Earlier this week, when I spoke to class in communication at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, Minn., to share some of what I've learned about public relations and "managing messaging," I recommended to the students a book by Dr. Frank Luntz.
Although I don't agree with many of his political views and I regard manipulation of public opinion through specially-minted expressions as, generally, unethical, Dr. Luntz's book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, is interesting, informative and useful to students and practitioners of public relations and advertising.
The book, published by Hyperion, New York, in 2007, is available from your favorite bookseller or by clicking on the Amazon advertisement on the right side of the screen on this blog.
In in his chapter entitled "Political Case Studies," Luntz quotes the late Edward R. Murrow, one of the founding fathers of CBS News, as saying, "Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions." How true.
But the political world today is filled with clever slogans, the kind described and explained in Words That Work: "
"The death tax"
"Save, strengthen, and simplify Medicare" (what they really mean, in my opinion, is cutting the benefits to seniors, physicians and hospitals)
"Personalizing," not "privatizing," Social Security. (Bunk!)
"Democrat Party." (This uses the noun, "Democrat" incorrectly. "Democratic Party" is correct English, but the "rat" part is diminished when one uses Democratic, rather than Democrat. This sleazy use of language.)
"ObamaCare" in place of the correct and more accurate term: "The Affordable Health Care Act of 2010."
And the list goes on. I'm sure you can think of many more expressions you've heard that should be subject to questioning by intelligent and discerning minds. The benefits of reading Dr. Luntz's book not only accrue to communication and advertising professionals; this treatise helps create awareness among all members of our representative democracy of the use, misuse, and skewing of the language to influence public opinion and elections. I highly recommend it for a permanent place in your personal library.
1 comment:
"To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening… and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever." Frank Luntz
Does your continued use of (I call the whole bunch "TeaPublicans") meet this standard?
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