Nancy Snow is an American culture climatologist and persuasion/propaganda expert. Snow is the author or editor of six books, including Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama.

Dr. Snow is Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, New York. Dr. Snow teaches and conducts research in the dual degree Masters Program in Public Diplomacy. She is currently on leave as tenured Associate Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton.

She holds a Senior Fellow position in the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and is a lifetime member of the Public Diplomacy Council, George Washington University.

Snow was a Presidential Management Fellow with the United States Information Agency and the State Department as well as a Fulbright scholar to Germany.

In addition to Persuader-in-Chief, Nancy Snow is the lead editor of the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy. In 2006 she published The Arrogance of American Power: What U.S. Leaders Are Doing Wrong and Why It's Our Duty to Dissent. At the time Howard Zinn said that "Nancy Snow writes with eloquence, passion, and crystal-clear prose" and "brings these qualities to the most important issue before our nation today: Why has the United States alienated people all over the world, and how can its citizens bring democracy alive to change national policy?" She is also the author of Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9/11 and Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World. She is editor with Yahya Kamilipour of War, Media and Propaganda: A Global Perspective that includes a foreword by Ben Bagdikian.

Dr. Snow received her Ph.D. in international relations (magna cum laude) from American University's School of International Service and a B.A. in political science (summa cum laude) from Clemson University, South Carolina. She can be reached at www.NancySnow.com.

Blog Entries by Nancy Snow

Positive Propaganda

Posted December 16, 2009 | 01:04 PM (EST)


(This entry is based off a much longer paper written for Dr. Nancy Snow's War, Media and Propaganda class at Syracuse University.)

The sun never shined on a greater cause.

Liberty, property and no stamps!

Let us consider ourselves as men - freemen - Christian freemen - separate from the...

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Hey Germany, Ronald Reagan Deserves a Thank You Too

12 Comments | Posted November 2, 2009 | 09:59 PM (EST)


In August 1984 I was a Fulbright scholar to the Federal Republic of Germany.  Ronald Reagan was about to be elected to his second term as president and I was no fan of the Hollywood actor-turned-politician.   

The first week I arrived in Germany, Reagan made his infamous joke...

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Information War on Fox: No Upside for Obama Administration

71 Comments | Posted October 25, 2009 | 08:46 PM (EST)


Last week, one of my former students wrote me about the Whitehouse/Fox News Channel hullabaloo.  

Jennie was enrolled in the first class I ever taught at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.  The class was “War, Media and Propaganda,” and I taught it in spring 2002. ...

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Nobel Oblige

Posted October 9, 2009 | 10:37 AM (EST)


For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:48 

The concept of noblesse oblige applies to President Barack Obama’s win of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.  Roughly translated as...

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America, You're #1

2 Comments | Posted October 7, 2009 | 11:01 AM (EST)


On Monday, October 5, 2009, Americans woke up to first place.  This was before Brett Favre had his legendary night against his former team, the Green Bay Packers, and took over the individual spot.  

The U.S. moved from last year’s 7 spot to number 1, and we have...

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William Safire's Passing and the Decline of American Journalism

21 Comments | Posted September 28, 2009 | 02:44 PM (EST)


Today's Google News has the wedding of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian and Los Angeles Lakers' forward Lamar Odom getting more hits than the passing of New York Times columnist, William Safire. Now granted, Khloe and Lamar have more blogger followers, including Perez Hilton's "wedding deets" to share with those...

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Curb Your Enthusiasm: Live From Capitol Hill

3 Comments | Posted September 19, 2009 | 12:51 AM (EST)


Rhetoric is just fine until someone gets hurt.

This seemed to be the message of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when asked Thursday about anti-Obama vitriol surrounding health care reform:

I think we all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words. We are a free country and...
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Serena Williams Loses It

73 Comments | Posted September 13, 2009 | 01:34 AM (EST)


Composure. Joe Wilson lost it Wednesday night. And now Defending U.S. Open Champion Serena Williams lost it Saturday night en route to her highly favored fourth U.S. Open Championship.

I'm a longtime fan of both Williams' sisters. I've covered tennis tournaments in the past and have seen them up...

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Joe Wilson, You're No Joe Nye

4 Comments | Posted September 11, 2009 | 03:36 PM (EST)


I got a lot of razzing yesterday about Joe Wilson from my Syracuse University students.

We were talking about persuasion and influence, what to do and what not to do and how my fellow South Carolinian was in the "not to do" category.

I shared that I have mingled...

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Barackaganda

22 Comments | Posted September 3, 2009 | 12:01 AM (EST)


Barackaganda

A person whose work I respect very much recently wrote the following:

My own view is that attempting to manipulate perceptions directly, without recourse to the conditions that created those reputations in the first place, is a pretty good definition of propaganda, and what's more, it doesn't work.

The...

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Salt in Their Wounds

4 Comments | Posted August 21, 2009 | 01:48 PM (EST)


I can't imagine what it must have been like for the families of the Syracuse University students to get the news on December 21, 1988. Pan Am Flight 103 exploded into a million pieces over the tiny Scottish town of Lockerbie, forever now associated with all 270 victims of one...

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Hometown Horror

9 Comments | Posted August 19, 2009 | 09:34 PM (EST)


Jane Velez Mitchell calls it the war against women. Nancy Grace spotlights the missing, and presumed murdered, woman or girl du jour.

All violence is condemnable, but is there anything comparable to the sheer quantity of women killed in domestic violence situations?

The latest macabre example began as...

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The Propaganda Chronicles: North Korea Edges Out US

49 Comments | Posted August 5, 2009 | 07:48 PM (EST)


When it comes to Kim Jong-Il, nobody, not even political spin machinist Bill Clinton, can fully compete with the mass manipulation pageantry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Evan Ramstad of the Wall Street Journal referred to the Clinton trip as a "boon" for KJ:

Mr. Kim scored...
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Jon Stewart: Still The Most Trusted Newscaster in America

69 Comments | Posted July 23, 2009 | 12:38 PM (EST)


Just last Friday we lost the most trusted man in America. This week we've anointed a fake journalist his replacement. Or so Time magazine would have us believe.

http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_417.html

Nothing to get apoplectic about, even if you are Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow fans. This poll,...

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Brand Cronkite

3 Comments | Posted July 17, 2009 | 09:40 PM (EST)


Last month we lost the moonwalker. Today we lost the man on the moon.

Walter Cronkite, dead at 92, had a long physical life but his forever legacy is trust. Plain and simple, Cronkite was more credible in his journalistic career than most any American president.

Why did...

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California: Find Yourself Here -- Stat!

Posted May 16, 2009 | 09:52 AM (EST)


Several years ago the Governator starred in a tourism ad that was one wild ride of commercial propaganda. The theme was to poke fun at the California laid back lifestyle and make double entendres about work versus play in the land of fun and sun. It's beautifully shot, with all...

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We Need Heroes in American Journalism

Posted May 4, 2009 | 08:15 PM (EST)


In the fall of 1995, I ventured out on my first full-time academic position. I had moved from Washington, DC to an Our Town-like village in New Hampshire called Henniker, still known as "the only Henniker on earth." Then teaching political science at New England College, I waxed nostalgic for...

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War, Media and Propaganda: Five Years Later

Posted April 20, 2009 | 06:06 PM (EST)


Ben Bagdikian is one of my media heroes. The 7th edition of his classic book, The Media Monopoly, was published by Beacon Press in 2004 as The New Media Monopoly. Bagdikian is one of those authors whose predictions earned him the Chicken Little label of credulity. When he first published...

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Crickets and Cheney Chirping on the Brand America Front

Posted March 25, 2009 | 12:40 PM (EST)


Americans are uniquely obsessed with our good name the world over. After all, we invented the persuasion industries from advertising to public relations and no other country has a more recognized image, good and bad, across the planet.

This makes it all the more puzzling why the position of...

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If Edward Bernays Were Obama's PR Counsel

Posted February 28, 2009 | 07:06 PM (EST)


Larry Tye is the author of The Father of Spin: Edward R. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations. He is currently writing a book about the legendary baseball player, Satchel Paige. I sat down with him last week at the Newhouse School, Syracuse University, to talk about Edward Bernays,...

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