images.
  Raise trust and credibility issues
• Differences in national identity, ethnic
  identity, language, religion, gender
• Clashing value priorities
• Different body language (e.g. to convey respect)

20
'Uncaring' Image of China U.S, Negative
responses to "Does China Consider Interests of
Countries Like Yours?, in tages (Source PEW
Global Attitudes polls in 24 countries, Spring
2008 blue figures show U.S. image in 2011)

• France 82 68
• Japan 79 49
• Spain 77 81
• Jordan 74 77
• Egypt 72 79
• Australia 72 --
• Britain 71 60

• Argentina 70 --
• S. Korea 68 --
• Poland 61 67
• Germany 59 44
• U.S.A. 56 24
• Turkey 55 83
• Brazil 46 49

21
Barriers to Image Management SuccessCognitive
Hurdles

• Existing schemas, embedded in belief systems.
• People accept reinforcements and reject
  refutations cognitive dissonance issue.
• Competing messages usually weaken message impact
  unless messages are mutually supportive.
  Competing message can come from ingrained
  beliefs, reports or experiences of events, news
  media stories, entertainment media stories, etc.

22
Barriers to Image Management SuccessHostile
Environments

• Powerful message competition from internal
  government public relations efforts.
• Powerful message competition from external
  government P.R. efforts.
• Distaste for actual past and present policies
  that receive extensive media coverage.
• Growing tides of messages overwhelm individuals
  and drown each other out.

23
Prognosis for Success of Public Diplomacy
Campaigns

• The Chicago Council on Global Affairs surveyed
  five countries in 2008 China, the United
  States, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.
  Respondents in each country answered 40 to 60
  questions about economics, culture, human
  capital, diplomacy and politics. The table shows
  how China rated in various performance realms
  based on a scale of 0 to 100.

24
Chinas Performance Ratings in 5 Realms of
Activities 1-100 Scale
Econo-mic Human- istic Cultur-al Diplo- matic Politi- cal
USA 52 55 56 40 34
Japan 57 58 57 44 41
S. Korea 57 64 54 51 48
Indonesia 73 74 62 69 71
Vietnam 70 80 77 67 --
25
Important Lessons from the Ratings

• Diversity of ratings by countries shows that
  image creation is interactive.
• Variances in ratings for various appraisal
  dimensions show that images are multi-faceted.
  Ratings of one facet do not necessarily affect
  the ratings of other facets.
• The mindset of observers in each country is
  crucial in shaping their images. Political
  psychology provides essential insights.

26
Lessons from Actual PD Campaigns

• Reaching target audiences does not guarantee
  accurate meaning transmission. It does not
  guarantee persuasion.
• PD campaigns fail if they are poorly coordinated
  with other policies that have image impacts.
  Campaigns need repeats.
• Message competition from news and entertainment
  media is difficult to beat.
• Changes are mostly domain-specific.

27
(No Transcript)