GWU Issues Management

A blog established for the George Washington University School of Political Management's Issues Management course.

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Location: Washington, D.C., United States

A middle aged white guy, who likes to think, talk and, too infrequently, write about politics, religion and gadgets.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Issues Management at the Pentagon

Good story on the front page of the New York Times outlining the Pentagon's efforts at issues management around the growing critique from retired generals about Donald Rumsfeld. It's a classic technique of engaging third party validators and giving them the information they need to make the case.

Review it and analyze whether this techique is likely to work. Think about what they are trying to do. Is it legitimate? What goal will it achieve? What risk does it entail? How did it get on the front page?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

China

I came across some interesting media coverage on China that has relevance for the final project. Todays New York Times front page has a story about how civic action is increasing in China, a development that has significant implications for issues management both in China and in the home countries of companies seeking to do business there.

More significantly, there was an extremely powerful Frontline on PBS tonight on China. An hour and a half program that began with Tianneman Square and concluded with the committee hearing on Internet companies in China. Very relevant to our project. Apparently, the show can be viewed online. Worth trying, although sitting and staring at a computer screen for 1 1/2 hours may be tough. Failing that, check out the web site.

Comments welcome, but not required.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Beyond Blogs


Today's Washington Post has an interesting article about a report on the fasting growing Internet sites over the past year. The report found that traffic generally has flattened on the Internet, but that certain sites are growing dramatically. The growth sites are the so-called "social networking" sites, like MySpace and Blogger (the site that hosts this particular blog).

Any thoughts about what this all has to do with issues management? I hope it calls to mind a point I think I made earlier in the course that the Internet's most popular and compelling feature these days is its ability to make offline connections. Contrary to a previous fear that the Internet would create a generation of houseplants, people alone in their basements banging away on keyboards anonymously, some with evil intent, the Internet is bringing people together.

We have a new public square that knows no geographic boundaries. What does that mean for those seeking to influence public policy using communications techniques?