Strategic Communications at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: A groundwork study

TY - JOUR

T1 - Strategic Communications at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

T2 - A groundwork study

AU - Michelsen, Nicholas

AU - Woodier, Jonathan

PY - 2019/2/26

Y1 - 2019/2/26

N2 - This article draws on content and sentiment analysis of a sample of internation-al English-language media reports to identify the core elements of the Demo-cratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) strategic communications campaign conducted at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and to establish groundwork for an assessment of its effectiveness. Using the Olympics as a stage for stra-tegic communications is as old as the games themselves. The article examines the structure and elements of a DPRK Strategic Communications campaign by locating it in historical and theoretical context, and shows how it bears the hall-marks of a carefully crafted and timed agenda-setting campaign. Subsequent to the games, the supreme leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, met with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, to discuss a full peace treaty and, in June 2018, met with President Trump of the United States. Irrespective of the ultimate out-come of these engagements, a month before the games such a meeting would have been inconceivable. We contend that the 2018 Winter Olympics held in the Republic of Korea (ROK) provides a case study for assessing how influencing discourses in the media space may impact the conditions of possibility for inter-national political action

AB - This article draws on content and sentiment analysis of a sample of internation-al English-language media reports to identify the core elements of the Demo-cratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) strategic communications campaign conducted at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and to establish groundwork for an assessment of its effectiveness. Using the Olympics as a stage for stra-tegic communications is as old as the games themselves. The article examines the structure and elements of a DPRK Strategic Communications campaign by locating it in historical and theoretical context, and shows how it bears the hall-marks of a carefully crafted and timed agenda-setting campaign. Subsequent to the games, the supreme leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, met with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, to discuss a full peace treaty and, in June 2018, met with President Trump of the United States. Irrespective of the ultimate out-come of these engagements, a month before the games such a meeting would have been inconceivable. We contend that the 2018 Winter Olympics held in the Republic of Korea (ROK) provides a case study for assessing how influencing discourses in the media space may impact the conditions of possibility for inter-national political action

U2 - 10.30966/2018.RIGA.5.6.

DO - 10.30966/2018.RIGA.5.6.

M3 - Article

JO - Defence Strategic Communications

JF - Defence Strategic Communications

ER -