PR, Propoganda and Persuasion

For Kevin Moloney in his book Rethinking Public Relations he states that he cannot see PR and propaganda as two separate entities. With this in mind I have to agree that although some people can make a distinction between the two, PR to me is the modern version of propaganda. This is since they have similar elements namely:
They are done systematically
They aim to influence and to gain support
They use media relations
They are meant to be persuasive
However an argument against my theory is by Shirley Harrison which states that “in effect”, propaganda tries to spread the faith and persuade people to believe, perhaps through half truths and distortions. While PR is more done honestly since practitioners generally are guided by ethics. What do you think?


Commentary on DVD War Spin

In commenting on the DVD I think the question to pose is did the US military engage in good media management? The evidence presented shows that at the beginning of the War in Iraqi, the military maintained control to some extent by creating a central command that handled all information. Additionally another strategy used is that key people were chosen to deliver specific messages.
Another way they tried to maintain this control was to shoot their own footage which was then disseminated to journalists. They also made sure to broadcast information between time zones. Images and pictures were very important to transmitting the information worldwide and so the military made sure these were shown in breakfast time.
Notwithstanding this view the journalist thought that the central command unit restricted them and the truth was elusive at times. Since questions asked were often unanswered and it seemed they were told only what the military wanted them to know. Even when allegations were made they were always denied or a ‘spin’ was placed on the subject.