International Propaganda

What is propaganda?
 (At least) 2 schools of thought
 Propaganda, however it is defined, is inherently
deceitful and thus morally reprehensible
 Because it is about manipulation (of symbols,
images, words, ideas) it can never be justified
 Or - that it is a process of persuasion and, as
such, is inherently neutral or value neutral
 This lecture takes the latter view…..
 ….and thus sees propaganda as a process of
persuasion which can be used for good as well as
ill.
 (At least) 2 models
 Authoritarian/Totalitarian – coercion or force
in support of persuasion; total censorship;
permeates every aspect of society from
schools to sport; repetition whether true or
not; ‘The Big Lie’;
 Democratic – consensus through
persuasion, minimal censorship, news
rather than views, issue-based, ‘The
Strategy of Truth’
 What is Propaganda?
 Original meaning – to propagate the
Catholic ‘faith’ - (Congregatio de
Propaganda Fide – 17th Century -
renamed the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples in 1967)
 Sowing seeds of thought to translate
into action (or inaction)
 Acquired pejorative meaning 1914-18;
cultivation of germ(an)s
 ‘A Good Word Gone Wrong’ –
Popular Associations post 1918
 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)
 BUT…..Better to persuade than perish?
 The Taylor Definition
 Propaganda is a process of persuasion
which utilises any available means (media)
to persuade people (target audiences) to
think and/or behave in a manner desired by
the source in order to benefit the interests of
that source, either directly or indirectly.
 This does not preclude the possibility that
the recipient might also benefit in some
way.
 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
SPECTRUM OF PERSUASION
HOW TO THINK WHAT TO THINK

EDUCATION PUBLIC ADVERTISING SPIN WHITE & GREY BLACK

RELATIONS PROPAGANDA PROPAGANDA
 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
 Moral judgements more appropriately directed at
intention, not the process or the results
 Intentions
 As a process, propaganda is value-neutral
 As such, it is neither a ‘good’ nor a ‘bad’
thing
 Value judgements (‘good’ or ‘bad’) like this
are more appropriately directed as the
intentions behind doing it
 Also more useful to speak of ‘effective’ and
‘ineffective’ propaganda (results) rather than
‘good propaganda’ = successful and ‘bad
propaganda’ = unsuccessful
 ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ Intentions?

WW2 Nazi Propaganda 1990s Balkans Democratic 21st century info-propaganda

Propaganda
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
 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
 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
 COHESIVE PROPAGANDA
 CREATES GOODWILL
 PROMOTES FRIENDSHIP
 RAISES MORALE
 STRESSES COMMON
INTERESTS
 GAINS CO-OPERATION
 DIVISIVE PROPAGANDA
 LOWERS MORALE
 CREATES APATHY, DEFEATISM &
DISCORD
 PROMOTES DISSENTION, PANIC
SUBVERSION, RESISTANCE,
DESERTION, SURRENDER &
DEFECTION
 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’)
 PROPAGANDA

AUTHORITARIAN MODEL DEMOCRATIC MODEL

(Censorship, police enforcement
(Regulation rather than
Media are state controlled,
censorship, media are
Opposition denied)
free/act as watchdog,
Opposition essential)

Messages are top down, Messages compete with

Centrally coordinated, others, internally and
Outside world sealed off externally, top down to
to deny competing ‘truths’ bottom up to see consensus
(ie ‘prevailing truth’) emerge
 The process of persuasion spectrum
in the democratic model

EDUCATION ADVERTISING PUBLIC POLITICAL PROPAGANDA

RELATIONS COMMS
(‘spin’)

How to think What to buy Who to like Who to vote What to think?
(benefits the (benefits the (benefits the for (benefits the
recipient) profits) company) (benefits the source)
party)
 SUCCESSFUL
PROPAGANDA PRINCIPLES
IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN
 IT IS BASED UPON CREDIBLE
TRUTH
 PRESENTED IN AN ATTRACTIVE
FORM
 IT AROUSES A NEED
 IT SUGGESTS SATISFACTION
 ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES
 REFRAINS FROM RIGID DOGMATISM
 AVOIDS ANTAGONISM
 IDENTIFIES ITSELF WITH THE
TARGET
 EXPLOITS, WHEN OPPORTUNE,
WEAKNESSES IN HOSTILE
PROPAGANDA TO THE MAXIMUM
 HOW TO GET CAUGHT OUT
 Lies will be discovered sooner or later
 How to keep secrets (e.g. real source of
black propaganda) in the Information Age
(Google Earth)
 The ‘truth’ must be credible, not incredible
 Or do people believe what they want to
believe and dismiss alternative views as
‘mere propaganda’?
 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