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Propaganda

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Title: Propaganda


1
Propaganda
  • Etymology
  • Definitions
  • Aims
  • Forms of propaganda
  • Means of propaganda
  • Propaganda techniques
  • Herman and Chomskys propaganda model

2
Etymology
  • Derived from from the Latin verb propagare which
    means 'to reproduce (a plant) by cuttings spread
    for sprouting propagate enlarge'.
  • 1622 Congregatio de Propaganda Fide
  • (the congregation for propagating the faith).
    Established by Pope Gregory XV in order to
    centralize all of the Roman Catholic Church's
    missionary activity.
  • 1627 Collegium de Propaganda
  • (the college of propaganda). Established by
    Pope Urban VIII in order to educate priests for
    work in foreign missions.
  • 1789 Increasingly secularized appropriation of
    the term during the French revolution

3
Changing meanings
  • 1842 political meaning overshadowing the
    religious, thereby already taking on a
    derogatory connotation
  • "Derived from this celebrated society for
    propagating the faith, the name propaganda is
    applied in modern political language as a term of
    reproach to secret associations for the spread of
    opinions and principles which are viewed by most
    governments with horror and aversion." (W.T.
    Brande, Dictionary of Science, Literature, and
    Art)
  • 1922 First separate entry in Encyclopedia
    Britannica
  • Between WWI and WWII, propaganda was the umbrella
    term, and public relations considered a method
    thereof, which was turned around afterwards.
  • In most South American countries, the word
    propaganda means advertising.

4
Definitions
  • Laswell the management of collective attitudes
    by the manipulation of significant symbols
  • Doob a systematic attempt to control the
    attitudes of groups of individuals through the
    use of suggestion and consequently control their
    actions
  • Gans each group in society tries to get its own
    particular values legitimated by the media and
    they affect the distribution of wealth, power and
    prestige by controlling the symbols, myths and
    information
  • Chomsky/Lippmann manufacturing of consent
  • Thomson the use of communication skills of all
    kinds to achieve attitudinal or behavioural
    changes among one group of people by another

5
Laswells theory of political propaganda
  • Deliberation
  • search for the solution of a besetting problem
    with no desire to prejudice a particular solution
    in advance
  • Propaganda
  • very much concerned about how a specific
    solution is to be evoked and put over
  • Propaganda objective to organize attitudes
  • towards a person, a group, a policy, an
    institution, a mode of personal participation
  • Function of propaganda in modern life
  • Attributable to social disorganization in the
    advent of technological changes
  • Most of what formerly could be done by violence
    and intimidation must now be done by argument and
    persuasion.

6
Conceptualizations
  • Corollary to censorship
  • Form of advocacy
  • commonly understood as advocacy that resorts to
    means of deception and manipulation
  • A method of psychological warfare
  • Leninist distinction between
  • propaganda (mobilizing supporters)
  • and
  • agitation (spreading the message)
  • Anarchist conception of propaganda by the deed
    (i.e. terrorism)

7
Aims
  • To convert, to a religious faith or political
    cause
  • To dehumanize the enemy (in war)
  • To reassure the faithful (countering the
    possibility of cognitive dissonance)
  • To spread fear and undermine confidence amongst
    enemy population in their leaders
  • To generate support (e.g. persuading the US to
    enter World War I)

8
Forms of propaganda (WWII)
  • Black pretenting to come from a friendly
    source, but actually from adversary, designed to
    spread misinformation
  • White from an openly identified source,
    containing mainly facts
  • Gray from an unnamed or allegedly neutral
    source, mixing facts and deception

9
Means of propaganda
  • Symbols
  • Artefacts, coins, logos, clothing, code of arms,
    etc.
  • Art
  • Movies, paintings, drama, poetry, hymns, statues,
    music, etc.)
  • Advertising
  • Posters, leaflets, etc.
  • Education
  • E.g. debates over teaching of intelligent
    design in biology

10
Propaganda techniques 1
  • Name-Calling
  • Demeaning names Commie, Fascist, Pig, Yuppie,
    Bum, Queer, Terrorist, Jipsy
  • Emotionally charged concepts social engineering,
    radical, cowardly, counter-culture, liberal (in
    US), pro-choice vs. pro-life
  • Glittering Generality
  • E.g. elevator speeches We believe in freedom
    and liberty, low taxes, less government,
    traditional values, and a strong defense."
  • Euphemisms
  • E.g. collateral damage, shell-shock vs.
    post-traumatic stress disorder

11
Propaganda techniques 2
  • Transfer
  • Associating oneself with revered symbols (flag,
    cross), or for example using prayer to transfer
    religious prestige to advocated ideas
  • Testimonial
  • Deriving authority for ideas from promotion by
    qualified, or unqualified but prestigious,
    sources
  • Plain Folks
  • Adhering to the common man in the street,
    aiming to overcome suspicion of elitism

12
Propaganda techniques 3
  • Band Wagon
  • Suggestive power through generating crowd
    dynamics (which is why, for example, cinema is
    considered a better propaganda medium than TV or
    radio)
  • Fear
  • Four elements to a successful fear appeal
  • a threat
  • a specific recommendation about how the audience
    should behave,
  • audience perception that the recommendation will
    be effective in addressing the threat
  • audience perception that they are capable of
    performing the recommended behavior

13
Herman and Chomskys propaganda model
  • Consistent with longstanding and widely held
    elite views that
  • the masses are notoriously shortsighted (Bailey
    1948)
  • often poor judges of their own interests
    (Lasswell 1933)
  • our statesmen must deceive them (Bailey 1948)
  • can be managed only by a specialized class whose
    personal interests reach beyond the locality
    (Lippmann 1921).
  • In Lippmanns view, the manufacture of consent
    by an elite class had already become a
    self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular
    government by the 1920s
  • (Herman 2000, pp. 104)

14
Media and power
  • Dominant media are firmly embedded in the market
    system
  • Profit-seeking
  • Owned by the wealthy or larger corporations
  • Funded by also profit-seeking advertisers,
    requiring and demanding a supportive selling
    environment for their advertising
  • Leaning heavily on government and major business
    firms as information sources
  • Causing solidarity between government, major
    media and corporate businesses
  • Government and large corporations best positioned
    to pressure media under threat of source or
    advertising withdrawal
  • Media constrained by dominant, capitalist (and,
    during Cold war, heavily anti-communist) ideology

15
The flow of information
  • Multi-leveled capability of government and
    corporations to exert power over the flow of
    information (5 filters)
  • Ownership
  • Advertising
  • Sourcing
  • Flak (negative response to a media statement or
    program)
  • Anti-communist ideology
  • The model does suggest that the mainstream
    media, as elite institutions, commonly frame news
    and allow debate only within the parameters of
    elite perspectives and that when the elite is
    really concerned and unified and/or when ordinary
    citizens are not aware of their own stake in an
    issue or are immobilized by effective propaganda,
    the media will serve elite interests
    uncompromisingly. (Herman 2000, pp.104)

16
Media - the dependent variable
  • Decentralized, non-conspiratorial market system
    of control and processing
  • Propaganda campaigns can occur only when they are
    consistent with the interests of those
    controlling and managing the filters
  • A model of media behaviour and performance, not
    of media effects
  • Effectiveness depends on unity among interested
    elites
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