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.
Media Mentor, 28A/11 Jia Sarai, New Delhi-110016; Ph. 9013500130
