How can twenty-first-century scholars and other experts engage with wider audiences beyond their peers? In Public Influence, Mira Sucharov walks readers through the ins and outs of op-ed writing and social media engagement. Enlivened with discussions of an array of hot-button issues and sharp analysis of the delicate dynamics of social media, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to harness the opportunities of public engagement in this vital digital age.

How can twenty-first-century scholars and other experts engage with wider audiences beyond their peers? In Public Influence, Mira Sucharov walks readers through the ins and outs of op-ed writing and social media engagement. Enlivened with discussions of an array of hot-button issues and sharp analysis of the delicate dynamics of social media, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to harness the opportunities of public engagement in this vital digital age.

In this vital book, thirteen experts in public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare lay out the components of what the U.S. and its allies need to win the war of ideas around the world. Strategic influence is much more than strategic communication. Communicating with others has somehow become a goal in itself, when the real issue is influence - to modify the perceptions, attitudes, and most of all, the behavior of people, movements and governments around the world. This book is designed for the diplomat, intelligence officer, warfighter and policymaker.

Why policymaking in the United States privileges the rich over the poor Can a country be a democracy if its government only responds to the preferences of the rich? In an ideal democracy, all citizens should have equal influence on government policy—but as this book demonstrates, America's policymakers respond almost exclusively to the preferences of the economically advantaged. Affluence and Influence definitively explores how political inequality in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how this growing disparity has been shaped by interest groups, parties, and elections. With sharp analysis and an impressive range of data, Martin Gilens looks at thousands of proposed policy changes, and the degree of support for each among poor, middle-class, and affluent Americans. His findings are staggering: when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups. In contrast, affluent Americans' preferences exhibit a substantial relationship with policy outcomes whether their preferences are shared by lower-income groups or not. Gilens shows that representational inequality is spread widely across different policy domains and time periods. Yet Gilens also shows that under specific circumstances the preferences of the middle class and, to a lesser extent, the poor, do seem to matter. In particular, impending elections—especially presidential elections—and an even partisan division in Congress mitigate representational inequality and boost responsiveness to the preferences of the broader public. At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influence raises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens.

In Influence from Abroad, Danny Hayes and Matt Guardino show that United States public opinion about American foreign policy can be shaped by foreign leaders and representatives of international organizations. By studying news coverage, elite debate, and public opinion prior to the Iraq War, the authors demonstrate that US media outlets aired and published a significant amount of opposition to the invasion from official sources abroad, including British, French, and United Nations representatives. In turn, these foreign voices - to which millions of Americans were exposed - drove many Democrats and independents to signal opposition to the war, even as domestic elites supported it. Contrary to conventional wisdom that Americans care little about the views of foreigners, this book shows that international officials can alter domestic public opinion, but only when the media deem them newsworthy. Their conclusions raise significant questions about the democratic quality of United States foreign policy debates.

Gaining Influence in Public Relations explores how professionals can increase their influence in practice to help their organizations achieve success. This provocative book explores the largely uncharted territories of power, resistance, dissent, and activism in public relations, arguing that practitioners can increase their power and social legitimacy by developing and using a wider range of influence resources, strategies, and tactics. Authors Bruce K. Berger and Bryan H. Reber talked with hundreds of practitioners, analyzed original survey data, and examined a detailed case study to develop a theory of power relations. Ultimately, the book seeks to advance the ethical and effective practice of public relations. Intended for scholars and graduate students in public relations, it also has much to offer practitioners, as well as scholars and students in organizational communication, organizational theory, human resources, and leadership.

In recent decades Washington has seen an alarming rise in the number of "revolving door lobbyists"—politicians and officials cashing in on their government experience to become influence peddlers on K Street. These lobbyists, popular wisdom suggests, sell access to the highest bidder. Revolving Door Lobbying tells a different, more nuanced story. As an insider interviewed in the book observes, where the general public has the "impression that lobbyists actually get things done, I would say 90 percent of what lobbyists do is prevent harm to their client from the government." Drawing on extensive new data on lobbyists’ biographies and interviews with dozens of experts, authors Timothy M. LaPira and Herschel F. Thomas establish the facts of the revolving door phenomenon—facts that suggest that, contrary to widespread assumptions about insider access, special interests hire these lobbyists as political insurance against an increasingly dysfunctional, unpredictable government. With their insider experience, revolving door lobbyists offer insight into the political process, irrespective of their connections to current policymakers. What they provide to their clients is useful and marketable political risk-reduction. Exploring this claim, LaPira and Thomas present a systematic analysis of who revolving door lobbyists are, how they differ from other lobbyists, what interests they represent, and how they seek to influence public policy. The first book to marshal comprehensive evidence of revolving door lobbying, LaPira and Thomas revise the notion that lobbyists are inherently and institutionally corrupt. Rather, the authors draw a complex and sobering picture of the revolving door as a consequence of the eroding capacity of government to solve the public’s problems.