Theories of Propaganda

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Theories of Propaganda

• Baran Davis (2003)
• Chapter 4
• Severin Tankard (1997)
• Chapter 6
• Griffin (2000) Chapter 23

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• At the end of this lesson students should be able
  to learn the following
• The meaning of propaganda.
• The origin of propaganda.
• Modern development of propaganda.
• The merging of Magic Bullet Theory.
• The objectives of propaganda.
• The categories of propaganda.

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• Contemporary theorists on propaganda such works
  like The Propaganda Theory by Lasswell 1934, The
  Public opinion Theory by Lipmanns 1922,
  Deweys criticism on propaganda, 1927.The Bullet
  Theory by Schramm 1971 The Hypodermic Needle
  theory by Berlo, 1960 Stimulus response Theory
  by DeFleur Ball-Rokeach, 1989

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• Mc Luhan (1964) Media or Technological
  Determinism Theory Media or Technological
  Determinism Theory

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• The devices of propaganda.
• The effectiveness of propaganda devices.
• Conclusion.

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What is Propaganda?The Origin of Propaganda

• The term propaganda comes form the Latin
  Congregatio de propaganda fide (Congregation for
  the Propagation of Faith) established by Catholic
  Church in 1622 during the Counter-Reformation
  movement where various groups are breaking away
  from the Catholic Church (p.109-110)
• The congregation was part of the Churchs
  Counter-Reformation movement.

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• One of the debated issues during that period was
  that the struggle between science religion as
  the source of knowledge about the world.
• Propaganda at this point of time often was
  associated with negative or connotations and with
  the untruth from the above debate (Severin
  Tankard,p.110)

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• Now, the term propaganda refers to the use of
  communication messages to propagate specific
  beliefs expectations (Baran Davis, p.71)

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Early Development

• By 1920s Freudianism Behaviorism attempts to
  produce a simplistic propaganda theory.
• For the Behaviorism theorists they had the notion
  that all human action is a conditional response
  to external , environmental stimuli.

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• For the Freudianism theorists on the other hand,
  they had the notion that human behavior is the
  product of the conflict between individuals id,
  ego superego. Fulfilling these needs allow them
  to be persuaded.

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• In the Magic Bullet Theory the rationale was
  that the media penetrate peoples mind and
  instantly create effects. The external stimuli
  (mass media) are able to condition anyone to
  behave whatever way a propagandist wants.
• E.g. by controlling these media messages
  propagandists felt that could condition people
  to associates with good or bad emotions, fear or
  loyalty emotions etc.

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• The propagandists saw that the average people
  are powerless to consciously resists this
  influence or be manipulated. No matter what their
  social status, how well educated they are the
  magic bullet of propaganda penetrates their
  defenses transform their thoughts and actions.

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• The advocates of Magic Bullet Theory argued in
  support that the power of the media to influence
  the audience are great. An average audience
  therefore cannot resist media manipulation.

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• Lasswells (1927) classic work Propaganda
  Technique in World War was the first attempt to
  define propaganda in modern times.
• His work refers to the control of opinion using
  significant symbols such as stories, rumors,
  reports, pictures and other form of social
  communication.

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• In 1937,-ten years later- Lasswell presented a
  slightly different definition than before.
• Propaganda in a broader sense is a technique of
  influencing human action by the manipulation of
  representations. These manipulations may be in a
  form of spoken, written, pictorial or musical
  form

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• Lasswells definition of propaganda often times
  are also referred by other scholars as part of
  theory of persuasion which also includes both
  advertising and other means of publicity.

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• Both the term propaganda persuasion was hotly
  debated some scholars. Brown (1958) for example
  makes a clear distinction by defining persuasion
  as symbol-manipulation designed to produce
  action in others.
• Propaganda on the other hand is the process when
  someone judges that the action taken by the
  persuader is not in the interest of the
  persuadee. The differences lies on the source
  and the receiver.

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• Although the techniques applied for both
  persuasion and propaganda are identical the
  benefits gained by the source and the receiver is
  certainly differs.

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• Lasswell (1927) also discussed four major
  objectives of propaganda as follows
• 1. To mobilize hatred against the enemy.
• 2. To preserve the friendship of allies.
• 3. To preserve the friendship and if possible to
  acquire the cooperation of neutrals
• 4. To demoralize the enemy.

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• As a matter of fact the war time propaganda could
  then be traced as far back to The Art of War - a
  book written by Sun Tsu in China before the birth
  of Christianity.

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• The rise of Nazis to power in Germany through the
  propaganda minister Goebbels, provided evidence
  of greater success in Hitlers regime Germany.
• Propagandists often rely on the concept of
  disinformation to discredit their opposition.
• Disinformation referring to the spread of false
  information to discredit the opposition.

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Categories of Propaganda

• As theorists studied propaganda they are able to
  differentiate the different categories of
  propaganda. They are as follows
• Black Propaganda involved deliberate strategic
  transmissions of lies (e.g Nazis, Germany)
• White Propaganda involved international
  suppression of potentially harmful information
  ideas combined with deliberate promotion of
  positive information or ideas to distract
  attention.

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• Grey Propaganda involved transmission of
  information or ideas that might or might not be
  false. No effort to determine their validity.

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• Although, Lasswells work was never widely read,
  his views were shared by Walter Lippmann a
  columnist for the New York Times.
• Lippmanns (1922) writing on the roles of Public
  Opinion pointed out the discrepancies that exist
  between the world outside the pictures in our
  head . These differences were unavoidable,
  because he doubted whether the average people
  could govern themselves. People simply couldn't
  learn enough form media to help them understand
  the total environment (like democracy, the roles
  of free press etc).

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• Lippmanns believed that propaganda through media
  posed a severe challenge that a drastic changes
  in the political system is required. According to
  him the public was venerable to propaganda.
  Therefore some form agency (as gate keeping) is
  needed to protect the public.

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• Media control was necessary. Self-censorship by
  media alone was not sufficient. The best
  solution to the problem was to place control of
  information gathering and distribution in the
  hands of benevolent (caring / trusted)
  technocracy like a scientific elite that could
  be trusted to use scientific methods to sort
  facts from fictions and make good decisions
  about who should received these messages.

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• To accomplish this - a governmental intelligent
  bureau was suggested.
• This bureau could determine which information
  could be transmitted to the public through the
  mass media and which information people are
  better off not knowing.

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• Both Lasswell Lippmann ideas were strongly
  criticized by other scholars like Dewey (1927).
• As champion of democracy against totalitarian
  Dewey refuse to accept the need for a
  technocracy that would use scientific methods to
  protect the people themselves.
• He argued would that people could learn to defend
  themselves if they were only taught how to
  defense themselves.

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• E.g. he argued that newspapers could do more than
  just simply serve as bulletin board for
  information about current happening.
• They should serve as vehicles for public
  education and debate. They should teach critical
  thinking skills and structure public discussion
  of important issues.

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• Media should be understood not as external
  agents but as servants that should facilitate
  public discussions and debate. They should serve
  as guidance facilitators of public forum in
  which democratic politics are conducted.

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• But when the media assume the role of external
  agents and work to manipulate the pictures in
  peoples head the media loose their power to
  serve as credible facilitators guardians of
  public debate. They just become another
  competitor for our attention.

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Modern Theory of Propaganda

• Some contemporary critics argue that the type
  propaganda conforming to the traditional rules
  is still alive. Today it is practiced with
  sophistication and effectiveness. Political
  discourse and advertising are some of the
  examples .

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• Powerful elites control the mass media contents
  and on this score they have little trouble
  imposing their own truth or values on
  others.

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• Advertising for example although different ads
  may appear with different products but the logic
  assumption is that it supports the ideas of
  consumption capitalism.
• Not that consumption and capitalism by itself bad
  ( although they had the tendency to manipulate)
  other alternatives were not considered.

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• In cases where alternatives are considered those
  who raised these alternatives are viewed as out
  of the main stream. (as argument put forward by
  critical theorists)

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The Devices of Propaganda

• Severin tankard (1997) listed 7 most common
  devices of propaganda used in contemporary
  society. They are widely used in political
  campaigns, advertisements, newspaper columns and
  statements by extremist groups. They are as
  follows
• 1. Name Calling / Negative Labeling is the
  process of giving an idea a bad label which is
  used to reject and condemn the idea without
  really examining the evidence (Lee Lee 1939)

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• Name calling does not appear much in ads because
  company are reluctant to name their competitive
  products (Brand x vs brand y ) but is widely
  used in politics other public discourse.
• E.g. labeling certain groups as Terrorist or
  Terrorism, guerrilla vs freedom fighter or a
  martyr.

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• 2. Glittering Generality that is using a virtue
  word to make us accept and approve without
  examining the evidence (Lee Lee 1939).
• E.g. in Product names promotion such as Gold
  Medal flour, Imperial Margarine, Super Shell,
  Superior Diary etc. Claims such as natural
  ingredients.
• E.g. in Politics and Business phrases like the
  right to work, the right to vote bottom line
  profit private enterprise globalization etc
  are examples in politics and business.

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• E.g in International Relations concepts or
  phrases like operation just cause ,
  Sustainable Environment are common type of
  propaganda.
• E.g. Transfer words through a process of
  associations. Peace signs and use of other
  symbols to illustrate quality.
• E.g. In Commercial phrases used like celebrating
  new century, Made in USA/Malaysia etc are
  examples.

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• E.g. In Music the use of recognizable music
  theme like film music such as mission
  impossible music from the film Titanic are
  some of the examples.
• or use of news photographs, film clip, video
  tapes etc.

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• E.g. In Advertising the use of cowboys for
  endorsement condusive environment like the
  cowboys for Marlboro, JB Scotch with
  Christmas, use of celebrity personality, Betty
  Crocker endorsing food products.
• E.g. the use of Testimonial use of respected
  personality to endorse the products or cases to
  instill public trust.

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• 3. Plain Folks is the process by which a speaker
  attempts to convince his audience that he and
  his ideas are good because they are of the
  people and the plain folk (Lee Lee, 1939)
• E.g. In Advertising similar to an endorsement
  method and ads used the commoners as role models
  the Petronas commercials. land of the Green
  Giant

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• E.g. In Politics projecting the political
  candidate as part of the ordinary citizen to gain
  support of the commoners the introduction of
  the peoples candidate or the people choice
• 4. Card Stacking is the process involving the
  selection and use of facts or falsehoods,
  illustrations or distractions, logical or
  illogical statements in order to give the best or
  worse possible case for an idea, program,
  person or product.

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• E.g. In TV commercials a tv commercial who show
  a person who is interviewed over a cup of coffee
  and asked after testing it would you say the
  coffee tastes as rich as it look. The person
  then endorse the product.
• This type of commercial do not show the report or
  the number of interviewees or it did not show
  others who did not agree with it. a self
  fulfillment prophesy.

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• E.g. In Controlling the news the establishment
  usually try to attempt to ensure only the
  correct version of events get published inline
  with the establishment policy.
• 5. Band Wagon propagandist attempts to convince
  us that all members of the group to which we
  belong are accepting his program and that we must
  therefore follow the crowd.

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• E.g. In Advertising appeal that describe
  majority choice the people choice, the Pepsi
  Generation, are some of the examples.

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• E.g. In War time use nations involving in
  combat needs war heroes to build moral.
• E.g. In Government propaganda Often government
  needs models for others to emulate.- In China
  Mao praised the group Tachai Production Brigade
  as a model of self-reliance. In agriculture
  learn from Tachai

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Effectiveness of Propaganda Devices

• Scientific evidence is now available
  ineffectiveness of some of the propaganda
  devices. Most of it comes from experiments done
  by social psychologists how attitudes can be
  changed.
• Evidence of effectiveness on card staking comes
  from experiments conducted by Hovland, Lumsdaine
  Sheffield ,1949 Lmsdaine Janis 1953)

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Modern Propaganda Theory

• Testimonial Bad Wagon by Brown, 1958 Hovelnd
  weiss, 1951 Asch, 1958 Serif, 1958)
• The Bullet Theory by Schramm 1971
• the Hypodermic Needle theory by Berlo, 1960
• Stimulus response Theory by DeFleur
  Ball-Rokeach, 1989,.
• These theories suggest that people are
  extremely vulnerable to mass communication
  messages.

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• Mc Luhan (1964) Media or Technological
  Determinism Theory argued that the effects of
  technology alter our patterns of perceptions and
  without resistance. It however does not alter our
  opinions.
• In his book Media is the Message
  Understanding Media he is saying that the most
  important effect of communication media is that
  it effect our habits of perceptions and thinking.

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• Mc Luhan (1978) proposed the notion of two
  different styles of thinking the two sides of
  the brain (left right). The left brain being
  logical, rational and language oriented while the
  right side is institutive, irrational and picture
  oriented.

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• Noelle-Neumann (1973, 1980) introduced the theory
  of Spiral Silence which also gives the mass
  media more powerful than other theories.
• Noelle-Neumann argued that mass media do have
  powerful effect on pubic opinions (accumulation,
  ubiquity consonance).

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• Consonance refers to the unified picture of an
  event that can develop and often share by
  different newspapers, magazines, tv channels etc.
  that the message is to present the impression the
  way the media is presenting it.

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• In the case of the controversial issues people
  form impressions about the distribution of public
  opinion.
• The theory try to determine whether they are in
  the majority and then they try to determine
  whether public opinion is changing to agree with
  them. If they feel they are in the minority,
  they tend to remain silence.

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• Conclusion
• The work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis
  led to what we can consider a primitive theory
  of attitude change. There is a need for further
  work. The knowledge of the devices can make us
  better informed on the effects of propaganda.

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