Image Management in Public Diplomacy A Political Psychology

Image Management in Public Diplomacy A Political Psychology Perspective Doris A. Graber, U. of Illinois/Chicago Professor: Political Science/Communication

What is Public Diplomacy? • My definition: “Government-sponsored activities designed to persuade foreign publics to hold favorable images about the sponsoring nation’s nature and policies and to soften or erase unfavorable images. ”

What is Image Management? THREE MAJOR STEPS 1. 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.

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.

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.

Multiple Assessment Axes

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, Nonintervention pledges; skip HR reports • ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

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).

Favorable View of China, 2011 14 positive countries, 8 negative 80% 70% Pakistan Kenya 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Russia USA Jordan Germany India Turkey Ukraine Britain Israel Japan Palestine France Brazil Mexico Indonesia Spain 3 3 1 1 Lithuania Poland Egypt Lebanon 1 1 4 8

Favorable View of U. S. 2011 14 positive countries, 8 negative 30 % 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% Japan France Britain Russia Lebanon Egypt Turkey China Jordan India Palestine Kenya Lithuania Germany Indonesia Poland Spain Israel Ukraine Mexico 20% 10% Pakistan Brazil 2 4 5 3 3 0 1 4

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

Major Image Negatives: Economic and Military Power • Negative = 40% Econ; 63% Military

Fear of China’s 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%

Fear of China’s 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

Barriers to Image Management Success Psychological 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. ’

Barriers to Image Management Success Group 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)

'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) 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

Barriers to Image Management Success Cognitive 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.

Barriers to Image Management Success Hostile 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.

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.

China’s Performance Ratings in 5 Realms of Activities – 1 -100 Scale Econo- Human- Cultur- Diplomic al istic matic Political 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 --

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 multifaceted. 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.

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.