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Propaganda
www.globalissues.org
What is propaganda?
 We must remember that in time of war
what is said on the enemy’s side of the front
is always propaganda, and what is said on
our side of the front is truth and
righteousness, the cause of humanity and a
crusade for peace.

— Walter Lippmann
Two battlegrounds
 Probably every conflict is fought on at least
two grounds: the battlefield and the minds
of the people via propaganda. The “good
guys” and the “bad guys” can often both be
guilty of misleading their people with
distortions, exaggerations, subjectivity,
inaccuracy and even fabrications, in order to
receive support and a sense of legitimacy.
Elements of Propaganda
 Propaganda can serve to rally people behind a
cause, but often at the cost of exaggerating,
misrepresenting, or even lying about the issues in
order to gain that support.
 While the issue of propaganda often is discussed
in the context of militarism, war and warmongering, it is around us in all aspects of life.
Common tactics
 Common tactics in propaganda often used
by either side include:
 Using selective stories that come over as widecovering and objective.
 Partial facts, or historical context
 Reinforcing reasons and motivations to act due
to threats on the security of the individual.
Common tactics …
 Narrow sources of “experts” to provide insights
in to the situation. (For example, the
mainstream media typically interview retired
military personnel for many conflict-related
issues, or treat official government sources as
fact, rather than just one perspective that needs
to be verified and researched).
 Demonizing the “enemy” who does not fit the
picture of what is “right.”
Common tactics …
 Using a narrow range of discourse, whereby
judgments are often made while the boundary
of discourse itself, or the framework within
which the opinions are formed, are often not
discussed. The narrow focus then helps to serve
the interests of the propagandists.
Propaganda and War
 At times of war, or build up for war,
messages of extremities and hate, combined
with emotions of honor and righteousness
interplay to provide powerful propaganda
for a cause.
 “The first casualty when war comes is
Truth” ~ U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson, 1917
Propaganda used to …
 Many say that it is inevitable in war that
people will die. Yet, in many cases, war
itself is not inevitable, and propaganda is
often employed to go closer to war, if that
is the preferred foreign policy option.
Promotion of propaganda
 Those who promote the negative image of the
“enemy” may often reinforce it with rhetoric about
the righteousness of themselves; the attempt is to
muster up support and nurture the belief that what
is to be done is in the positive and beneficial
interest of everyone.
 Often, principles used to demonize the other, is
not used to judge the self, leading to accusations
of double standards and hypocrisy.
Galtung’s journalism concerns
1. Decontextualizing violence: focusing on
the irrational without looking at the
reasons for unresolved conflicts and
polarization.
Galtung …
2. Dualism: reducing the number of parties in
a conflict to two, when often more are
involved. Stories that just focus on
internal developments often ignore such
outside or “external” forces as foreign
governments and transnational companies.
Galtung
3. Manicheanism: portraying one side as
good and demonizing the other as “evil.”
4. Armageddon: presenting violence as
inevitable, omitting alternatives.
Galtung
5. Focusing on individual acts of violence
while avoiding structural causes, like
poverty, government neglect and military or
police repression.
6. Confusion: focusing only on the conflict
arena (i.e., the battlefield or location of
violent incidents) but not on the forces and
factors that influence the violence.
Galtung
7. Excluding and omitting the bereaved, thus
never explaining why there are acts of
revenge and spirals of violence.
8. Failure to explore the causes of escalation
and the impact of media coverage itself.
Galtung
9. Failure to explore the goals of outside
interventionists, especially big powers.
10. Failure to explore peace proposals and
offer images of peaceful outcomes.
11. Confusing cease-fires and negotiations
with actual peace.
Galtung
12. Omitting reconciliation: conflicts tend to
reemerge if attention is not paid to efforts to
heal fractured societies. When news about
attempts to resolve conflicts are absent,
fatalism is reinforced. That can help
engender even more violence, when people
have no images or information about
possible peaceful outcomes and the promise
of healing.
Siegel’s 4 levels
 The first level is the Big Lie, adapted by
Hitler and Stalin. The state-controlled
Egyptian press has been spreading a Big
Lie, saying the World Trade Center was
attacked by Israel to embarrass Arabs,” said
Siegel.
 “The second layer says, ‘It doesn’t have to
be the truth, so long as it’s plausible.’
Siegel’s 4 levels …
 “The third strategy is to tell the truth but
withhold the other side’s point of view.
 “The fourth and most productive is to tell
the truth, the good and the bad, the losses
and the gains.
Preparing or Justifying War
 Ottosen identifies several key stages of a
military campaign to “soften up” public
opinion through the media in preparation for
an armed intervention.
Stages 1 and 2
 The Preliminary Stage—during which the country
concerned comes to the news, portrayed as a cause
for “mounting concern” because of
poverty/dictatorship/anarchy;
 The Justification Stage—during which big news is
produced to lend urgency to the case for armed
intervention to bring about a rapid restitution of
“normality”;
Stages 3 and 4
 The Implementation Stage—when pooling
and censorship provide control of coverage;
 The Aftermath—during which normality is
portrayed as returning to the region, before
it once again drops down the news agenda.
“dead baby” story
 In the 1991 Gulf War, a U.S. public
relations firm got a Kuwaiti Ambassador’s
daughter to pose as a nurse claiming she
saw Iraqi troops killing babies in hospitals.
The purpose of this was to create arousal
and demonize Iraq so war was more
acceptable. More information:
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Mi
ddleEast/Iraq.asp
Media preparation
 1. The crisis: The reporting of a crisis which
negotiations appear unable to resolve.
Politicians, while calling for diplomacy,
warn of military retaliation. The media
reports this as “We’re on the brink of war”,
or “War is inevitable”, etc.
Media preparation …
 2. The demonization of the enemy’s leader:
Comparing the leader with Hitler is a good
start because of the instant images that
Hitler’s name provokes.
Media preparation …
 3. The demonization of the enemy as
individuals. For example, to suggest the
enemy is insane.
 4. Atrocities: Even making up stories to
whip up and strengthen emotional reactions.
Journalists’ dilemma
 While some stories are known to have been
fabrications and outright lies, others may be
true. Knightley asks, “how can we tell?” His
answer is unfortunately not too reassuring:
“The media demands that we trust it but too
often that trust has been betrayed.”
Journalists’ dilemma
 One difficulty is that the media have little or no
memory. War correspondents have short working
lives and there is no tradition or means for passing
on their knowledge and experience. The military,
on the other hand, is an institution and goes on
forever. The military learned a lot from Vietnam
and these days plans its media strategy with as
much attention as its military strategy ~ Knightley
Propaganda strategies
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Incompleteness
Inaccuracy
Driving the agenda
Milking the story (maximizing media coverage of
a particular issue by the careful use of briefings,
leaking pieces of a jigsaw to different outlets,
allowing journalists to piece the story together and
drive the story up the news agenda, etc.)
Propaganda strategies
 Exploiting that we want to believe the best of
ourselves
 Perception Management (in particular by using PR
firms)
 Reinforcing existing attitudes
 Simple, repetitious and emotional phrases (e.g.
war on terror, axis of evil, weapons of mass
destruction, shock and awe, war of liberation, etc)
Military control of information
 Military control of information during war
time is also a major contributing factor to
propaganda, especially when the media go
along with it without question.
 The military recognizes the values of media
and information control very well.
Key strategies
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Overloading the media with information
Ideological appeals
Spinning information
Withholding information
Co-option and Collusion
Embedded journalists
 Sometimes knowingly, sometimes
unknowingly make a decision to be biased
in their reporting, in favor of the Coalition
troops. They travel with the forces, it’s a
way to get cooperation
Dilemma of journalists and
wartime coverage
 On the one hand, the military wish to
present various aspects that would support a
campaign, while on the other hand, a
journalist is supposed to be critical and not
necessarily fall in line
Wider propaganda
 The doctrine to be instilled in the target
audience should not be articulated. The
proper procedure is to drill them home by
constantly presupposing them
Delwiche’s devices
 Word games (name calling, glittering
generality)
 False connections (Transfer, testimonial)
 Special Appeal (Plain folks, band wagon,
fear)
 Follow-up avoidance