Inside and Outside

The Obama administration's nominee for the Pentagon's next chief spokesman thinks keeping in touch with the public won't be his only job. Maintaining close communication with his counterparts in other government agencies will be high on Douglas Wilson's priority list, as well.

Wilson, who would replace Dorrance Smith, states in his written preliminary answers to a Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing that:

I believe the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs will not only be responsible for effectively communicating Department information and messages to the Congress, to the American public and to international audiences – but he or she will also be responsible for working even more closely with colleagues and counterparts who also have communications responsibilities within the national security framework – diplomatic, intelligence, foreign assistance, public diplomacy, legal and financial, both within the Administration and within Congress. All involved must work together to develop credible and consistent message frameworks as well as both rapid pro-active and rapid-response communications efforts within those frameworks. All of this must be done within a continually-changing technological environment shaped by the many communications and social networking tools available not just to government communicators but to individuals, groups and mass audiences. The challenge here will be to understand that these new tools are themselves not a “one-size-fits-all” panacea, but instead must be tailored for use when and where they can be effective, either singly or in combination with other communications tools.