UN communications at 75: Incremental change or innovative transformation?
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Author | Kisuk Cho,Bora Yoon |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020933646 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
International Journal
UN communications
2020, Vol. 75(2) 179–198
! The Author(s) 2020
at 75: Incremental
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702020933646
change or innovative
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transformation?
Bora Yoon
Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea
Kisuk Cho
Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea
Abstract
In the age of globalization, the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) is expected
to play an active role in communicating with citizens the world over. This study
explores the DPI’s evolution over the last 75 years, tackling the nature of organizational
change in what is too often dismissed as a hidebound and conservative institution. The
authors use textual analysis of UN documents combined with Grunig and Hunt’s four
public relations (PR) models to track the DPI’s transformation from an organization
that favoured the one-way dissemination of objective information to an institution
ready to embrace two-way symmetric public relations. Though useful, these models
were unable to explain the driving forces behind the DPI’s transition from one model to
another or detailed changes within models at a micro level. To remedy this, the authors
incorporate Harry Nystr€
om’s basic model of organizational innovation illuminating
incremental changes within the DPI between 1946 and 1989, as well as the transfor-
mative changes that were driven by the end of the Cold War, new communications
technologies, and Kofi Annan’s leadership in the 1990s and 2000s.
Corresponding author:
Kisuk Cho, Ewha Womans University, Graduate School of International Studies, 1102 International Education
Building, 52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemu-gu, Seoul, 03760, the Republic of Korea.
Email: choks@ewha.ac.kr
180
International Journal 75(2)
Keywords
United Nations (UN), Department of Public Information (DPI), communications,
historical evolution, four public relations models, organizational innovation
Over the course of the UN’s 75-year history, its Department of Public Information
(DPI) has played an important role leading and managing the communication
policies and activities of numerous UN agencies and regional offices.1 During
this time, the rapid development of communications technology since the 1990s
has empowered individual citizens to influence both the public and private sectors
as never before, making civic engagement an increasingly important factor in the
successful management of large organizations. As UN Under-Secretary-General
Brian Urquhart insisted in 2004, this is certainly true of the UN system, which
needs strong public support to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.2 For this
reason, the UN has strived to embrace diverse interests and opinions of civil soci-
ety worldwide. An example is the hard work undertaken before the organization
launched its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The UN tried hard
to reflect NGOs’ wide range of demands related to environment, poverty, health,
gender equality, and education to set 17 SDGs and their 169 detailed targets.
Before launching the SDGs, the UN General Assembly operated the Open
Working Group over 2 years, consulting with civil society and hearing the
voices of the most vulnerable. In doing this, the UN reinforced the DPI’s capacity
to mediate between the very different ideas and values held by the UN’s diverse
stakeholders and partners, including member states, enterprises, NGOs, founda-
tions, the media, and global citizens.
While there is considerable research regarding the UN’s peace and security, eco-
nomic development, human rights, and environmental work, there is relatively little
on its communications and public relations activities. Indeed, as Mark D. Alleyne
argued, the UN had avoided funding research on the impact and effectiveness of
DPI policies and activities, fearing criticism that it might become too influential in
international politics, undermining the power of member states.3 Consequently, the
DPI had operated without being informed by systematic research, resulting in
incompetent efforts to win over the hearts and minds of global citizens.4
1.
The UN DPI changed its name to the Department of Global Communications as part of its reforms
in 2019.
2.
Brian Urquhart, “Can the United Nations adapt to the 21st century?” International Journal 60,
no. 1 (winter 2004/2005): 227–236.
3.
Mark D. Alleyne, Global Lies? Propaganda, the UN, and World Order (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003).
Yoon and Cho
181
Like the UN itself, the DPI is a conservative organization, drawing criticism for
its bureaucratic and irresponsive nature. This description is in keeping with his-
torical institutionalism and path dependency theory, where “policy-making sys-
tems tend to be conservative and find ways of defending existing patterns of policy,
as well as the organizations that make and deliver those policies.”5 Yet, the DPI
has certainly changed over its 75-year history, usually evolving very slowly but
sometimes changing almost overnight. This paper explores the various processes of
change within the DPI, using two deductive theoretical frameworks: James E.
Grunig and Todd Hunt’s four public relations (PR) models and Harry
Nystr€
om’s model of organizational innovation.6 Grunig and Hunt’s four PR
models aptly describe the DPI’s historical evolution since the Second World
War, providing a compelling explanation for changes to the DPI’s approach to
its public relations activities at a macro level. However, these models are too rough
and imprecise to account for changes in DPI policies and activities within each
model at the micro level. Our paper, therefore, also uses Nystr€
om’s model to track
incremental change as well as innovative transformation in the DPI.
Finally,
together
with
these
two
theoretical
frameworks,
this
study
employs document analysis to review UN official documents on DPI policies
and activities from 1946 to the mid-2010s. This methodology represents a valid
way to understand DPI history, given the time and effort invested in creating
authoritative UN documents, which are usually developed through consensus-
building among stakeholders. UN documents, including General Assembly reso-
lutions, reflect the organization’s norms and consensus during the periods
examined.
This paper consists of five sections, including the introduction. The second
section reviews the existing literature on the assessment of UN communications,
followed by the third section explaining in detail the two aforementioned theoret-
ical frameworks. The fourth section lays out specific research questions, data, and
methods and presents the results of the document analysis, employing both qual-
itative text analysis and quantitative keyword analysis. The last section discusses
the paper’s conclusions.
Assessments of the UN’s communication activities
During the UN’s first 50 years, there were three distinct criticisms levelled at the
DPI, which was created in 1946 as the Cold War confrontation between US-led
4.
Mark D. Alleyne, “The United Nations’ celebrity diplomacy,” SAIS Review of International Affairs
25, no.1 (winter–spring 2005): 175–185.
5.
B. Guy Peters, Jon Pierre, and Desmond S. King, “The politics of path dependency: Political
conflict in historical institutionalism,” The Journal of Politics 67, no. 4 (November 2005):
1275–1300, 1276.
6.
James E. Grunig and Todd Hunt, Managing Public Relations (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1984); Harry Nystr€
om, “Organizational innovation,” in Michael A. West and James L.
Farr, eds., Innovation and Creativity at Work: Psychological and Organizational Strategies
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990), 143–162.
182
International Journal 75(2)
democracies and the communist Soviet Union began to heat up. Critics claimed
that the DPI was mismanaged. The department wasted resources, failed to clearly
define target audiences, and suffered from disagreements between member states
over the role of public information at the UN.7 The DPI was also criticized both
for being too passive in its response to international political problems and for
violating its ethos of impartiality in deference to state sovereignty.8 These last two
criticisms highlight the DPI’s central dilemma: The department has always
reflected, argues Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and Helio Belik, the tension
between the UN’s desire both to develop its own distinct voice and to preserve
neutrality and balance on controversial international issues.9 Thus, the DPI’s fun-
damental problem stems not from public relations tactics but a disagreement over
its purpose.
Although Alleyne has similarly criticized the DPI for its bureaucratic ineptitude,
he acknowledged that the DPI has not always been static in its policies and activ-
ities.10 Since the mid-1950s, as UN membership expanded by including, for
instance, decolonized countries, communication policies changed to embrace the
Global South’s interest in such issues as economic development, human rights, and
refugees. The UN designated 1959 as World Refugee Year to heighten public
awareness of global migration challenges. Similarly, the 1960s were dubbed the
Decade of Development. However, such measures also inadvertently reinforced
stereotypes of weak and financially dependent, developing countries.11
In addition to the DPI’s inclusion of a wider variety of issues, Seth Center has
also pointed out the change in the DPI’s relations with NGOs. Historically, the
UN was inclined to view NGOs as little more than handy tools for reinforcing its
own legitimacy...
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