Terrorism and public relations
Abstract This paper asks what we can learn from the parallels between terrorism and PR, either for the understanding of terrorism or—of more direct concern here—for the understanding of PR and its place in contemporary society. The already poor public image of PR may suffer from insufficient clarity about these parallels. It is suggested that while analogising between the two is of value, the differences between terrorism and PR also need to be stressed. Public communications need to be differentiated in two ways, firstly in terms of the distinction between spectacular and participatory types of public sphere, and secondly in terms of the distinction between values-based and power-based modes of address. Combining these concepts generates a simple 2×2 matrix for c1assifying public communications. This can help both to identify terrorism and PR as different forms of public communication, and also to identify the practical PR challenges facing governments and civic society in the struggle against terrorism.
The `War Against Terrorism'
This article examines the relationship between warfare and the media, arguing that both terrorists and conventional warfare planners in the Pentagon factor communications and public relations into their planning. In this regard, the article sketches out how the Pentagon developed a new genre of `public relations-ized' warfare - warfare planned, not only as a military exercise, but as a televisual media event. Similarly, it will be argued that those attacking the World Trade Center deployed an understanding of terrorism as a `media event', and a grasp of how USA politics (and warfare) has been `media-ized'. This understanding was used by al-Qaeda to provoke the USA into the `War against Terrorism'. This war created a number of public relations problems for the Pentagon. The Pentagon's response to these problems is examined.
Food security among asylum seekers in Melbourne
Objectives: This research explores food insecurity among asylum seekers who are members of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) in Melbourne, Australia.