Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Moving the Needle, Filling the Streets
- 2 Strategic Communication and the Foundations of Free Expression
- 3 Narratives of Legitimacy
- 4 Strategies of the Diagnostic
- 5 Asymmetries and Strategic Communication
- 6 Strategies of System Architecture
- 7 Soft Power, Soft War
- 8 Religions and Strategic Communication
- 9 Regulating NGOs in the Market for Loyalties
- 10 Strategic Platforms
- 11 Strategic Communication and Satellite Channels
- 12 Strategies of Closure, Markers of Anxiety
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
4 - Strategies of the Diagnostic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Moving the Needle, Filling the Streets
- 2 Strategic Communication and the Foundations of Free Expression
- 3 Narratives of Legitimacy
- 4 Strategies of the Diagnostic
- 5 Asymmetries and Strategic Communication
- 6 Strategies of System Architecture
- 7 Soft Power, Soft War
- 8 Religions and Strategic Communication
- 9 Regulating NGOs in the Market for Loyalties
- 10 Strategic Platforms
- 11 Strategic Communication and Satellite Channels
- 12 Strategies of Closure, Markers of Anxiety
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
One characteristic – or, perhaps, illusion – of the new strategic communication is its homage to analytics. The capacity to think through the contours of a local context and the possible impact of various ways to deploy the media have been deepened in recent years. There has been a revolution in the ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of data points, often arising from collecting information on millions of social media interactions and applications of such technologies as mobile phones. In this chapter, however, I focus on modes of understanding based on more traditional qualitative techniques, interviews, focus groups and informal surveys, often ethnographic in temperament. All of these together can be captured in a concept that might be called a diagnostic of information ecologies. This approach seeks to overcome predispositions, assumptions, even ideologies – all of which may limit analysis and curb appreciation of empirical observations. A diagnostic seeks to trace how particular ideas leak into a society and, over time or suddenly, change public opinion and local and regional loyalties. As Nicole Stremlau, who has helped shape the concept, puts it in her definition:
A diagnostic refers to a particular set of questions that seek to shift discussion from normative precepts about communication and governance to local understanding and practices of communication and governance. At its core, a diagnostic offers a framework for analysing voice and expression in a society, and how it is actually regulated, negotiated and influenced, rather than suggesting how it should be regulated according to normative ideals. In essence, this is a bottom-up, or grassroots, analysis that focuses on indigenous structures, and the interactions or fusions with more ‘official’ government structures. The basic focus is how people on the ground actually experience and participate in this complicated relationship between communication and governance.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014