Spring 2007 CMNS 130 1

Propaganda, Persuasion and Democracy

CMNS 130-04Lecture 4

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 2

Propaganda: Objectives

• How is it defined?– History of the Term– Key Distinctions from education and from persuasion

• Identify TWO Propaganda Techniques• Chomsky & Herman’s Propaganda Model• Come away from Control Room with examples of

propaganda at work

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 3

Critical Theories of the Press

• From critical political economy– Marx: in every epoch, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class

– Media are central to the operation of capitalism• they sell goods and services• They carry economic news• They are important for coordinating supply and demand

• So essential to economic system, they are controlled by the bourgeoisie, or ruling elites

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 4

Neo-Marxian views

– Argue growth of capitalists/ concentration of ownership forecloses diversity

– AJ Liebling: Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own one.

– That is, the structure of ownership and control• if very concentrated in the hands of a few,• runs the risk that the gatekeepers may freeze out certain ideas in the desire to maximize profits ( see custom courseware, p. 119)

– The media become tools to maintain the dominant ideology of capitalist power

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 5

A Marxist Model of the Press

• Media should serve and be controlled by workers• Media should serve society by education, and

mobilization• Must respond to the people• People have a right, with the worker’s party, to

decide when to use censorship before or after the fact

• Media should provide a complete picture of society, in accordance with Marxist principles,

• Support progressive movements at home and abroad

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 6

The Critical View of Ideology

– Ideologies are not only particular ways of seeing or systems of representation ( CC: 121)» They exclude, limit» They set the boundaries on what we are able to understand and what we accept as possible

– They are always contested between elites and masses and elites» But a common strategy is to present dominant values as ‘normal’

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 7

Critical View Cont’d

–Ideologies, then, are a particular operation of the power of propaganda

– Albert Camus:» Words are more powerful than munitions.

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 8

Stephen Brooks– Reminds us that the media are agents of socialization

– Set the contours of modern political discourse– Agents of social learning

• The process of acquiring knowledge, values, and beliefs about the world and ourselves

• Contribute to what Walter Lippmann called ‘the pictures in our heads’ ( CC: 183)

• Especially powerful agents of ideology on issues where personal experience is unavailable

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 9

Propaganda

• Definition:– The deliberate attempt to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way consistent with benefiting those doing the persuasion• Includes advertising, public relations, and other forms

• Includes censorship– More formally: an organized program of publicity to propagate a doctrine or practice

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 10

History of Term

– Roots of the term lie with the Catholic Church’s attempts to overthrow the Reformation

– In botany: process for sowing, germinating and cultivating ideas ( propagation)

– In biology: dividing of cells: germs.

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 11

Ideological Context of Term

• Connotation is negative– Implies suppression of judgment– A critical view of mass capacity

• Also historically has implied war– Propaganda in service of a just war is ‘good’: what

the enemy does is bad• Such moral relativism obscures its operation in

service of ideology

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 12

Myths about Propaganda

• Not something made for certain purposes– Not untruth

• A sociological phenomenon– Instead, half truth, limited truth,truth out of

context

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 13

Key Distinctions

• How does it differ from education?– Education, in the humanist tradition tells people how to think

– Propaganda tells people what to think:• in authoritarian regimes, the education is used for social and political engineering.

• What distinguishes propaganda from other forms of persuasion ?– Key is intent: propaganda is designed to serve the self interests of the communicator

– Most often associated with war ( but incorrectly)

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 14

Central Issues of Propaganda

• How freely does information flow?• Who controls it?• Why? To what end?• Are we being told everything?• Is news propaganda?• If all news is propaganda are journalists and

audiences merely puppets?

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 15

Common Elements of War Propaganda

• The Big Lie– War atrocity stories ( the Operation Desert Storm, 1991, Kuwaiti

babies)– WWI the human soap factory ( 1919)

• Demonizing the Other– Deck of 52 most wanted of Saddam Hussein’s colleagues– Axis of Evil: Iraq, Syria, N. Korea

• Issuance of Disinformation– Private Jessica Lynch raid

• Tight communication control– Embedding journalists, news pools, joint bureau

• Coercion, pre and post censorship or other uses of totalitarian power

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 16

Precedents

• First World War• WWII• Gulf War 1991• Invasion of Afghanistan(2001)• War on Iraq ( 2002)

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 17

Traditional Theories of Persuasion

Appeals based on ethos ( character and credibility)Pathos ( emotion or feeling)Logos ( argument)

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 18

The Psychosocial Dimension:

Totalitarian Propaganda plays on fear of other, will to security, uncertainty, tendency to conformity- especially with dehumanization, advocacy of hatred, disrespect to human life

Democratic Propaganda plays on desire for well being, happiness. Sense of belongingness- the ‘good life’, noble cause, patriotism

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 19

Propaganda Methods

Technique• Black art: plant an

authority endorsing a view

• Name calling and demonization of the other

• Glittering Generality

Illustration• Seek trusted third

parties to support your point of view

• Use epithets consistent with the times ‘blackguard’

• Words with a virtuous connotation: eg. Democracy, Freedom– After 9-11 Operation Infinite

Justice, Enduring Freedom

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 20

Propaganda Methods II

• Transference: guilt/halo by association

• Testimonials

• Plain Folks/Populism

• EG. Portrayal with the flag, what will resonate well. Or photomontage/fakery

• Having a respected person support the view ( appeal to other authority)

• Aw shucks, this is what we all want. Ideas are ‘of the people’

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 21

Propaganda Methods III

• Card Stacking: selective use of information

• Bandwagon effect

• Lie by omission: present preponderance of confirming information

• Or commission

• Create impression everyone doing it: spiral of silence gets to work … mass rallies

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 22

Other techniques

• Quoting out of context• Bold assertion• Twisting or Distortion• Logical Fallacies

- Leaping to causal judgment- Hasty generalization- False analogy

- Manipulation of Language- Delete the agent of a sentence – obscures responsibility. Instead of US declared war, War was declared.

- Delete experiencer—imputes a harder fact. Instead of journalists estimated 10,000 at the demonstration, say 10,000 hit the streets.

- Control Naming: Orwell: Ministry of Truth. Operation Desert Storm.

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 23

Constructing News Images

• “Seeing is believing”; “The camera never lies”—are clichés which draw attention to popular beliefs and apparent faith in observation and visual representation.

• However, camera positioning and angle, picture framing and lighting, image selection, photographic retouching, digital image manipulation, editorial cropping and final juxtaposition can all radically change or even invert the sense of depicted scenes—’the camera can lie”.

• ‘Time for Peace: Time to Go’! (overhead)

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 24

Signifier (shot) Definition Signified (meaning)

•Close-up

•Media shot

•Long shot

•Full shot

•Face only

•Most of body

•Setting and characters

•Full body of person

•Intimacy

•Personal relationship•Context, scope, public distance

•Social relationship

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 25

Signifier (film/video) Definition Signified (meaning)

•Pan down

•Pan Up

•Zoom in

•Fade in

•Fade Out

•Cut

•Wipe

•Camera looks down•Camera looks up

•Camera moves in

•Image appears on blank screen•Image screen goes blank•Switch from one image to another•Image wiped off screen

•Power, Authority

•Smallness, weakness•Observation, focus•Beginning

•Ending

•Simultaneity, exitement•Imposed conclusion.

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 26

QUOTE OF THE DAY

• “We are all propagandists to varying degrees, just as we are victims of propaganda”.

• “there is no real point in making moral judgements concerning whether propaganda is a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing: it merely is. Rather, redirect moral judgement ..more to the intentions and goals of those employing propaganda”

• We need more propaganda, not less ( Taylor: 320)

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 27

Criteria for discerning democratic from despotic

propaganda• Where propaganda is based on democratic principles– Persuasion, rather than coercion– Commitment to as much truth as possible without jeapardizing lives

– Respect for individual rights and freedoms

– Tolerant of minorities

Spring 2007 CMNS 130 28

Sources

• Stuart Allen, Custom Courseware, pp. 270-273• Philip M. Taylor. 2003. Munitions of the Mind: a

History of Propaganda from the ancient world to present day. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

• Randal Marlin. 2002. Propaganda & the Ethics of Persuasion. Toronto: Broadview Press.

• Jeffery Klaehn. 2001. ‘A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman and Chomsky’s ‘Propaganda Model’ in European Journal of Communication 17(2), 147-182.

• Augie Fleras. 2003. Media as Democratic Propaganda in Mass Media in Canada. Toronto. Nelson. 53-57.