Politics and the Internet: Propaganda

LM350 Computer Mediated Communication

Propaganda and Persuasion

Propaganda • is deliberate• aims to control or alter people's

attitudes• aims to produce predictable behaviour

by those who have had their attitudes controlled or altered

• does not depend on violence or bribery

• Persuasion + negative connotation?

Insititute for Propaganda Analysis

• 1937, U.S.• to educate American public about

dangers of political propaganda• identified seven basic propaganda

devices

• How do they translate to Internet?

Word Games: Name calling

• Linking a person or idea to a negative symbol, e.g. commie, pig,terrorist, subversive

• More subtly - stingy, spendthrift vs prudent, generous

Name calling• Newt Ginrich’s negative words to use

about opponents:

– Betray– Collapse– Crisis– Decay– Hypocrisy– Radical– Shallow

israel

Whites

Glittering Generalities“Virtue” words, that we all aspire to

“own”, e.g. – Progress– Improvement– Justive– Fairness– Democracy– Freedom– Health– Pride

Glittering Generalities“Name calling seeks to make us form a judgement to reject and condemn without examining the evidence, the Glittering Generality device seeks to make us approve and accept without examining the evidence”

IPA 1938

Glittering GeneralitiesCurrent favourites?• Choice• Families• Modernisation• Others???

stormfront

Aryan Family Network

And baby drive…

White children site

Word games: Euphemisms

• Ministry of Defence• Collateral damage• Friendly fire• Liquidation• Post traumatic stress disorder - not

shell shock

False connections: Transfer

… the device by which the propagandist carries over the authority, sanction and prestige of something we respect and revere to something he would have us respect.”

e.g. Church, nation, folk tradition

Examples

• Politician closing meeting with a prayer

• And now for the science…• Land of Hope and Glory & Union

Flag in Conservative Party conferences

banners

Transfer x 2

False connections: Testimonial

• JFK/James Dean wore chinos• David Beckham’s kids wear M&S• John Wayne supported handguns

• “sugar coating a distortion, a falsehood, a misunderstood notion or an anti-social suggestion”

Special appeals: plain folks

• Speakers attempt to persuade their audience that they, and their ideas, are “of the people”

• Richard Branson wears woolly jumpers• Tony Blair plays guitar and poses with

his family• William Hague wears his baseball cap

Special appeals: Bandwagon

Propagandist appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to follow the crowd. Because he wants us to follow the crowd in masses, he directs his appeal to groups held together already by common ties of nationality, race, sex, vocation…

= everyone else is doing it, so should you

Special Appeals: Fear• “Rivers of blood” - Enoch Powell• “The universities are filled with

students rebelling and rioting. Russia is threatening us with her might…Yes, danger from within and without. We need Law and Order! Without it our nation cannot survive:” - Hitler

• Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Special Appeals: FearWarning audience that disaster will ensue if they don’t follow a particular course of action.

Structure:1. Threat2. Specific recommendation3. Audience belives effectiveness of action4. Audience believes thay are capable of action

Examples

• Scary AIDS tombstone campaign• Insurance company ad showing

destitution after fire, sickness etc• Ad showing terrible road accident &

appeal to wear seatbelt

mexico

Card stacking“Card Stacking is a device in which the propagandist employs all the arts of deception to win our support for himself, his group, nation, race, policy, practice, belief, or ideal. He stacks the cards against the truth. He uses under-emphasis and over-emphasis to dodge issues and evade facts. He resorts to lies, censorship, and distortion. He omits facts. He offers false testimony. He creates a smoke screen of clamor by raising a new issue when he wants an embarrassing matter forgotten. He draws a red herring across the trail to confuse and divert those in quest of facts he does not want revealed. He makes the unreal appear real and the real appear unreal. He lets half-truth masquerade as truth. By the Card Stacking device, a mediocre candidate, through the buildup, is made to appear an intellectual titan; an ordinary prize fighter; a probable world champion; a worthless patent medicine, a beneficent cure. By means of this device propagandists would convince us that a ruthless war of aggression is a crusade for righteousness.”

Endangered species