Phil Agre:
Understanding Jargon

Americans are upset at the blizzard of irrational jargon that now substitutes for political discourse in the United States, and they increasingly recognize that it isn’t going away until it is named and confronted. To that end, I have enclosed a short list of books about propaganda, public relations, ideology, and related topics. (I sent out another list on the topic last year, and for convenience I’ve attached that list to the end of this one.) I’ve included books from several perspectives, including manuals for practitioners.

If you want a single starting-place for your reading, I recommend the works of Robert Jackall. Jackall is an ethicist who does field studies and writes powerful books about the ethical nightmares he finds. I recommend his book Moral Mazes to students who are about to start working in the real world, and he has a recent book about the world of issue advocacy. Otherwise, there’s something for everyone. People on the left will enjoy Alex Carey’s excellent Taking the Risk Out of Democracy, people on the right will enjoy Marvin Olasky’s history of the public relations department at AT&T, those seeking a blood-curdling PR manual will enjoy Philip Lesly’s Overcoming Opposition, those wishing a more analytical approach to PR might consult James Grunig and Todd Hunt’s Managing Public Relations (I’ve used it in teaching the subject myself — it’s a little dated but still useful), those seeking pure scandal will enjoy the works of Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, and those wishing to understand conservative policy campaigns might consult Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado’s No Mercy.

Also, here is a page that contains my own informal articles about the currently fashionable political jargon. Red Rock Eater Digest