Propaganda
A propaganda picture opposing the United States made by North Korea. In the picture, a North Korean soldier is destroying the United States Capitol
Propaganda is information true or false disseminated to serve an agenda. If true, it may be one-sided and fail to paint a complete picture.
In late Latin,
propaganda meant "things to be propagated". In 1622,
shortly after the start of the Thirty
Years' War, Pope
Gregory XV founded the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide
("congregation for propagating the faith"), a committee of Cardinalss
to oversee the propagation of Christianity
by missionaries
sent to non-Christian countries. Originally the term was not intended to refer
to misleading information. The modern political sense dates from World War I,
not originally pejorative.
Propaganda shares many techniques with advertising;
in fact, advertising can be said to be propaganda promoting a commercial
product. However, propaganda usually has political or nationalist
themes. Examples of propaganda include leaflets and broadcasts prepared for an
enemy audience during warfare and most political campaign advertisements.
Propaganda is also one of the methods used in psychological
warfare.
In a narrower and more common use of the term, propaganda refers to
deliberately false or misleading information that supports a political cause or
the interests of those in power. The propagandist seeks to change the way people
understand an issue or situation, for the purpose of changing their actions and
expectations in ways that are desirable to the interest group. In this sense,
propaganda serves as a corollary to censorship,
in which the same purpose is achieved, not by filling people's heads with false
information, but by preventing people from knowing true information. What sets
propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the
propagandist to change people's understanding through deception
and confusion, rather than persuasion and understanding.
Propaganda is also a mighty weapon in war.
In this case its aim is usually to dehumanize the enemy and to create hatred
against a special group. The technique is to create a false image in the mind.
This can be done by using special words, special avoidance of words or by saying
that the enemy is responsible for certain things he never did. In every
propaganda war two things are needed: Injustice and Faint. The faint or the
injustice may be fictitious or may be based on facts, the aim is always to
create hate.
Examples for propaganda:
Propaganda can be classifed according to source. White
propaganda comes from an openly identified source. Black
propaganda pretends to be from a friendly source, but is actually from
an adversary. Gray propaganda pretends to be from a neutral
source, but comes from an adversary.
See also: black
propaganda, marketing,
advertising
Propaganda has been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded
evidence exists. The writings of Romans like Livy
are considered masterpieces of pro-Roman statist propaganda. The term itself
originates with the Roman Catholic Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of
the Faith (sacra congregatio christiano nomini propagando or, briefly,
propaganda fide), the department of the pontifical administration
charged with the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of ecclesiastical
affairs in non-Catholic countries (mission territory). The actual Latin stem
propagand- conveys a sense of "that which ought to be spread".
Propaganda techniques were first codified and applied in a scientific manner
by journalist Walter Lippman and psychologist Edward
Bernays (nephew of Sigmund
Freud) early in the 20th
century. During World War I, Lippman and Bernays were hired by the United
States President, Woodrow
Wilson to sway popular opinion to enter the war on the side of Britain.
The war propaganda campaign of Lippman and Bernays produced within six months
so intense an anti-German hysteria as to permanently impress American business
(and Adolf
Hitler, among others) with the potential of large-scale propaganda to
control public opinion. Bernays coined the terms "group mind" and "engineering
consent", important concepts in practical propaganda work.
The current public
relations industry is a direct outgrowth of Lippman and Bernays' work and is
still used extensively by the United States government. For the first half of
the 20th century Bernays and Lippman themselves ran a very successful public
relations firm.
World
War II saw continued use of propaganda as a weapon of war, both by Hitler's
propagandist Joseph
Goebbels and the British Political Warfare Executive.
Most propaganda in Germany was produced by the Ministry for Public
Enlightenment and Propaganda ("Promi" in German abbreviation). Joseph
Goebbels was placed in charge of this ministry shortly after Hitler took
power in 1933.
All journalists, writers, and artists were required to register with one of the
Ministry's subordinate chambers for the press, fine arts, music, theater, film,
literature, or radio.
The Nazis believed in propaganda as a vital tool in achieving their goals. Adolf
Hitler, Germany's World War I and believed that it had been a
primary cause of the collapse of morale and revolts in the German home front and
Navy in 1918.
Hitler would meet nearly every day with Goebbels to discuss the news and
Goebbels would obtain Hitler's thoughts on the subject; Goebbels would then meet
with senior Ministry officials and pass down the official Party line on world
events. Broadcasters and journalists required prior approval before their works
were disseminated. In addition the Nazis had no moral qualms about spreading
propaganda which they themselves knew to the false and indeed spreading
deliberately false information was part of a doctrine known as the Big
Lie.
Nazi propaganda before the start of World War II had several distinct
audiences:
After Stalingrad, the main theme changed to Germany as the sole defender of
Western European culture against the "Bolshevist hordes." The introduction of
the V-1 and V-2 "vengeance weapons" was emphasized to convince Britons of the
hopelessness of defeating Germany.
Goebbels committed suicide shortly after Hitler on April
30, 1945.
In his stead, Hans
Fritzsche, who had been head of the Radio Chamber, was tried and acquitted
by the Nuremberg
war crimes tribunal.
The United States and the Soviet
Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold
War. Both sides used film, television and radio programming to influence
their own citizens, each other and Third World nations. The United
States Information Agency operated the Voice
of America as an official government station. Radio
Free Europe and Radio
Liberty, in part supported by the Central
Intelligence Agency, provided grey propaganda in news and entertainment
programs to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union respectively. The Soviet Union's
official government station Radio Moscow, broadcast white propaganda, while
Radio Peace and Freedom broadcast grey propaganda. Both sides also broadcast
black propaganda programs around special crises.
One of the most insightful authors of the Cold War was George
Orwell, whose novels Animal
Farm and Nineteen
Eighty-Four are virtual textbooks on the use of propaganda. Though not
set in the Soviet Union, their characters live under totalitarian regimes in
which language is constantly corrupted for political purposes. Those novels were
used for explicit propaganda such as the CIA
secretly commissioned an animated
film adaptation of Animal Farm in the 1950s.
Some time has been spent analyzing the means by which propaganda messages are
transmitted, and that work is important, but it's clear that information
dissemination strategies only become propaganda strategies when coupled with
propagandistic messages. Identifying these propaganda messages is a
necessary prerequisite to studying the methods by which those messages are
spread. That's why it is essential to have some knowledge of the following
techniques for generating propaganda:
Appeal
to fear: Appeals to fear seeks to build support by instilling fear
in the general population - for example Joseph
Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's Germany Must Perish! to claim
that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people.
Appeal
to authority: Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to
support a position idea, argument, or course of action.
Bandwagon:
Bandwagon-and-inevitable-victory appeals attempt to persuade the target audience
to take a course of action "everyone else is taking." "Join the crowd." This
technique reinforces people's natural desire to be on the winning side. This
technique is used to convince the audience that a program is an expression of an
irresistible mass movement and that it is in their interest to join. "Inevitable
victory" invites those not already on the bandwagon to join those already on the
road to certain victory. Those already, or partially, on the bandwagon are
reassured that staying aboard is the best course of action.
Obtain disapproval: This technique is used to get the
audience to disapprove an action or idea by suggesting the idea is popular with
groups hated, feared, or held in contempt by the target audience. Thus, if a
group which supports a policy is led to believe that undesirable, subversive, or
contemptible people also support it, the members of the group might decide to
change their position.
Glittering generalities: Glittering generalities are
intensely emotionally appealing words so closely associated with highly valued
concepts and beliefs that they carry conviction without supporting information
or reason. They appeal to such emotions as love of country, home; desire for
peace, freedom, glory, honor, etc. They ask for approval without examination of
the reason. Though the words and phrases are vague and suggest different things
to different people, their connotation is always favorable: "The concepts and
programs of the propagandist are always good, desirable, virtuous."
Rationalization: Individuals or groups may use favorable
generalities to rationalize questionable acts or beliefs. Vague and pleasant
phrases are often used to justify such actions or beliefs.
Intentional vagueness: Generalities are deliberately vague
so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to
move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity
or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application
Transfer:
This is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or
blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group,
organization, nation, patriotism, etc.) to another in order to make the second
more acceptable or to discredit it. This technique is generally used to transfer
blame from one member of a conflict to another. It evokes an emotional response
which stimulates the target to identify with recognized authorities.
Oversimplification: Favorable generalities are used to
provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military
problems.
Common man: The "plain folks" or "common man" approach
attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the
common sense of the people. It is designed to win the confidence of the audience
by communicating in the common manner and style of the audience. Propagandists
use ordinary language and mannerisms (and clothes in face-to-face and
audiovisual communications) in attempting to identify their point of view with
that of the average person.
Testimonial:
Testimonials are quotations, in or out of context, especially cited to support
or reject a given policy, action, program, or personality. The reputation or the
role (expert, respected public figure, etc.) of the individual giving the
statement is exploited. The testimonial places the official sanction of a
respected person or authority on a propaganda message. This is done in an effort
to cause the target audience to identify itself with the authority or to accept
the authority's opinions and beliefs as its own.
Stereotyping
or Labeling: This technique attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by
labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience
fears, hates, loathes, or finds undesirable.
Scapegoating:
Assigning blame to an individual or group that isn't really responsible, thus
alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting
attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned.
Virtue words: These are words in the value system of the
target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person
or issue. Peace, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, etc., are virtue
words.
Slogans:
A slogan is a brief striking phrase that may include labeling and stereotyping.
If ideas can be sloganized, they should be, as good slogans are
self-perpetuating memes.
See also doublespeak,
information
warfare, meme,
psyops
Common methods for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports,
government reports, historical revision, junk
science, books, leaflets, movies,
and posters.
History of the term "Propaganda"
Kinds of Propaganda
In an even narrower, less commonly used but legitimate sense of
the term, propaganda refers only to false information meant to reassure people
who already believe. The assumption is that, if people believe something false,
they will constantly be assailed by doubts. Since these doubts are unpleasant
(see cognitive
dissonance), people will be eager to have them extinguished, and are
therefore receptive to the reassurances of those in power. For this reason
propaganda is often addressed to people who are already sympathetic to the
agenda.
History of Propaganda
Nazi Germany
Until the Battle
of Stalingrad's conclusion on February
4, 1943,
German propaganda emphasized the prowess of German arms and the humanity German
soldiers had shown to the peoples of occupied territories. In contrast, British
and Allied fliers were depicted as cowardly murderers, and Americans in
particular as gangsters in the style of Al
Capone. At the same time, German propaganda sought to alienate Americans and
British from each other, and both these Western belligerents from the Soviets.
Cold War Propaganda
Techniques of Propaganda Generation
Saddam
Hussein pictured as a decisive war leader in an Iraqi propaganda
pictureTechniques of Propaganda Transmission
See Also
Public
diplomacy, the term used by the USIA to describe its mission
References
See also: propaganda
film, Logical
fallacy, political
media, ideology,
spin,
public
relations, marketing,
Information
warfare, CNN,
BBC,
agitprop
External links
Propaganda were a 1980s UK pop group signed to Paul Morley and
Trevor
Horn's ZTT
record label.
