Talking with the American Public: Blogs, Facebook, and YouTube, and Public Affairs

Abstract

Public affairs (PA) is about more than talking to and working with the media. However, the Department of Defense's (DOD) policy on interactive internet activities limits public affairs officers (PAOs) to engagement with traditional media organizations and "individuals and websites ... [that] have become recognized news sources for large audiences. Blogs, Facebook, and YouTube are largely off limits to PAOs. Consequently, they cannot communicate directly with hundreds of thousands of Americans on the internet. This policy unnecessarily detracts from PA's effectiveness in communicating with the Marine Corps' most engaged and most essential audience. To communicate with the public, the current limitations must be removed to allow the use of interactive internet tools.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 20, 2009
Accession Number
ADA517810

Entities

People

  • Shawn M. Mercer

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Commerce
  • Communities
  • Community Relations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Information Processing
  • Internet
  • Law
  • Local Governments
  • Marine Corps
  • Media
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Social Media
  • Social Networking Services
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.