Communicating effectively: The United Nations in the national media.

• Author: Dahlgren, Hans
• Position: Includes related article on refugee camp in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo - Breaking the Barriers: Are We That Difficult to Understand?

The art of politics is to a large extent also the art of communications. To be a good or even a great communicator makes a lot of difference when it comes to convincing sceptical voters of the merits of a political message. This does not mean that expertise in communications can substitute the contents of the message. But it certainly improves your chances of being heard if you also know a little about how best to reach an audience.

This was also a much debated issue when I started to work as a political journalist in the late 1960's. After the presidential campaign in the United States between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Joe McGinniss wrote his classic "The Selling of the President 1968". That was a critical study of political advertising. Now it seems as if almost everyone accepts that political leaders need not only advertising, but also extensive communications strategies. And that is true not only on the national level, but also increasingly in local politics. Most government leaders even have their own offices of communications.

When I started to work as Press Secretary to Olof Palme in the 1970's, I was quite alone in that position (and also had a chance to do some foreign policy work on the side). Today, the Swedish Prime Minister has three press secretaries and several other assistants in his own press office - and that is only in addition to the official information service of the Government of Sweden. This reflects not a change of interest in the media on the side of the Prime Minister of Sweden, but rather an increased recognition of the growing importance of communications in today's society.

But the need to communicate is not only the concern of national political leaders and organizations. The task of communicating through the media is equally important for international organizations, and not least the United Nations. This part of the global political system also needs to tell its story to its citizens, even if they are scattered all over the world, in 185 individual countries.

The size of the audience for news about the United Nations makes this particular issue of communications both easier and more complicated. Easier, because in essence you can tell the same story, all over the world. But also more difficult, because there is no natural outlet for stories about the United Nations. True, there are a few television networks which can be described as global, and also a small number of newspapers with a more...