communication strategies: the alderaan incident · - palpatine, star wars episode iii: revenge of...

Running Head: COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: THE ALDERAAN INCIDENT 1

Galactic Empire - Ministry of Imperial Propaganda

Communication Strategies: The Alderaan Incident

Jill Cabrera

Maegan Saunders

Paul Wlodarczyk

MacEwan University

BCSC 310, BC01

Dr. Iain Macpherson

December 10, 2013

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: THE ALDERAAN INCIDENT 2

Presentation Feedback

In response to the peer feedback, the Ministry of Imperial Propaganda opted to exclude graffiti

including derogatory phrases such as “Rebel Scum”. We acknowledge the risk that our public

audience may interpret such terms as a slight to the lives lost in the Alderaan incident. The

“Princess Slaya” graffiti will be kept, as it aligns with our intent to demonize the figure of

Princess Leia. We also hope that our research on the use of propaganda will legitimize our

propagandist procedures, so that we can be received as more than a team that was heavily

invested in the popularity of the Empire and Star Wars franchise.


Executive Summary The Galactic Empire, established in 19 BBY1 by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, is the current

and presiding galactic government, replacing the Old Republic after a long dispute over taxes

and various isolationist and xenophobic reasons. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, with an

aspiration for a secure and stable government, ascended the seat as the first Emperor of the

united Galactic Empire.

Today, the Galactic Empire is threatened by the Rebel Alliance seeking to restore the Old

Republic. This rebellion acquired a complete technical readout of the Empire’s ultimate weapon,

the Death Star. Due to this threat to the Empire, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, commander of the

Death Star, attempted to negotiate with Leia Organa, a political figure heavily linked with the

Rebellion Alliance, for this document. The failure of the negotiation leads to the destruction of

the planet Alderaan.

The Empire realizes that this drastic measure against the rebellion endangers its reputation to its

citizens, thus leading to possible sympathizers to the rebellion cause. Our team, the Ministry of

Imperial Propaganda is tasked to provide a strong and heavily biased argument, providing

information—true or otherwise—primarily for the purpose of influencing the public to agree that

the destruction of Alderaan is unfortunate, but a necessity for the safety of the Empire and its

people.

1 Before the Battle of Yavin, Galactic Standard Calendar was the standard measurement of time in the galaxy.


The Galactic Empire

Mission

The Galactic Empire is the foundation of justice in this diverse galaxy. We unite the citizens

under one law, one regime, and one voice. We are the people. We are justice.

Vision

"We are an Empire ruled by the majority. An Empire ruled by a new Constitution. An Empire of

laws, not of politicians. An Empire devoted to the preservation of a just society. Of a safe and

secure society! We are an Empire that will stand for ten thousand years!"

- Palpatine, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Statement of Values

We, the Galactic Empire, are guided by these principles:

Loyalty We are loyal to the Imperial Charter.

We bear true allegiance to the people of the Galactic Empire.

We stand and support the leadership of the Galactic Emperor

Duty We fulfill our obligations to the Galactic Empire.

We accomplish tasks as the constituent of the Galactic Empire.

We fulfill our duty as part of whole and resist individual temptations that

undermine the integrity of the Empire.

Honour We live up to the Galactic Empire’s values.

We honor our duties and selfless service to the people of the Galactic

Empire.


Integrity We do what is right for the people.

We uphold the justice as determined by Galactic Constitution.

Responsibility We anticipate issues and problems and respond accordingly for the good of the

citizens.

We take initiative.

We act to prevent and resolve problems.

We take responsibility for the outcomes of our decisions and actions.

We hold ourselves and others accountable.


Communication Strategies: The Alderaan Incident

Introduction

This propagandist communication plan aligns with the Galactic Empire’s Mission, Vision

and Values, guided by the same desire to be the foundational structure of justice, by any means

possible. In a galaxy far, far away, in a planet known as Earth, Ellul (1965) claimed that

“propaganda, by whatever means we may call it, has become a very general phenomenon in the

modern world” (p. ix). In the same planet, propaganda was popularized by the Nazi government

and was known to have a Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (Cull, Culbert &

Welch, 2012), but the authors stressed that propaganda’s roots can be traced farther back the

planet’s history during the Reformation. The Reformation was a time when Pope Gregory XIII

commissioned cardinals to spread the Catholic ideologies to heathen lands, and this congregation

was permanently commissioned by Pope Gregory the XV as the Sacra Congregatio de

Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith) tasked with the dissemination

of religious dogma (Cull, et. al., 2012). During this early seeding of the idea of propaganda, it

was only a means to spread information, but organized modern warfare, between the years of

1914 and 1918, exposed its sinister potential (Cull, et. al., 2012). World War I was the first war

between nations, and war effort mobilized the nation’s full resource—military, economic, and

psychological; the citizens are required to join the effort, morale became a significant military

factor and propaganda was used to control public opinion, by means of censorship and

propaganda campaigns (Cull, et. al., 2012). The authors further emphasized:

Propaganda may be overt or covert, black or white, truthful or mendacious, serious or

humorous, rational or emotional. Propagandists assess the context and the audience and

use whatever methods and means they consider most appropriate and effective. (para. 16)


This general phenomena of propaganda is a logical means of achieving the Galactic

Empire’s goals, and remaining faithful to the vision of service for ten thousand years while still

heralding the ideologies that lead to the Emperor’s ascension to the throne—justice, security, and

unity.

The Alderaan Incident

The Galactic Empire is in need of a communication plan for the current crisis following

the destruction of Alderaan. Crises, as defined by Timothy Coombs (2007), “are taken as a threat

to the organizational reputation” (p. 163). The destruction of the planet Alderaan and the

resulting demise of its inhabitants threaten to disestablish the Galactic Empire in the eyes of its

people, and also may result in an increase of sympathizers to the Rebel Alliance’s cause. The

Death Star, the Empire’s space station and super weapon, was fired on the command of

Governor Wilhuff Tarkin. It is thus necessary to communicate that the act was defensive and,

most of all, unfortunate.

The purpose of this communication plan is to support Governor Tarkin’s act, guided

superficially by the values of the Galactic Empire. The destruction of Alderaan will be argued as

a preventative measure of the growing threat the Rebellion poses on the peace that the Galactic

Empire has established.

This communication plan would contain situational analysis, strategic objectives, key

messages, audience analysis, plan specifics, budget, work plan and schedules, and the expected

outcomes and measurements. This communication plan serves as a guideline for all internal and

external communication regarding the “Alderaan Incident” for the citizens of the Galactic

Empire. This plan has high demands on financial and human resource. Hence, it runs a short


course with the most ideal outcome of weakening the Rebel Alliance for that opportune moment

of their annihilation.

Situational Analysis

The Alderaan Incident threatens the Galactic Empire’s reputation and could possibly lead

to the increase of sympathizers of the rebel cause. Ginneken (2003) pointed out, “[c]ollective

opinions, as well as individual opinions, may change every minute; every impression may

slightly alter the pattern” (p. 11). With this idea of the dynamic nature of public opinion in mind,

the Ministry of Imperial Propaganda has analyzed the current situation and has determined the

following:

Figure 1. Strength and Weaknesses of the Galactic Empire after the Alderaan Incident.

WEAKNESS • Followers and sympathizers of the rebellion have further fodder to support their concerns. • Loyal followers of the Galactic Empire may begin to doubt our institution.

STRENGTH • We have the benefit of having Sith Lords and the strength of the Empire’s military of Storm Troopers on our side. • We rule the galaxy, thus we do not have to hide our messages from another power. • We have full control over the message that our citizens will receive, as well as the power to enforce a message’s continual distribution.


The Galactic Empire is the presiding government of the galactic system, hence lending

our message legitimate authority over the audience. The public knowledge of our coercive power

through the “rumoured” presence of Sith Lords within our ranks would inspire in our audience

fear and awe. The Galactic Empire’s main strength is its “position power” or the power conferred

to it by its public.

The incident also exposes our weaknesses as this event is left for the public to interpret.

The lost lives may arouse sympathies to the rebel cause and doubts about how the Empire

defines “peace.” Figure 3 displays the opportunities and threats the Empire needs to address.

Figure 3. Opportunities and Threats of the Alderaan Incident.

THREATS • Princess Leia was a member of the Imperial Senate. Her involvement with the rebellion makes her a traitor to the Empire. We must determine immediately if there are other traitors that need to be managed.

OPPORTUNITIES • The destruction of Alderaan allows the Empire to showcase the misdoings of the rebellion. • We have the opportunity to scapegoat Princess Leia for the destruction of her home planet. • We have the opportunity to rebrand the Death Star with a less alarming name and therefore a more flattering image. A focus group can be used to determine possible new names. • We have the opportunity to discover additional traitors and reward our allies.


Princess Leia was an influential member of the Imperial Senate. Her relation with the

Rebel Alliance exposes the idea that the Galactic Empire may have spies in our midst. This is a

threat not only to the effectiveness of our military intelligence operations, but also to the Empire

as a whole.

It is of prime importance that the Galactic Empire not be paralyzed by this threat and

weaknesses; we must acknowledge that this incident opens us also to opportunities of

criminalizing Leia, and also further framing the Rebel Alliance as the “enemy.” We recognize

the presence of traitors and with this knowledge the opportunity of weeding them out is present.

Also, it has come to the attention of the Ministry of Imperial Propaganda that the initial branding

of our satellite base as “Death Star” may come off to the public as tyrannical. Therefore, we

suggest that a re-branding proposal be submitted for vote at the next meeting of the Imperial

Propaganda Ministry. “Defense Star” seems to be a popular contender for an alternative name for

the station.

Publics Analysis

Figure 4. Galaxy Map (Modi, 2009)


“An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing their

own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled.” –

Chomsky, 1991 (p. 10)

Although the Galactic Empire is a constitutional monarchy, the Empire does not turn

completely away from its democratic roots, but agrees with Chomsky in this regard. The

“public” is treated in most public relation textbook as “groups with shared linkages or shared

relationships to the organization” (Moffit, p. 18). The Galactic Empire’s public is the Imperial

Citizens under its rule. This is a composite of the diverse species inhabiting the Galaxy. Hence,

the Galactic Empire’s responsibility is to provide unifying ideologies that would produce a

cohesive, collective whole.

Figure 5. A line up of sentient, humanoid aliens. (Post, 2003)


The Galaxy, according to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, is populated with 20 million

sentient species. Humans are the dominant race, and other sentient beings like Twi'leks, Hutts

and Mon Calamari were simply known as "aliens" categorized as either humanoids or non-

humanoids. The Galactic Empire was first to dub aliens as “NhM” or “Non-huMan.” Though not

officially considered a race, droids make up a significant portion of the Galaxy’s population.

Speech

According to Star Wars: The Essential Atlas, the galaxy’s lingua franca is the Galactic

Basic Standard, a vernacular derived from humans’ earlier language and adapted by the alien

races.

Culture

The arts and media during the Galactic Empire regime are primarily didactic, and cultural

expression is basically to integrate the New Order Ideology to public thinking.

Sectors of the Imperial Government were devoted to dissemination of Imperial

Propaganda namely the Imperial Ministry of Propaganda, the Imperial Propaganda Bureau and

the Propaganda Dissemination Section. Imperial HoloVision is the leading galactic provider of

news and entertainment, and all Imperial media were reviewed and censored by the Imperial

Board of Culture.

The Galactic Empire’s messages are produced to “manufacture consent,” a catch phrase

of Walter Lippman and used by Chomsky (1991, p. 14). Manufacturing consent is defined by

Chomsky as “bring[ing] about agreement on the part of the public for things they didn’t want by

the new techniques of propaganda… because the common interest elude public opinion entirely,

and can only be understood by a specialized class of responsible men” (p. 14-15). The Empire

sees its public with Lippman’s perspective, once again quoted by Chomsky, as divided to the


“responsible elite” and the “bewildered herd” (p. 16). The Empire, the composite of the

“responsible elite”, also shares the desire to protect itself from the “trampling and roars”

(Chomsky, 1991, p.16) of public opinion.

Goals, Objective, Strategies and Tactics

After the consideration of the situation and the audience, the Ministry of Imperial

Propaganda has determined these goals and objectives:

Goals

• To mitigate unrest following the destruction of Alderaan by the Empire's Death Star.

• To reinforce the Galactic Empire's control over its domain.

Objectives

• To frame the Alderaan incident with the Galactic Empire as the defenders of the Galaxy

and the Rebel Alliance as the enemy. Ultimately, we will brand Governor Tarkin as a

hero.

• To test the Imperial Senates’ loyalties

It is important that the Empire seize this opportunity to further its imperial control over

the galaxy. On the planet Earth, Vuorinen (2012) asserted that Adolf Hitler accomplished an

ideological movement through “creating enemy images basically to define their own group

identity” (p.36). By creating an “enemy,” we define the “other” and include the citizens as part

of the Empire. With this consideration, we have determined these action steps:

Strategies

• Present material that appears to be damning evidence highlighting both Princess Leia's

connection to the Rebel Alliance and the presence of Rebel activity on Alderaan.


• Make it appear as though the Rebels were constructing a planet wide countermeasure to

eliminate the Death Star.

• Reinforce the notion that destroying Alderaan was unfortunate, but unavoidable. Time

was of the essence: create a “them or us” mentality.

• Foment patriotism and camaraderie among imperial troops and citizens.

• Demand loyalty from Imperial senators, to root out any more rebel

operatives/sympathizers who may be occupying important positions within the Galactic

Empire

Tactics:

• Edit records and video footage to criminalize Princess Leia.

• Make Leia's escape from Imperial custody appear to be an attack on the Death Star,

perhaps an attempt to destroy it from within.

• Spread propaganda through secret agents. Through word of-mouth tactics and subtle

barracks graffiti campaigns, we will support our official rational for Alderaan's

destruction and also raise troop morale.

Figure 6. Sample graffiti art.


• Forge documentation and visual evidence to support our concerns that a dangerous

weapon was being created on Alderaan.

Figure 7. Fabricated Alderaanian Weapons.

• Bribe independent media official to toe our party line.

• Secure and control media relays throughout the galaxy to secure transmission of our

campaign messages.

Our response strategies is primarily guided by Coombs (2007) where we use Leia as a

scapegoat, minimizing the Empire’s responsibility by framing the incident as an act of defense,

and offer compensation to the survivors. The Empire also aspires to portray an ethical standpoint

through the magnanimous offer of the Emperor’s resort planet as a home planet relocation to the

Alderaanian. We hope to achieve a façade of “compassion” for the citizens.


Budget

Figure 8. The strategic communication response budget to the Alderaan Incident.

This communication plan requires the budget of 7,200,000 Imperial Credits per month

distributed to three broad divisions of subterfuge, media/broadcasting cost, and military security.

Five hundred thousand Imperial Credits will be allocated for fabrication of evidence, and

creation of pro-imperial sentiments within the ranks of the Galactic Troops. Seven hundred

thousand Imperial Credits are allocated for media production and dissemination. Military

security is still a top priority during war and thus will be allotted 6,000,000 Imperial Credits; this

includes broadcast securities that are in danger of rebel hijacking.

Timeline

This communication response is guided by a short time line of two hours since the

Alderaan Incident.

7%

10%

83%

Subtrefuge Media Military Security


Figure 9. The communication response timeline.

Less than ten minutes after the Alderaan Incident, the Emperor will graciously offer his

own Private Resort Planet for the resettlement of surviving Alderaanians who were off-planet

during the explosion. Another ten minutes later, we will conduct the Ministry of Imperial

Propaganda Briefing. Shortly after, our graphic designers and video producers will be handling

documentation criminalizing Leia, as well as producing video evidence that supports the theory

that Alderaan was indeed a threat to the Empire’s peace. This information will be disseminated

by Imperial HoloVision. Next, we will provide a briefing to “special” citizens about the context


of events to spread the “news” to the public. Our graphic designers will be preparing drafts of the

“Tarkin Statue” to be pitched to the Imperial Senate to acknowledge Tarkin’s heroism

As we maintain control over Holo Vision, we will make sure that our messages are kept

on the air at all times.

These propaganda strategies, including the pre-existing “Join the Empire” messages, will

be disseminated to the public. This is a costly but necessary procedure which will ideally run its

course and lead to the complete annihilation of the Rebel Alliance as soon as possible.

Outcomes and Measurements

The ideal outcome of this plan is to enhance the galaxy’s sense of peace and unity, and to

avoid the strengthening of the Rebel Alliance. We will measure public opinion through

anonymous polls and feedback from “special citizens” planted within our public.


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