Download Propaganda

Propaganda
“The Weapon of Influence”
What is propaganda?
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Propaganda is a persuasive type of
message presentation aimed at
serving an agenda.
‘Proganda’
At its root the denotation of propaganda
is ‘to propagate (actively spread) a
philosophy or point of view’
Who is it aimed at?
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Propaganda is aimed at a specific
audience.
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The message content of propaganda is
always deliberately selected and
slanted to lead the audience toward a
predetermined mindset that benefits
the cause of the propagandists.
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The propagandist seeks to change the
way people understand an issue or
situation for the purpose of changing
their actions and expectations.
Use of deception and
confusion
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What sets propaganda apart from
other forms of advocacy
(communicating a set idea) is the use
of deception and confusion.
Why is it used?
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The aim of propaganda is to actively
influence peoples opinions rather then
to merely communicate the facts
about something.
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Propaganda is often presented in a way that
attempts to deliberately evoke a strong
emotion, especially by suggesting an
illogical or unrealistic (to the outside
observer) consequence due to the actions of
a certain group.
Eg. The Nazi’s claimed that the Jews
caused WWI in order to bring down
Germany
How does it work?
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Propaganda most often tries to
convince the public of something using
a wide array of intellectual and
emotional tools like love, fear, loyalty
or prejudice to control the population.
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Propaganda may also be transmitted
implicitly or in less obvious ways.
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Propaganda can be presented in the
form of a fair and open debate as
objective news.
The audience is then manipulated into
siding with a certain position by being
informed that one position is correct
and the other is wrong.
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It is a more subtle and sophistacated
form of propaganda.
It is hard to protect and to fight
against.
It can be very effective.
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A message does not have to be untrue to be
propaganda.
BUT even if the message conveys only
‘true’ information it will generally contain
partial bias (1 groups position)
America’s use of the ‘weapons of mass
destruction’ argument to justify its invasion
of Iraq could be seen as an example.
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Another common characteristic of political
propaganda is the volume. (The large
quantity)
Flooding the information highway is
designed to:
- reinforce the idea through repetition
- drown out or exclude any alternative
ideas.
The use of propaganda in
war.
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Propaganda is a mighty weapon in
war.
Its aim is usually to dehumanise and
create hatred towards an enemy so
that the community will support an act
against them.
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Nazi propaganda had several distinct
audiences:
German audience – to convince them of
Hitler’s greatness.
Ethnic Germans – to encourage them to
support amalgamation.
Potential enemies – to ward them off.
Jews – To label them as the prime enemy
and to show them their place.
What are the common
methods?
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Appeals to fear: Seek to build support
by instilling fear in the general
population.
The bandwagon approach: attempts
the target audience to take the course
of action “that everyone else is
taking”
Join the crowd
 Victory is inevitable
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Direct order: simplifies the decision
Generating disapproval: Persuade a
target audience of an idea or action by
suggesting that the idea is popular
with groups that are hated.
Rationalise questionable beliefs:
Individuals or groups may use
favourable generalities to rationalise
questionable beliefs of acts.
Generalities are deliberately vague so
that the audience may supply their
own interpretations.
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Transference:
The technique of projecting positive or
negative qualities of an individual, group,
nation etc onto another in order to make
the second more acceptable or to discredit
it.
This technique is generally used to transfer
blame from one member of a conflict to
another.
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Stereotyping:
Attempts to arouse prejudices in an
audience by labelling the object of the
propaganda campaign as something
the target audience fears, hates,
loathes or finds undesirable.
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Scapegoat
Assigning blame to an individual or
group that isn't really responsible is
known as scapegoating. It allows the
audience to alleviate feelings of guilt
in relation to the bad treatment of the
group.
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