I wish you-all would shed light on the rhetorical advice which consists of treating various collectivities, objects, aggregations, and even streets (Wall) and buildings (Whitehall, the White House, the Kremlin) as if they were sentient, vocal beings. Thus: "China Resisted U.S. Pressure on Rights of Nobel Winner"; "China Moves to Block Foreign News on Nobel Ceremony" (N Y Times, 12/9/10); "...this city [of Kristianstad, Sweden] vowed a decade ago to wean itself from fossil fuels" (N Y T, 12/10). It's a very common journalistic practice. "Anthropomorphism" may be the philosophy, but is not the name of the device. Reification, maybe. I lean toward an old usage of the label Personation (whereas IMpersonation is one person pretending to be another person). Can you help?