A novel model for planning effective communications campaigns
Communications is a fast-growing profession. The need to create, edit, translate, and disseminate information through a variety of different platforms is creating an increased demand for people with these skills.
Persuasive introduces the Persuasion Matrix, a model for planning communication campaigns based in persuasion research. Marrianne McMullen draws on her wide-ranging and high-profile career to share her hard-earned wisdom gleaned from her work as a journalist, with labor unions, with DC public schools, and on President Barack Obama's campaigns; she also served as an appointee in both his terms. McMullen tracks decades of research, providing a series of intricate and diverse case studies about workplace and relevant social issues. Persuasion theory and research is woven throughout the professional narratives and each career story closes with key lessons in communications. Persuasive guides researchers and practitioners to a point of reflection on the true value of engaged scholarship and communication activism.
Highly engaging and concise, Persuasive is a professional memoir that provides 40 lessons in communications for managers, communicators in public or nonprofit sectors, and students of communications.
Reviews
"Marrianne McMullen has played many roles as a communications professional—journalist, entrepreneur, public servant, and advocate. She takes you backstage to reveal the inner workings of stories that change hearts and minds."—Matthew Kohut, author, Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication, and managing partner, KNP Communications
"Persuasive is a gift to the communications field that demonstrates the true value of engaged scholarship and communication activism. McMullen's intricate case studies shed light on, for better and for worse, the institutions, ethos, and personality types we encounter in small midwestern towns as well as big cities like Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, DC. Ranging from prostitution and politics to labor movements, McMullen's memoir is an extraordinary example of the impact that professional communicators can have on society."—Christopher Reed Groscurth, author, Future-Ready Leadership and Sacred Conversations
"A breezy communications primer enriched by stories from Marrianne McMullen's wide-ranging career as a journalist, organizer, strategist, and communicator—from community newspapers to the Obama years. Her Persuasion Matrix should inform any communications campaign."—Thom Clark, Investigative Project on Race and Equity, Public Narrative (formerly Community Media Workshop) founder
"Some of the most useful advice in this book relates to how to treat people. We can always improve our communication skills. This book can help you to do it."—Dayton Daily News
About the Author
Marrianne McMullen is a communications professional in public affairs who has worked in all sectors of the economy, including academia, where she is currently director of communication at the Chapin Hall research center at the University of Chicago. She has a BS in journalism from West Virginia University and an MA in communications from the University of Dayton.
