1. What was the PR mission of Tharoor?
The PR mission of Tharoor consisted mainly of 2 things:
1. To coordinate the UN’s external message, which was being slightly lost in the routine.
2. To report directly to the Secretary General about the way in which the world saw the UN and to help put the secretary general's own point of view across to those conveying the message of the organization.
2. Identify the PR problem of the UN
The UN is criticized for being a talking shop, a glorified debating society.
3. How did Tharoor solve the problem?
Tharoor solved the problem by (1) making more systematic used of op-eds, by (2) having more press conferences, and by (3) issuing media guidelines which authorized every single UN official to speak to the press, on the record within his or her area of competence.
4. What are the main publics of the PR campaign?
The main publics of the PR campaign are:
+ External
+ Opponents
+ The media
5. What are the main components of Tharoor PR strategy?
+ Setting the following PR objective: demonstrating that the UN is not merely a talking shop.
+ Adopting the Public Information PR model with the goal of informing the PR campaign's publics.
+ Using extensively the media to reach the publics.
+ Thanks to the interventions of the UN officials, Tharoor aimed to use facts as evidence to persuade the opponent publics, and therefore, influence the public opinion.
6. Identify Tharoor's definition of PR?
According to Tharoor, PR is: "telling the truth, often to people who don't have the time to hear it. It's also about using the public to help shape what you really are doing, because the fact is that the public ultimately is why you're doing it".
7. Critics
In the whole interview with Mr. Shashi Tharoor, it appears that there is a focus on the use of top-down or hierarchical models in the communication of the UN.
First, he was recruited to convey the secretary general's own point of view to those conveying the message of the organization, and there was no emphasis on the other way around. Second, Mr. Tharoor's PR strategy is based on one-way flow of information that goes from the UN officials to the external publics, without the introduction of any technique that guarantees the feedback's delivery in the opposit way.
The publics, whom I believe should be the first concern of the UN, appear only in the fancy definitions and the polished bla bla bla of Mr. Shashi Tharoor, who just happens to be the forger of the UN's PR and communications.
