UGC NET: Suggested Reading for Propaganda (Unit IX)

                                  Media   Mentor

                      Unit IX  

Propaganda

Propaganda is defined as an expression of opinion by individuals and groups which is deliberately designed to influence opinion or action by other individuals or groups with reference to pre-determind end. Propaganda intends to advance a cause e.g. a religious faith, and hence can be considered as legitimate persuation, it has come to aquire a negative image because it has been used to unleash hatred and fear during wars. It is still being used by suppressing facts. Propaganda has therefore gained notoriety as brainwashing and barbarity as:

• Use of words of double meaning
• Appeals to prejudices of people and arousal of negative emotions like fear, hatred etc.
• Evasion of truth, suppression of facts, distortion.
• Provocation, playing up trivia.
• Presentation of only one sided arguments
• Repetation

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.

While the term propaganda has justifiably acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and jingoistic examples (e.g. Nazi Propaganda used to justify the Holocaust), propaganda in its original sense was neutral, and could refer to uses that were generally benign or innocuous, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others.

Model of Propaganda:

Social Psychology: The field of social Psychology includes the study of persuasion. Social psychologists can be sociologists or psychologists. The field includes many theories and approaches to understanding persuasion. For example, communication theory points out that people can be persuaded by the communicator's credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness.

Nobel Prize winning psychologist Herbert A. Simon won the Nobel prize for his theory that people are cognitive misers. That is, in a society of mass information people are forced to make decisions quickly and often superficially, as opposed to logically. Role theory is frequently used to identify an idea as appropriate because it is associated with a role. For example, the public relations firm Leo Burnett Worldwide used the Marlboro Man to persuade males that Marlboro cigarettes were a part of being a cool, risk-taking, cowboy rebel who was fearless in the face of threats of cancer. The campaign quadrupled sales of their cigarettes. Of course, smoking has nothing to do with being a cowboy or a rebel. This is a fantasy but the campaign's success is consistent with the tenets of role theory. In fact, the three actors who played the Marlboro man died of lung cancer.

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