This episode focuses on the attitude of the mass media to the issue of national brands, international images and public diplomacy. Simon laments the enduring focus on the superficial message of rankings. Nick ponders the role of media as a component of national image in their own right and the possibility that the BBC is the 'goose that lays the golden egg' of British Soft Power. The conversation turns to the reputation of damaged places like Cambodia in the 1970s or more recently Rwanda and Syria. Nick talks about recent research on Great War propaganda suggesting that roots of distortion lay more in the popular press than in government bureaucracies. The episode concludes with an acceptance that the public seem to get the media that they deserve and that the flaws of international coverage track