d in number and variety; and (ii) the communication about these public goods by
governments, non-profits, charities, issue-oriented advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace),
and corporations now frequently borrows from private-sector marketing techniques, making
it indistinguishable from advertising and PR from private sources.
The number and variety of public goods has increased since World War II, a change
commensurate with the growth of the state. Consistent with this development, there has
been a tremendous increase in the amount of communication addressing public goods.
Such goods are not exclusively provided by government: the non-profit sector provides
goods and services of many kinds to a large number of interests—single mothers and
cancer patients, public schools and community festivals. Corporations too, through
corporate image campaigns and philanthropy, also seek to provide public goods or to
achieve public relations benefits that transcend the corporation’s day-to-day business
concerns.
However, it is point (ii) that especially interests Rutherford the media historian. That is, the
communication of public goods takes up more and more room in media culture in general,
and assumes the shape of what Rutherford calls “civic advocacy propaganda.” The context
for this propaganda—the discourse deriving from non-profits, governments, political parties,
issue-oriented groups, and corporations involved in image campaigns or philanthr英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】opy—is
what Rutherford terms a “disturbed hegemony.” That is, the conventional patterns of
thought, feeling, and behaviour defined as normal in Western society have come under
increasing pressure from forces as diverse as technological change, globalization, and
terrorism. In this bewildering moment, one Rutherford identifies with postmodernity, the state
has become an ambitious actor, and the communication of public goods more urgent.
Rutherford’s comment on this new space is well-worth quoting for the way it resonates with
other themes in the AC640 course, such as the public sphere, postmodernity, and
hegemony (pp. 6-7):
“The new public goods came to prominence in a particular kind of intellectual space. That
hoary old slogan of ‘the marketplace of ideas’ has been rejuvenated in postmodern times,
except that it might better be called a marketplace of signs. The tumult of the sixties left
behind a disturbed hegemony and a fragmented public sphere….”
b. propaganda and civic advocacy
Propaganda is often misunderstood. It is neither merely the kind of communication often
associated with wartime conditions and totalitarian regimes—menacing and caricatured
images of the enemy, or idealized images of workers marching into a socialist paradise—
nor is it just a cynical label for PR, advertising, and promotional discourse in contemporary
culture. For Rutherford, propaganda is a specific type of communication typical of peacetime
and de
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