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... gn was to uncover the humanitarian crisis happening by ethnic Albanian-Kosovar refugees fleeing from Serb/Yugoslav military / paramilitary forces. Then again, the slogan may stand as one typical rhetorical example and simplification to establish moral and ethical support. Such a simplification may be considered as a way of influencing the public opinion, to prove that a military solution was the only necessary mean to end the flow of refugees fleeing.
Another simplification used by NATO, as a rhetorical approach, was the demonizing of the military enemy. This was in addition done, to gain further support, and to further legitimate the forthcoming intervention, being important to show that the Serb forces and especially Slobodan Milosevic was somehow "personifying an evil enemy." Cobb, On-line, 2001. When drawing such a picture of the two war-opponents, the justification to act became even more visible. 3. 2 During the intervention When the intervention in fact started by NATO's bombing in Kosovo, another and totally different situation occurred that needed rapidly communications efforts towards the public opinion. The main problem was to convince about the fact that the campaign had to continue, and so on gaining further support in this process. To deal with this, NATO used different ways of channels to address their concerns about new and raising issues on a timely and daily basis. One way of doing this was by the means of daily morning briefings.
These daily briefings lasted every day during the campaign. The purpose of theses live broadcasted briefings was to report to the mass media and the public opinion about the air strikes during the previous nights. The briefings were outlined on whether intended military targets were being hit and the quantities of such, whether any military and civilian personnel had been killed and the general progress of the campaign. Reporters from different mass media joined the morning briefings, in order to ask questions of public or special interest.
When using such repetitive sessions as these briefings, this may have conceivably created a corporate image of NATO as being in a constant dialog with its environment. When having these briefings one might also say that this was a way of mastering the overall situation, to prevent unnecessary communication failure and loss of credibility in such a fragile position, hence so being on top of the situation. According to Heath & Tooth, the repetitive process of the briefings correlates to public relations professionals whereas "They design, place and repeat messages on behalf of sponsors [] that shape views of government, capitalism, health and leisure. " Heath & Tooth, 1992, p. 18. Being a NATO operation whereas Great Britain, USA and other countries were participating, a huge difference became to be visible when addressing the reasons for intervention in Kosovo. One reason was that the intervention took place on European ground, and hence far from American territory. When addressing to these different publics, respectively the European and the American, it became clear that different approaches were directed towards these publics.
In addition to the information received from NATO about the intervention, the American public hence got additional information from Pentagon. A simplified way of putting it was to say that Pentagon was addressing to the American public, and that NATO was addressing to the European public. Tendencies to support this statement, is somehow visible when comparing the press conferences and briefings held by both Pentagon and NATO. When addressing to the American public, the Pentagon spokesman's behavior and attitude was different than his fellow European colleges. Knowlton, On-line, 1999. Being far away from Europe, Pentagons need for justifying the reasons for intervening in Kosovo to the American public, were less necessary and not so important as NATO's reasons.
During the intervention, the personal identification of NATO's corporate image was then to become Jamie Shea, the official NATO spokesman. A reason for this was the daily morning briefings, where his appearance become synonymous with how NATO was communicating about the intervention. In contrast to the Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon, Jamie Shea was "pleasantly civil, bright-faced, affable and collegial" Knowlton, On-line, 1999. Perhaps an obvious reason for this might be that the intervention took place not geographically far from many of the participating European countries, whereas the public opinion naturally was more engaged and concerned than the American public, in regards to what the outcomes of the conflict might be. When being so affable and collegial one might say that Jamie Shea persuaded his target publics about NATO's role, as he was being "honest, frank and open" and that he spoke "clearly and with compassion. " Grunig, 1992, p. 317. Even when doing so, one might say that the rhetorical approach more over became visible in regards of emphasizing the overall strategy in terms of these communication techniques, to prove that it was done to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and "because that was the easiest way to get public support. " Knowlton, On-line, 1999.
Another rhetorical approach to become visible was the referring of general positive incidents that strengthened NATO's corporate image. The importance of this was explained and highlighted in detail, such as when military targets were being hit. "emphasizing the crucial significance of the hit and predicting the imminent collapse of the Yugoslav war machine. " Henderson, On-line, 1999. 3. 3 The bombing of the Chinese embassy On the 7 th of May 1999, several missiles hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, whereas a number of people were killed. The key problem for NATO in regards to this was how to persuade the public opinion about how it was possible that the embassy got hit instead of a military target. The use of rhetoric in this particular situation became even more apparent because the nature of this situation was extremely sensitive. Jamie Shea, the NATO spokesman, held the first official statement on this issue.
In his briefing the following morning, he started by announcing the attack on the embassy as "not intentionally" and further more as "a terrible accident", whereas he apologized for the loss of lives, and expressing Nato's sympathy and condolences to the affected families. NATO, On-line, 1999. The rhetorical angle in his briefing was the underlining of Nato's progression of the air strikes and the overall ongoing campaign. The majority of time during this briefing was spent on communicating about this issue, whereas the time spent on describing the attacks on the Chinese embassy became to be an insignificant incident. When drawing the attention away from the attacks, instead of focusing on it, this was a technique to prove to the public opinion that the really important issue was to continue the campaign, and that the attacks on the Chinese embassy was not an important issue. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Grunig, J.
E. (1992) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. New Jersey, USA Heath R. L. and Toth, E. L. (1992) Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. New Jersey, USA 6.
REFERENCES Cobb, C. (undated) The Role of Public Relations In The Kosovo Conflict [On-line] web Public Relations Society of America Cowan, D. E. (1999) Propaganda Machine fuelled public acquiescence in war against Serbs [On-line] web Department of Sociology/Center for Religious Studies, University of Missouri, Kansas City Henderson, A. (1999) NATO puts a good spin on a bad situation [On-line] web disc 4 / 00000204. htm The Star Knowlton, B. (1999) From NATO, Much Rhetoric and Few Details About the Air Strikes [On-line] web International Herald Tribune NATO (1999) Morning Briefing by NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea - 8 May 1999 [On-line] web North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO (1999) NATO's role in relation to the conflict in Kosovo [On-line] web North Atlantic Treaty Organization Macquarie Dictionary (2001) "Search function, finding the definitions on the term rhetoric" [On-line] web Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. PBI Media, LLC (1999) Crisis Management: Crisis in Kosovo Poses Challenges, Provides PR Lessons Too [ 1999 ] web
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Research essay sample on Rhetoric In The Context Of Public Relations
