Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS

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Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS

• Lecture 1
• What is propaganda?

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(At least) 2 schools of thought

• Propaganda, however it is defined, is inherently
  deceitful and thus morally reprehensible
• Or - that it is a process of persuasion and, as
  such, is inherently neutral or value neutral
• This course takes the latter view..
• .and thus sees propaganda as a process of
  persuasion which can be used for good as well as
  ill.

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(At least) 2 models

• Authoritarian/Totalitarian coercion or force in
  support of persuasion total censorship
  permeates every aspect of society from schools to
  sport The Big Lie
• Democratic consensus through persuasion,
  minimal censorship, news rather than views,
  issue-based, The Strategy of Truth

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What is Propaganda?

• Original meaning to propagate the faith
  -(Congregatio de Propaganda Fide 17th Century)
• Sowing seeds of thought to translate into action
  (or inaction)
• Acquired pejorative meaning 1914-18

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A Good Word Gone Wrong

• Atrocity propaganda
• Lies and half-truths
• A black art defiling the human soul at a time
  when the mind was only just becoming understood
  (psychology)
• Better to persuade than perish?

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What it is not

• Education . But?
• Is it COMPLETELY honest?
• It is not about Truth
• Confined to dictatorships/authoritarian regimes
• Designed to benefit solely the recipient

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What is propaganda?

• It is a process of persuasion
• It is on the spectrum of communication from who
  says what to whom, when, how and with what effect
• It injects the question why? into that spectrum
• Therefore it is about intent

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Intentions

• As a process, propaganda is value-neutral
• As such, it is neither a good nor a bad thing
• Value judgements like this are more appropriately
  directed as the intentions behind doing it
• More useful to speak of effective and
  ineffective propaganda (results)

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Good or Bad Intentions?
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Propaganda is something someone else does!!

• Democracies only resort to propaganda in
  wartime
• Totalitarian regimes do it all the time
• We tell the truth they tell lies
• In fact we tell our truth and they tell their
  truth
• Whose truth is right?
• Better to talk about credibility

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Propaganda NATO definition

• ANY INFORMATION, IDEAS, DOCTRINES OR SPECIAL
  APPEALS,
• DISSEMINATED TO INFLUENCE THE OPINIONS, EMOTIONS,
  ATTITUDES OR BEHAVIOUR OF ANY SPECIFIED GROUP
• IN ORDER TO BENEFIT THE SPONSOR, EITHER DIRECTLY
  OR INDIRECTLY

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PROPAGANDA CATEGORIES

• WHITE - overt, attributable to a definite source
• BLACK - covert, deliberate deception where a
  false source is definitely implied
• GREY - where a source is concealed and not
  acknowledged by the originator

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COHESIVE PROPAGANDA

• CREATE GOODWILL
• PROMOTE FRIENDSHIP
• RAISE MORALE
• STRESS COMMON INTERESTS
• GAIN CO-OPERATION

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DIVISIVE PROPAGANDA

• LOWER MORALE
• CREATE APATHY, DEFEATISM DISCORD
• PROMOTE DISSENTION, PANIC SUBVERSION, RESISTANCE,
  DESERTION, SURRENDER DEFECTION

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PROPAGANDA VARIANTS

• INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC INFORMATION (Public
  Diplomacy/Cultural Diplomacy)
• PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE/OPERATIONS
• INFORMATION WARFARE/OPERATIONS
• PUBLIC RELATIONS/SPIN DOCTORING
• ADVERTISING/MARKETING (?)
• PUBLICITY
• NEWS? (the shocktroops of propaganda)

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PROPAGANDA
AUTHORITARIAN MODEL (Censorship, police
enforcement Media are state controlled, Opposition
denied)
DEMOCRATIC MODEL (Regulation rather than
censorship, media are free/act as watchdog,
Opposition essential)
Messages compete with others, internally and
externally, top down to bottom up to see
consensus (ie prevailing truth) emerge
Messages are top down, Centrally
coordinated, Outside world sealed off to deny
competing truths
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The process of persuasion spectrum in the
democratic model
POLITICALCOMMS (spin)
PROPAGANDA
EDUCATION
ADVERTISING
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Who to vote for (benefits the party)
Who to like (benefits the company)
What to think? (benefits the source)
How to think (benefits the recipient)
What to buy (benefits the profits)
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PROPAGANDA PRINCIPLES

• IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN
• IT IS BASED UPON CREDIBLE TRUTH
• PRESENTED IN AN ATTRACTIVE FORM
• IT AROUSES A NEED
• IT SUGGESTS SATISFACTION

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ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES

• REFRAIN FROM RIGID DOGMATISM
• AVOID ANTAGONISM
• IDENTIFIES ITSELF WITH THE TARGET
• EXPLOITS, WHEN OPPORTUNE, WEAKNESSES IN HOSTILE
  PROPAGANDA TO THE MAXIMUM

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Key Propaganda Writers

• Walter Lippmann Harold Lasswell
• Aldous Huxley George Orwell
• Hitler
• Jacques Ellul
• Noam Chomsky Edward Herman
• R S Zaharna (on PD)
• A Pratkanis