Talk:Bureau of International Information Programs

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Untitled

I copied this intro text from http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/about_usinfo.html (public domain I believe because US Government published[1]) to start this page in an informative direction:

The Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) is the principal international strategic communications service for the foreign affairs community. IIP designs, develops, and implements a variety of information initiatives and strategic communications programs, including Internet and print publications, traveling and electronically transmitted speaker programs, and information resource services. These reach--and are created strictly for--key international audiences, such as the media, government officials, opinion leaders, and the general public in more than 140 countries around the world.

--Roger Chrisman 05:29, 20 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Problematic

I marked this page for several distinct issues because it has apparently been ignored for a long time. The only source is directly the subject of the article, making it highly susceptible to POV and puffery. I believe it needs a drastic rewrite. Bataaf van Oranje (talk) 22:45, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Euphemism for propaganda

The first sentence is already a blatant euphemism for propaganda. How does it sound encyclopedic to have the subject of the article described in a completely non-objective way. It sounds like it was written by the bureau itself!?

184.66.82.46 (talk) 09:12, 3 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Defunct

It's unclear to me whether this bureau still exists. I can find nothing on the Department of State websites to indicate that it does.D.Holt (talk) 12:55, 9 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It merged into the Bureau of Global Affairs last year: https://www.state.gov/the-creation-of-the-bureau-of-global-public-affairs/2604:6000:1404:167:2515:6F1D:F7B5:806E (talk) 17:14, 27 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Merge proposal

I propose merging Counter Misinformation Team (CMT) into this page (Bureau of International Information Programs, IIP), citing #3 and #4 in WP:MERGEREASON - CMT was a IIP subagency dissolved at the same time as IIP was. It appears unlikely to be expanded within a reasonable amount of time (potentially due to both lack of sufficient information and interest) and may be more beneficial for readers if it were situated within the parent agency context. W9793 (talk) 18:25, 7 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just go ahead and do the merge and leave a redirect. In the future, you can use merge templates if the page has more traffic. Viriditas (talk) 20:24, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Sustained conversations"?

How do we say this in an encyclopedia article with a straight face:

American Spaces exemplify the United States commitment to a core tenet of democracy: the citizen's right to free access to information. Hosting more than 16 million visits each year, American Spaces supports public diplomacy by creating a place for in-person engagement with foreign audiences.

Holy wowzers! I love to be "providing and supporting the places, content, and infrastructure needed for sustained conversations with foreign audiences". What does that even mean? Do we have any actual information on what this agency was or what it did? jp×g 🗯️ 07:54, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think the only reason I understood this was because I've done some niche background reading on this kind of thing (Thomas Rid writes a bit about it in his work, as do others). I agree that not everyone is going to have the requisite knowledge to know what this means, and it does need clarification. More importantly, we need to avoid bureaucratese whenever possible. Viriditas (talk) 20:46, 26 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]