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

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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

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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)

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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