Media Tactics in the Long Twentieth Century
New York: Routledge (2025), xiii, 272 pp.
Contains index
Series: Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics
ISBN 978-1-032-61828-9 (pbk); 978-1-032-61832-6 (ebook)
"Integrating media studies with history, Media Tactics in the Long Twentieth Century explores the dynamic relationship between tactics and strategies in recent history. Drawing on examples from a range of different countries and world regions, and looking at the infrastructures, entanglements, and institutions involved, the volume makes a strong case for media tactics as a new field of scholarly inquiry and for the importance of a historically informed approach. In contrast to strategic communication approaches, this media historical intervention contributes to new knowledge about the practical implementation of strategies. First foregrounding tactics as an object of study, the volume then counters the presentism of contemporary studies by adding a necessary historical perspective. Moreover, the book theoretically disentangles the concept of strategy - from an abstract contemporary buzzword to concrete, hands-on actions - which in turn reveals the complexity of using media strategies and media tactics in reality." (Publisher description)
1 Introduction: Towards a History of Media Tactics / Marie Cronqvist, Fredrik Mohammadi Norén & Emil Stjernholm, 1
PART 1: ENTANGLEMENTS
2 Emigrant Colonialism and Transnational Communities: Scandinavian Cultural Diplomacy through Nationals Abroad / Ruth Hemstad, 19
3 Scientific Exchange As a Media Tactic: Creating “Ever Smaller Worlds” through the Visit of Sir Lawrence Bragg to Sweden in 1943 / Edward Corse, 37
4 Where Can You See Striking Workers? Communist Media Networks, Documentary Film, and Regimes of (In)Visibility in the Early Cold War / Lucie Česálková, 54
5 Broadcasting Agency in the Portuguese Empire: Disrupting the Dominant Discourse through Media Tactics / Nelson Ribeiro, 70
PART 2: INSTITUTIONS
6 Supporting the Democratisation of Education and Anti-Colonialism in the Global South: The World Student News and Soviet Bloc Media Tactics in the 1970s / Pia Koivunen, 89
7 The Paradox of Parliamentary Propaganda: Parliamentarians’ Individual Media Tactics versus Parliament’s Institutional Media Strategy / Betto van Waarden, 104
8 Local Media Tactics: Municipal Information, Audio-Visual Media and the Roots of City Branding in Gothenburg (1973) / Erik Florin Persson, 122
9 Revisiting ‘The CIA and the Media’: FOIA, Paperwork, and the Dialectic of (Media) Tactics and Strategies / Dominique Trudel, 136
10 The Information-by-Proxy Strategy: Cultural Policy as a Media Tactic in Swedish Governmental Information / Lars Diurlin & Fredrik Mohammadi Norén, 151
PART 3: INFRASTRUCTURES
11 Measuring Media Tactics to Improve Propaganda Strategies: The British Wartime Social Survey and ‘Publicity in Reverse’, 1941–1945 / Brendan Maartens, 171
12 Window Tactics: Entangled Visual Propaganda in Neutral Sweden, 1939–1945 / Emil Stjernholm, 188
13 Communications Infrastructures and Cold War Politics: The Middle Eastern Theatre of the US/American Empire and Anti-American Coalitions / Burçe Çelik, 204
14 Working Their Cover: The CIA’s Forum World Features, Covert Propaganda Strategy, and News Tactics, 1966–1975 / John Jenks, 223
15 Propaganda -> Counterinsurgency -> Digital: A Brief History of Prediction and the Present / Lee Grieveson, 242
Afterword: Towards a Tactical Turn? / Marie Cronqvist, Fredrik Mohammadi Norén & Emil Stjernholm, 259
PART 1: ENTANGLEMENTS
2 Emigrant Colonialism and Transnational Communities: Scandinavian Cultural Diplomacy through Nationals Abroad / Ruth Hemstad, 19
3 Scientific Exchange As a Media Tactic: Creating “Ever Smaller Worlds” through the Visit of Sir Lawrence Bragg to Sweden in 1943 / Edward Corse, 37
4 Where Can You See Striking Workers? Communist Media Networks, Documentary Film, and Regimes of (In)Visibility in the Early Cold War / Lucie Česálková, 54
5 Broadcasting Agency in the Portuguese Empire: Disrupting the Dominant Discourse through Media Tactics / Nelson Ribeiro, 70
PART 2: INSTITUTIONS
6 Supporting the Democratisation of Education and Anti-Colonialism in the Global South: The World Student News and Soviet Bloc Media Tactics in the 1970s / Pia Koivunen, 89
7 The Paradox of Parliamentary Propaganda: Parliamentarians’ Individual Media Tactics versus Parliament’s Institutional Media Strategy / Betto van Waarden, 104
8 Local Media Tactics: Municipal Information, Audio-Visual Media and the Roots of City Branding in Gothenburg (1973) / Erik Florin Persson, 122
9 Revisiting ‘The CIA and the Media’: FOIA, Paperwork, and the Dialectic of (Media) Tactics and Strategies / Dominique Trudel, 136
10 The Information-by-Proxy Strategy: Cultural Policy as a Media Tactic in Swedish Governmental Information / Lars Diurlin & Fredrik Mohammadi Norén, 151
PART 3: INFRASTRUCTURES
11 Measuring Media Tactics to Improve Propaganda Strategies: The British Wartime Social Survey and ‘Publicity in Reverse’, 1941–1945 / Brendan Maartens, 171
12 Window Tactics: Entangled Visual Propaganda in Neutral Sweden, 1939–1945 / Emil Stjernholm, 188
13 Communications Infrastructures and Cold War Politics: The Middle Eastern Theatre of the US/American Empire and Anti-American Coalitions / Burçe Çelik, 204
14 Working Their Cover: The CIA’s Forum World Features, Covert Propaganda Strategy, and News Tactics, 1966–1975 / John Jenks, 223
15 Propaganda -> Counterinsurgency -> Digital: A Brief History of Prediction and the Present / Lee Grieveson, 242
Afterword: Towards a Tactical Turn? / Marie Cronqvist, Fredrik Mohammadi Norén & Emil Stjernholm, 259
