Propaganda

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 war-

mongering, 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 wide-

covering 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

 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

 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