ABSTRACT
Words matter. It has never been clearer than in this information age that people respond to written and verbal messages in an endless mixture of ways and that the ways a sender presents information impacts the emotional response and behavior of a receiver. Because words increasingly matter, the United States military’s interest in strategic communication, its potential, eects and limitations, is growing as well. ere are many denitions for strategic communication, but a recent and simple explanation denes it as, “a way of persuading other people to accept ones’ ideas, policies, or courses of action.”1 e usual military venues that conduct strategic communication are public aairs, information operations and public diplomacy. Today’s U.S. military leaders are briefed daily on communication “messages” that are intended to eectively address whatever the most likely subjects, as assessed from mass media, that will be in the public consciousness. ese written
and verbal messages are critical to ensuring unity among the U.S. military’s public communicators ey provide a foundation for “one voice” and set conditions for a timely response to disinformation and breaking news.
