Public Sphere--week 6 February 7, 2006

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Public Sphere--week 6February 7, 2006

• Public Communication
• PR and Social Marketing
• propaganda theory and PR
• Jacques Ellul

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keywords

• mass society
• crowd theory
• propaganda theory
• civic advocacy propaganda
• cultural pedagogy
• modernity and postmodernity

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outline

• (1) The shared history of PR and propaganda the
  role of propaganda theory
• (2) Jacques Ellul the major theorist of
  propaganda in the 20th century

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the shared history of PR and propaganda the
role of propaganda theory

• crowd theory (as discussed in the unit notes)
  establishes an early precedent for propaganda
  theory in the late 19th century
• propaganda theory brings some of the basic
  assumptions taken from crowd theory directly into
  the study of communication in the early 20th
  century
• propaganda theory is the first formal body of
  theory developed with regard to the study of mass
  media specifically
• propaganda theory was developed by major
  propaganda theorists in the United States such as
  Harold Lasswell and Walter Lippmann in the
  period between WWI and II (1920s and 30s)
• Ellul (profiled later in the Powerpoint) reflects
  a more mature and critical view of propaganda
• Propaganda theory is famous for two models of
  media influence
• the hypodermic needle or magic bullet model and
• the two-step model

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Propaganda and PR how do they relate?

• propaganda and PR were effectively the same thing
  to Bernays and other early propaganda theorists
  and PR intellectuals
• the lessons of propaganda in wartime were
  directly applied to peacetime PR
• how were they similar?
• they both assumed considerable control over the
  audiences understanding of the message and the
  world
• they assumed that the point of communication was
  to change the thinking and behaviour of an
  audience in a way that conformed with the
  interests of the sender
• communication was essentially defined as a
  one-way process not requiring or expecting
  audience response
• communication is closely identified with power
  the power to compel an audience to accept the
  senders worldview, and the consequences of that
  acceptance for their economic and political
  welfare
• they originated in the interests of those with
  concentrated political power (the state) or
  economic power (corporate capital)
• they are especially implicated in ideology they
  do deliberate and conspicuous ideological work,
  insofar as they diffuse the views of those with
  power within society

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Bernays on propaganda and PR

• When I came back to the United States, I
  decided that if you could use propaganda for war,
  you could certainly use it for peace. And
  propaganda got to be a bad word because of the
  Germans.. using it. So what I did was to try to
  find some other words, so we found the words
  Council on Public Relations.
• Edward Bernays

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1st generation propaganda theorythe hypodermic
needle or magic bullet model

• Harold Laswell and Walter Lippman (1889-1974
  image on left) develop the study of propaganda,
  inspired by their experiences in World War 1 and
  II
• the basic premise of propaganda theory was that
  the (then new) mass media of radio and film were
  capable of bringing about enormous changes in the
  thought and behaviour of Western publics
• this view of medias relationship to public is
  typically captured in the idea of strong
  effect, i.e., the idea that media can radically
  and instantly change how people think and act
• the favourite metaphor of propaganda theorists
  was to compare media to a hypodermic needle

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2nd generation propaganda theorythe two-step
model

• Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) was a media theorist
  who advanced the work of early propaganda
  theorists, and who is identified as a central
  figure in the media effects tradition
• in his 1944 book with Elihu Katz, The Peoples
  Choice, Lazarsfeld developed whats called the
  two-step model
• the two-step model argued that media influence
  was not direct from source to receiver rather,
  it was mediated by opinion leaders (e.g.,
  editorial writers, local politicians, bosses,
  other authority figures) and then had its
  influence on audience
• the two-step model directs media analysis to
  accommodate the fact that people are the most
  powerful media, and that media messages are
  made real and consequential as they are made
  accountable to peoples lives and social and
  cultural factors

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(i) magic bullet (or hypodermic needle) model
1st generation(ii) two-step model 2nd generation
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Harold Laswell on politics

• "Politics is the process by which it is
  determined who gets what, when and how.
• Harold Laswell (1902-78
• his image on left)

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2. Jacques Ellul and the theory of propaganda

• Ellul (1912-94) is the premier critic of
  propaganda in the 20th century, and an influence
  on other theorists of propaganda
• family poverty required that he tutor other
  children in German, Greek, Latin and French from
  the age of 15
• he was born and raised in Bordeaux, France, and
  influenced both by Marx and Christian thought
• he was a theologian, an activist specializing in
  youth issues, and one of the greatest critics of
  propaganda and technology
• his major works are
• Propaganda (1965)
• The Technological Society (1964)

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origin and definition of the term propaganda

• the term "propaganda" comes to us from the 16th
  century, at the time of the Counter-Reformation
  in England
• the Counter-Reformation was a period defined by
  Roman Catholic campaign to reverse
  Protestantism's spread in Europe (the Protestant
  "Reformation" led by Luther, Calvin, and others),
  and reestablish Catholic supremacy in Europe.
• the Jesuits - the intellectual elite in the
  Catholic church - formed a special group called
  the "Society for the Propagation of the Faith" to
  produce information on behalf of Catholicism and
  against the Protestant churches
• this is the source of the word "propaganda" -
  i.e., inspired by the information campaign that
  was "propagated" (or disseminated) by the Jesuits
• definition of propaganda
• "The term 'propaganda' has since come to
  refer to the no-holds barred use of communication
  to propagate specific beliefs and expectations."
• from Stanley Baran and Dennis Davis, The Rise of
  Media Theory in the Age of Propaganda

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What are the features of propaganda according to
Ellul?

• propaganda is not restricted to war-time
  communication aimed at winning the hearts and
  minds of the enemy, or mobilizing a domestic
  population in support of a war
• rather, propaganda represents a set of conditions
  in which any message can becomes propagandistic
  in nature
• this means that propaganda exists in both war and
  peace time, and is factor or property of
  communication even in everyday mainstream media
  culture
• the features of propaganda are
• (i) scope of debate is limited to a narrow range
• (ii) messages derive from and reflect dominant
  political and economic interests
• (iii) messages marginalize and demonize opposing
  perspectives
• (iv) messages use simplistic language and images
  and reduce complexity of reality to digestible
  form. typically appeal to emotion, not to reason
• (v) messages compel conformity of audience, and
  do not invite dialogue or questions

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the lonely crowd the audience in an age of
propaganda

• propaganda neither addresses the individual nor
  the mass, but instead the "lonely crowd
• the "lonely crowd" was his metaphor to capture
  the experience of living in the mass society
• the object of propaganda is the individual in
  the crowd, the very condition of human identity
  in the mass society of modernity
• "Modern propaganda reaches individuals
  enclosed in the mass and as participants in that
  mass, yet it also aims at a crowd, but only as a
  body composed of individuals." (Ellul,
  Propaganda, p. 6)
• the Lonely Crowd was also the subject of a
  famous book by sociologist David Riesman

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How is propaganda made?(1) shaky foundations and
faulty logic

• making bold assertions without evidence
• use of untrustworthy authorities
• reasoning with the wrong facts
• moral context based on extremes and absolutes
• rationalization (i.e., making up reasons for
  something we wanted to do anyway)
• faulty premises for argument
• hasty generalization
• . begging the question (i.e., assuming the truth
  of something that you set out to prove)
• attacking the person, not the argument (i.e., ad
  hominem arguments)
• creating a convenient enemy (Nazis use of Jews to
  explain German hardship before WWII)
• blending fact and opinion without distinguishing
  them

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(ii) intentional distortions

• twisting and distorting argument
• selective omission
• incomplete quotation (i.e., citing a source but
  changing it to serve your argument)
• quoting out of context
• innuendo (i.e., offering remarks with underlying
  criticism or accusation attached)

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(iii) verbal tricks

• use of testimonials (having celebrities or
  authority figures endorse idea)
• bandwagon appeal (peer pressure involved in sense
  that everyone is thinking or doing something
• plain folks and snob appeal approaches (assuming
  listeners are one's friends and real people, or
  alternately, are fellow members of an elite)
• use of generalities ("plastic words" or
  "newsspeak")
• name calling. use of stereotypes. appeals to
  scientific authority (i.e., use of fancy or
  technical phrases).
• repetition
• co-optation (neutralizing opposing phrases and
  images by changing their meaning
• association of message or person with powerful
  symbols (e.g., wrapping one's self in flag)
• audience addressed as children - as in need of
  instruction or direction

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Terror Alert animated cartoon
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questions for discussion

1. How does the fact that propaganda research and
   practice in WWI directly influenced the
   development of PR change how you view PR today?
2. Social marketing is a frequent feature of our
   media culture. Non-profits present messages that
   counsel us to practice safe sex and not take
   drugs corporations make us aware of their
   philanthropy governments remind us to be
   patriotic or to eat according to the Canada
   Health Guide. Is such civic advocacy propaganda
   a form of social engineering? If so, is it
   something we should be cautious of?
3. What is postmodern about politics today? What is
   postmodern about the way we communicate
   politically?