November 29, 2005 — At the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch, General Vincent Brooks, U.S Army chief of public affairs at the Pentagon and a 1998 Kennedy School National Security Fellow, shared his views on what constitutes effective communications in today’s global information environment.
As he lamented how the military’s mission-focused culture often leads to reticence, Brooks conveyed the difficulty of achieving transparency in an industry that depends on secrets.
With the ever-present stream of information available to the public, the ability to manipulate communications complicates the Pentagon’s relationship with the media.
Within this environment, Brooks described how the military is seeking to find its place within new outlets of communication such as blogs and podcasting.
