Propaganda or public diplomacy? Terrorist or freedom fighter? Media bias or media objectivity? Our post-9/11 era, now two years out, has become a virtual surroundsound of blogging, chatter and formal debate about what to call these times, and an uneasy consensus is beginning to emerge that ours is an age of propaganda that uses word and image weapons of mass distraction and deception to distort reality in support of one’s interests. Can truth prevail? That begs the question: whose truth? It may depend on which side of the fence you stand, because the handmaiden of propaganda is the Manichaean dichotomy of us versus them, my enemy or my friend, and "our side" ostensibly is always about truth (or freedom) while "their side" is about lies (or tyranny). As a former government propagandist (my choice of words) who worked two years for the United States Information Agency (USIA) in the early to mid-1990s, I am reminded of the Congressional testimony of USIA director Edward R. Murrow in May 1963, who said in the context of these United States of America, "truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that." Was it ever as simple as that? These papers and articles may provide a window into answering that question.

In this special issue of Global Media Journal, we take a look at the complexities of the modern phenomenon of propaganda, media and terrorism. The contributions assess the public’s need or right to know accurate and reliable information against a backdrop of a global war on terrorism and an ever-changing political and media landscape. Li Xiguang’s article addresses the challenges posed by the open society Internet to the Chinese government’s state control of the press. Richard Alan Nelson provides much-needed tools for analyzing media bias, while Dale Eickelman addresses the Arab "Street" and how public policymakers must not only acknowledge publics in their decision making, but also how the concept of public participation and the public sphere has both negative and positive outcomes. In answering the ever-present question of what responsibility do media have in the war on terrorism, Alan Knight identifies the propaganda techniques used by the global media in coverage of the Iraq war. Papers by Craig Hayden and Andre Billeaudeaux analyze media frames in the early stages of the global war on terror. Articles by Robert Jensen and K.M. Shrivastava look at the media as a weapon of war and propaganda and how media often carry the flag for their respective government s. Gerry Lanuza’s paper focuses on the mediatization of youth in the Philippines, an important look at the next generation’s vulnerabilities to media manipulations. Finally, I also include in this special issue commentaries by Jihad Fakhreddine addressing public diplomacy campaigns that target Arab and Muslim populations and Adeboye Oseni who provides some suggestions for how the U.S. can improve its credibility in the world through a people- first approach to public diplomacy.

It is my vision that this journal issue open up scholarly debate and investigation across the global landscape so that we may better define our era, be it propaganda or something else, and move beyond the incendiary and sentimental boundaries of its usage.

Nancy Snow is Assistant Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton and Adjunct Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. She can be reached at her website, www.NancySnow.com .

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