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1 Feb. 4/05 Propaganda, Persuasion, and Democracy Critical Theories of the Press Marx: in every epoch, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class (courseware, Grossberg et al, p. 384) 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 they are so essential to the economic system, they are controlled by the economic elite (bourgeoisie) Neo-marxian views as in Herman and Chomsky, the argument is that oligopoly forecloses diversity AJ Liebling: Freedom of the press – for those who own one. (He meant this ironically. Have the internet and blogging modified the “structure of ownership” in the world of news?) Grossberg et al, 389: concentration of ownership carries the risk that the gatekeepers may freeze out certain ideas in their desire to maximize profits The media become tools to maintain the dominant ideology of capitalist power A Marxist View of the Press media should serve and be controlled by workers media should serve society by mobilization and through education media must respond to the people support progressive movements at home and abroad Critical view of ideology ideologies are not only particular ways of seeing or systems of representation (Grossberg et al, 393) o they exclude, limit o they set the boundaries on what we are able to understand and what we accept as possible o Question: How free are we to imagine our own future? they are always contested between elites and masses o but a common strategy is to present dominant values as “normal” Ideologies may be seen as a particular operation of the power of propaganda Propaganda: Definition the deliberate attempt to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way consistent with benefiting those doing the persuading o can include advertising, public relations, and other forms of communication o includes censorship 2 More formally: an organized program of publicity to propagate a doctrine or practice Carries a negative connotation today History its roots lie in the Catholic Church’s counter-Reformation in the early 1500’s (sixteenth century), when it meant an organized effort to propagate the Catholic faith Ideological context of the term implies suppression of judgment a critical view of the capacity of the masses to reason soundly has been associated with war through its history What we do is “good”, what the enemy does is “bad”: this moral relativism obscures propaganda’s operation in the service of ideology Key distinctions from education o humanist education teaches people how to think o propaganda tells people what to think: in authoritarian regimes, education is used for social and political engineering. from persuasion o the key is intent: propaganda is designed to serve the interests of the communicator Central issues how freely does information flow? Who controls it, and why? Are we being told everything? Could we find out everything? Is what we get an “unfiltered representation of what is really happening”? Precedents WW One: Kipling, H.G. Wells and others recruited to bring their considerable writing skills to the one-sided presentation that propaganda demands in wartime “The first victim of war is truth” WW Two: Goebbels, Hitler’s information minister, a master of media use, from film (“Triumph of the Will”) to radio (Hitler’s speeches) down to collectable Hitler cards for schoolchildren Gulf War: Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (Indiana University Press, 1995): the explosion of media and information has voided our representations of meaning. Traditional theories of persuasion Rhetorical appeals based on ethos (character and credibility), pathos (emotion or feeling), and logos (argument) Psychosocial dimension: 3 o Totalitarian propaganda plays on fear of the other, will to security, uncertainty, tendency to conformity o Democratic propaganda plays on desire for well being, happiness, sense of belongingness Propaganda methods Technique Black art: plant an authority Name calling, demonization Glittering generality Transference: guilt/halo by association Testimonials Plain folks/populism Card stacking: selective use of information Bandwagon effect Illustration Seek trusted third parties to support your view Use epithets consistent with times (“terrorist”) Words with virtuous connotation (“liberty”) Portrayal of flag; photomontage; fakery Respected person supports the view “Aw shucks, this is what we all want” lie by omission; preponderance of confirming information Create impression everyone is doing it; spiral of silence. 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 – implies a harder fact. “Journalists estimated 10,000 at the demonstration” is not as strong as “10,000 hit the streets” Control naming: Orwell’s Ministry of Truth; Operation Desert Storm Constructing news images our representations are always framed camera angle and positioning, picture framing and lighting, image selection, photographic retouching, digital image manipulation, editorial cropping, and final juxtaposition can all radically change or even invert the meaning of depicted scenes Media as democratic propaganda coercion of citizens is not direct engagement with propaganda techniques is open 4 o tends to be “enlightened” (voluntary, majoritarian) and systemic (not individual) mainstream media do not set out to control or persuade, but that is their cumulative effect (Fleras, 55) Expressions may be banal: o Frame all news around conflict, negative framework o Consumer fantasies o Focus on possessions, appearance o Male, ethnocentric values no proof of conspiracy that owners collude Fleras, 57, citing Monbiot (2002): “persuasion works best when worming its way into our (un)consciousness yet leaving intact the perception that we have made choices independently” Sources: Thanks to Dr. Catherine Murray for guidance with the foregoing. Klaehn, Jeffery. (2001). “A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman and Chomsky’s ‘A Propaganda Model’, in European Journal of Communication 17(2), 147-182. Marlin, Randal. (2002). Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion. Toronto: Broadview Press. Taylor, Philip M. (2003). Munitions of the mind: a history of propaganda from the ancient world to the present day. Manchester: Manchester University Press.