Strategy in Information and Influence Campaigns: How Policy Advocates, Social Movements, Insurgent Groups, Corporations, Governments and Others Get What They Want

338 Pages·2010·1.71 MB·English

by  Jarol B. Manheim

Strategy in Information and
Infl uence Campaigns
Information and infl uence campaigns are a particularly cogent example of
the broader phenomenon we now term strategic political communication.
If we think of political communication as encompassing the creation,
distribution, control, use, processing and effects of information as a polit-
ical resource, then we can characterize strategic political communication as
the purposeful management of such information to achieve a stated objec-
tive based on the science of individual, organizational, and governmental
decision-making. IICs are more or less centralized, highly structured,
systematic, and carefully managed efforts to do just that.
Strategy in Information and Infl uence Campaigns sets out in comprehensive
detail the underlying assumptions, unifying strategy, and panoply of
tactics of the IIC, both from the perspective of the protagonist who initi-
ates the action and from that of the target who must defend against it. Jarol
Manheim’s forward-looking, broad, and systematic analysis is a must-have
resource for scholars and students of political and strategic communica-
tion, as well as practitioners in both the public and private sectors.
Jarol B. Manheim is Professor of Media and Public Affairs, and of Political
Science, at The George Washington University, where he was the founding
director of the School of Media and Public Affairs.

Strategy
in Information and
Infl uence Campaigns
How Policy Advocates, Social
Movements, Insurgent Groups,
Corporations, Governments and
Others Get What They Want
Jarol B. Manheim
First published 2011
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
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© 2011 Taylor & Francis
The right of Jarol B. Manheim to be identifi ed as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Manheim, Jarol B., 1946–
Strategy in information and infl uence campaigns : how policy
advocates, social movements, insurgent groups, corporations,
governments, and others get what they want / Jarol B. Manheim.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Communication in politics–United States. 2. Public relations
and politics–United States. 3. Lobbying–United States. I. Title.
JA85.2.U6M373 2011
322.40973–dc22
2010029799
ISBN 0-203-83328-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978–0–415–88728–1 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–88729–8 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–83328–5 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes vi
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Points of Origin 3
2 Information and Infl uence Campaigns 18
3 Strategy and Tactics in Campaign Communication I:
Winning the Argument 38
4 Strategy and Tactics in Campaign Communication II:
Shaping the Decision 65
5 Networks and Netwaves: Organizing for Infl uence 85
6 Riding the Waves: Strategy and Tactics in Network
Activation 123
7 Feeling the Pressure: The Dimensionality of Targets 141
8 Guarding the Castle: Deterring, Defl ecting, Minimizing
or Defeating Information and Infl uence Campaigns 153
9 Information, and Infl uence 170
Appendix A. Need to Know: Strategic Intelligence and
Research in the Campaign 185
Appendix B. The IIC Knowledge Base: A Selective
Bibliographic Inventory 194
Notes 274
Appendix C. A Bibliography for IIC Strategy
(Including Sources Cited) 275
Author Index 305
Subject Index 313
Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Figures
2.1 From Information to Infl uence: The IIC Continuum 20
2.2 Directionality in Campaigns 35
3.1 Framework for Identifying Components of Persuasive
Communications 42
3.2 Segmentation and Market Structures 52
3.3 Temporal Sequencing of Advertising Recall 62
4.1(a) Dimensions of Information Space 80
4.1(b) Dimensions of Cognitive Space 81
4.2 Content–Cognitive Interactions 82
5.1 Dimensions of Target Decision-Making Space 87
5.2 Power Structure Analysis 89
5.3(a) Power Structure Analysis: Environmental Regulatory
Agency 90
5.3(b) Power Structure Analysis: Mining Company 91
5.3(c) Power Structure Analysis: Environmental Advocacy
Group 92
5.4 Classes of Stakeholders, by Key Attributes 94
5.5 Role Specialization within Campaigns 97
5.6 Channeling of Campaign Through Extra-Systemic
Intermediaries 108
5.7 Map of Hypothetical Campaign Network 115
5.8 Basic Forms of Network Architecture 116
5.9 Sequencing of Campaign Intermediaries 117
5.10 Network Structure Arising from Sequencing of
Intermediaries 118
6.1 Dynamics and Flow of Infl uence in Information and
Infl uence Campaigns 135
6.2 Attributes, Strategic Requirements, and Campaign
Tactics 136
6.3 The Interaction of Communications, Actions, and
Relationships in the Campaign 138
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes vii
7.1 Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, and Outcomes 144
8.1 Network Structure Arising from Sequencing of
Intermediaries 158
8.2 Reverse Engineering of the Campaign Network Structure 159
9.1 The IIC Continuum Revisited 174
9.2 The Ethics Decision Tree 176
B.1 Schematic Representation of the Process of Protest by
Relatively Powerless Groups 197
B.2 Social Amplifi cation and Attenuation of Risk 231
B.3 Daisy Wheel Model of Brand Equities 269
Tables
5.1 Strategies and Tactics Directed at Selected Stakeholders 100
6.1 Classifi cation of Protagonists by Attributes 124
6.2 Classifi cation of Campaign Styles Associated with Protagonist
Attributes 127
6.3 Likely Use of Third Parties Associated with Protagonist
Attributes 133
A.1 Utility of Research in Information and Infl uence Campaigns,
by Method and Research Question 186
Boxes
2.1 Redefi ning the Target to Advance the Campaign 24
2.2 Who’s on First? No, Who’s Really on First? 27
2.3 The Strategist as Storyteller 29
2.4 Reducing Access to Information to Improve News Coverage 30
2.5 Moving Up the Food Chain 34
2.6 A Battle of Co-Equals 36
3.1 Appealing to Pro-Social Values in PICs 41
3.2 Effective Core Messages Connect the Protagonist with the
Audience 44
3.3 Defi ning the Moral High Ground 46
3.4 Uses of Digital Media in Campaigns 49
3.5 Strategic Audience Segmentation 54
3.6 The Name of the Game is the Name 59
3.7 Managing Information Flows to Control Agendas and
Frames 60
4.1 Listen Up! 70
4.2 Dissonance Reduction Or Else! 73
4.3 Elements of Information Operations 77
5.1 Google This! 90
5.2 Leverage for the Environment 92
5.3 Personalization, Pejoratives, Power 95
viii List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
5.4 Intermediaries Act in Their Own Self-Interest 98
5.5 The Perils of Leveraging Celebrity 102
5.6 The Compleat Sit-In 103
5.7 Throwing a Boomerang 109
5.8 Network-Building in Mexico 112
6.1 Different Strokes for Different Folks 125
6.2 Packaging the Protagonist to Fund and Legitimize the
Campaign 130
6.3 Who Really Hates Wal-Mart? 131
7.1 Exploiting the Perceived Illegitimacy of the Target 145
7.2 Buried Treasure 147
8.1 Reverse Engineering the Corporation 156
8.2 Co-opting the Protagonist 161
8.3 Outsourcing the Counterattack 163
8.4 Anticipating and Resisting Demands for Information 165
9.1 The Ultimate “Washington Post Test” 179
Preface
Three guys walk into a bar—Sun Tzu, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Saul
Alinsky. It sounds like the starting point of a bad joke, but, aside from the
setting, it is actually the starting point for understanding a ubiquitous
element of contemporary politics and political communication. Take the
vision and discipline of the best-known military thinker of all time.
Supplement that with the hard-nosed pragmatism, dedication and insight
of the legendary sixteenth-century political advisor to the Medici. Then
add the imagination, street smarts, and sheer audacity of the dean of
twentieth-century community organizers. Throw in the last hundred years
or so of knowledge gain in the social sciences, sprinkle with the latest
information and communication technologies and techniques, and the mix
is complete. Welcome to the exciting world of twenty-fi rst-century
information and infl uence campaigns.
Information and infl uence campaigns (IICs) are a particularly cogent
example of the broader phenomenon we now term strategic political
communication. If we think of political communication as encompassing
the creation, distribution, control, use, processing and effects of informa-
tion as a political resource, whether by governments, organizations, groups,
or individuals, we can characterize strategic political communication as the
purposeful management of such information to achieve a stated objective
based on a sophisticated knowledge of underlying attributes and tenden-
cies of people and institutions—which is to say, based on the science of
individual, organizational, and governmental decision-making—and of
the uses and effects of communication as a means of infl uencing them. IICs
are more or less centralized, highly structured, systematic, and carefully
managed efforts to do just that.
In several earlier books (Manheim 1991, 1994a, 2001, 2004), I have
provided extended examples of these multifaceted, large-scale, and system-
atic efforts at infl uence, and of the motivations and strategies that drive
them. While I will provide a number of illustrative examples in the present
volume, the objective here is to extract from the full range of these
campaigns in rather more abstract terms the underlying strategy that is
common to them all—to examine the decisions that confront the campaign