The "miscellaneous" category of PSYOP effectiveness indicators seems to have merit because the indicators reflect the imagination and development of many different individuals and organizations. The apparent disadvantage of the indicators in this category is that most of them are not generally known to the operators in the field. The fact is that these miscellaneous indicators have been identified by individuals and organizations that have been professionally associated with U.S. divisions in Vietnam. Collectively these indicators reflect a relatively large amount of thought and experience. As with any other indicators or yardsticks used by any sort of analyst, unless the indicators are employed with care and a certain degree of subjective judgment, their usefulness to a commander at the tactical level of operations can be lost. Judiciously utilized, these indicators have served as useful tools in the management of PSYOP and tactical resources in the Vietnam environment. NOTES 1 Robert P. Morris, G5 Workbook (Lai Khe, Vietnam, March 1-June 19, 1968), p. 93. 2. Morris, R. P., op. cit., p. 137. 3. Ibid., p. 123. Morris, R. P., op. cit., p. 111. 5. Henry C. Evans, Jr., "Staff Study: PSYOPS Study" (Vietnam, July 5, 1968). 6. Robert Apt, "Staff Study: The Effectiveness of Psychological Operations Conducted by the 4th Infantry Division" (Vietnam, February 25, 1968). 7. Personal Correspondence of the Author, letter with inclosures from James E. Fiscus, January 12, 1969. 8. Personal Correspondence of the Author, letter from James R. Bambery, January 20, 1969: 9 Wolfred K. White, "Interpreter-or Filter?" Military Review, XLVIII (February, 1968), 80. MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN OVERSEAS A survey demonstrates the proposition that a short-term information campaign is more likely to provide people with a rationale for reinforcing their existing beliefs and attitudes than for changing them. * The attempt to measure communications effects in the field has been most frequently made in the subject areas of politics and marketing, where the stakes are high and where substantial research budgets can be met. In their studies of the 1940 and 1948 election campaigns Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and their associates, relate changes in voting intention to mass media effects (among other things).1 Large *Excerpts from "Measuring the Effectiveness of an Overseas Information Campaign: A Case History," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXI, No. 4 (Winter 1957-1958), pp. 475-498. Reprinted with the permission of The Public Opinion Quarterly, copyright holder, and the courtesy of the author. corporations have sometimes made similar studies of the effectiveness of advertising or marketing campaigns, but these remain unpublished. Two notable community studies have utilized the familiar scheme of interviewing cross-sections of a population before and after large-scale public information efforts. In Cincinnati in 1949, Shirley Star and Helen Hughes found that the effects of an information campaign on behalf of the United Nations were untraceable in the light of the problems which the organization itself faced during the same period.2 A study of a venereal disease information program in Columbus, Ohio, made by the Bureau of Applied Social Research, also showed disappointing results. Those who were most apt to expose themselves to VD were least apt to expose themselves to the media which carried information on the subject.3 The present study is presented as a case history in the same area of research. It was planned not with theoretical objectives in mind but with the immediate objective of evaluating a test campaign. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The communications campaign in this case was conducted in Greece in the later part of 1952 as part of the U.S. information program in that country. The U.S. Information Agency has used a wide variety of communications techniques; the test campaign represented an experimental use of paid newspaper advertising as a means of conveying ideas to a wide overseas public. A series of 14 advertisements was prepared for insertion in Greek newspapers and a booklet, "The March of Freedom,” was offered free to the readers of the ads. The appearance of the advertisements, both in their size and styling, was such as to make them stand out in the newspaper. 4 The research was organized and timed as an integral part of the campaign itself. The objectives were to determine (1) whether or not these materials succeeded in attracting the attention of a wide popular audience; (2) what kinds of people they reached; (3) what the readers thought of them; (4) what kinds of information the ads and the booklet managed to convey to their readers; and (5) what political attitudes they modified, if any. The newspaper advertisements aimed to create or reinforce the conviction that the U.S. and Greece are joined together in the cause of freedom and that their common ideals are those embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The advertisements used large photographs and brief texts to illustrate and discuss the rights enjoyed by citizens in a democracy. These freedoms were visualized in terms of the "rights of children" which might be expected to gain warm acceptance virtually everywhere. The underlying point of view is expressed in the following quotation from one of the ads: We believe it is important to the U.S.A. that this child and every child in every land shall have these basic human freedoms. We believe this because we deeply love the freedoms we are building in our own life... and we know that our own freedoms are not fully safe until freedom is safe for anyone, born anywhere. This does not mean, of course, that we want Greece and other countries to try to be like the U.S.A. Each free people will always have its own way to build its own use of freedom. But the goals we seek are common. Emphasis in the ads was not on the present threat to freedom; only the last ad in the series referred directly to the Soviet Union and the "cold war." They were, rather, focussed on the positive aspects of human liberty. One ad mentioned the Declaration in its headline, and another focussed on the booklet offer. All the rest referred to individual rights, covered in nine of the Declaration's Thirty Articles. All the ads except one featured large photographic illustrations of children. "The March of Freedom" was a 32-page booklet illustrated with twocolor drawings which showed significant stages in the development of human rights from Hammurabi's Code to the United Nations. It contained no direct references to Communism. Its objective was rather to show the historical continuity of the democratic tradition. Between November 16, 1952, and January 3, 1953, the 14 advertisements were run on a twice-a-week alternating schedule in all four Salonica newspapers." (These papers claim a combined total daily circulation of about 50,000.) Every ad appeared once in each paper, but no ad ever appeared in more than one paper on the same day. Approximately 17,000 copies of "The March of Freedom" booklet were distributed by the U.S.I.S. Library in Salonica directly and by mail. METHOD OF STUDY The study was designed to permit comparison of the attitudes of a cross-section of adults in Salonica, who were interviewed shortly before and again immediately after the advertisements ran in the press. To overcome any possible "panel effect," the second wave of interviews (after the ad campaign) was conducted not only with the same people who had been in the original sample, but also with another parallel crosssection of the population, a sample whose members had not been interviewed previously. Changes in opinion between the first and second survey periods might have occurred quite independently of the advertising campaign, through the impact of world events or of political developments in Greece. For example, attitudes toward the United States might have become more favorable between the first and second wave of the study because of a general improvement in opinion throughout the country rather than as a result of the ad campaign. Or opinion might have remained about the same in Salonica, while it became less favorable elsewhere in Greece (that is, the ads might produce their effect not by improving attitudes but by preventing a decline which was evident elsewhere). To take these possibilities into account, a simultaneous before-after survey had to be run in another Greek city in which no advertising or information campaign was conducted. In the control city selected, Patras, two identical random samples (consisting of separate individuals) were interviewed in two waves corresponding with the two waves of the Salonica survey.7 The survey was completed by the addition of a special sample of persons in Salonica who had sent or called for "The March of Freedom" booklet at the U.S.I.S. Library. The first wave of interviews took place between September and October, 1952. The second wave took place immediately after the ad campaign ended, during the week of January 4-11, 1953. A total of 2,238 interviews was conducted. THE CLIMATE OF OPINION To understand what the ad and booklet campaign accomplished we must first look at the existing pattern of public opinion and information which the campaign sought to influence. We must also note the points on which opinions in the test city and in the control city (Patras) were similar and different. Economic problems were most on people's minds at the time of the survey. . . . With such a focus of attention, other subjects received relatively few mentions. Virtually no one discussed the threat of Communism. . . . It appears therefore that the U.S. information campaign, centering as it did on political rights and freedoms, faced a challenge in the form of a widespread public preoccupation with the immediate dayto-day problems of making a livelihood. In answer to the question, "Does the attitude position of a little country such as Greece influence the future shaping of international events?," the great majority of those answering said that Greece's attitude mattered a great deal. Most of the answers stressed Greece's strategic geographic position, and its potential importance as a military base. ** In both cities, Communism's growth was attributed much more often to a national movement caused by economic conditions than to Russian stimulation. In Salonica this was the prevailing opinion by a larger margin (39 percent, as against 12 percent) than in Patras (42 percent against 28 percent) perhaps showing greater Communist influence in the larger city. Although many Greeks thought Communism arose independently of Russian imperialism, this by no means placed them in the Communist camp. The survey findings showed the United States to be the most popular and respected nation in Greek eyes, while the Soviet Union was widely criticized and disliked.9 The preponderant hostility toward the Soviet Union took the form of a general belief that Soviet power was on the wane. To the query, "Ten years from now do you think Russia will have increased or decreased its following among other nations?," virtually all of those replying said that Russia would decrease her following, and almost everyone said this was a good thing. Conversely, the overwhelming majority said the United States would increase its following in the next ten years and that this was good. Over-all feelings toward the U.S.A. were described as being very favorable by most of the respondents (more so in Salonica than in Patras). . . . The generally favorable outlook toward America was reflected in an overwhelmingly affirmative response to the question, "Do you think the U.S. is doing all it can to help Greece?" and in a strong belief that the U.S. wants to help Greece remain free and independent rather than to dominate it. Although the ultimate purpose of the U.S.I.S. campaign was to influence opinion, its immediate objective was to increase knowledge of democratic rights and freedoms. How much awareness existed to begin with? When respondents in both cities were asked to name the rights and freedoms which citizens enjoy in a free country, their response was similar, with freedom of opinion and expression far in the forefront, and references to working men's rights strong in Patras. An average of 1.4 rights was mentioned in Patras, and 1.1 rights in Salonica; 18 percent and 27 percent were unable to name any rights at all. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was emphasized in the ads and booklet was unknown to all but a tiny minority. In the interviews made before the campaign began, 8 percent (P) and 26 percent (S) claimed to have heard of it, but only 2 percent (P) and 6 percent (S) were able to explain what it was. The democracies rather than the Communist countries were named as the ones who signed it. In other words, the campaign was designed to inform its audience on a subject with which they were not too familiar. There was considerable room for expanding knowledge of democratic freedoms in general, and of the Declaration of Human Rights, in particular. THE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND ITS AUDIENCE The campaign was based on the assumption that newspaper advertising is an effective means of reaching the public in Greece, as it has proven to be in the United States, though Greek newspapers do not have the mass circulation of the American press. In Salonica, for instance, the four daily papers, with a total city circulation of 21,000 must serve the needs of 300,000 residents (about 190,000 adults over 18) in the city, and additional thousands in the surrounding region. However, . . . it may be estimated that in Salonica each copy of the newspaper reaches approximately five adult readers represented by pass-along readership, reading in coffee houses, and the practice of paying the news vendor a small sum for the privilege of looking at the paper. About one in five in the sample proved to be illiterate. How many people were reached by the ads and the booklet? How did they react to what they read? Were people who had not been directly exposed to the campaign aware of it in any way? These questions were answered by the second wave cross-section of Salonica residents who were interviewed after the campaign. Their answers closely parallel |