Propaganda and Persuasion

Chapter 1 What Is Propaganda, and How Does It Differ From Persuasion?

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persuasion, as well as information. Our definition of propaganda focuses on the communication process—most specifically, on the purpose of the process: Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. Let's examine the words of the definition to see what is precisely meant. Deliberate. Deliberate is a strong word meaning "willful, intentional, and premeditated." It implies a sense of careful consideration of all possibilities. We use it because propaganda is carefully thought out ahead of time to select what will be the most effective strategy to promote an ideology and maintain an advantageous position. Systematic. Systematic complements deliberate because it means "precise and methodical, carrying out something with organized regularity." Governments and corporations establish departments or agencies specifically to create sys tematic propaganda. Although the general public is more aware of propaganda agencies during wartime, such agencies exist all the time, for they are essential. For example, as you will see in the case study "Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Drugs," in Chapter 7, pharmaceutical companies wage massive advertising campaigns and engage in questionable practices. Advertising campaigns, as discussed in Chapter 3, are forms of systematic propaganda. Political advertising campaigns, often very negative, are systematic before elections. They are expensive to produce for airtime, consequently, creative use of digital technologies have been used. In 2010, Sean Clegg, campaign manager of "Level the Playing Field 2010," developed inexpensive ads for the web with a nasty caricature of Meg Whitman, the leading Republican candidate for governor of California, standing in front of a jet airplane, her lips peeled back from thick gums, saying, "California, let me take you for a ride." Carly Fiorina, a Republican running for the California State Senate, released a web video portraying her opponent as a demon sheep. Her campaign followed up with another video depicting United States Senator Barbara Boxer, the Democratic incumbent, as a crazed blimp, floating across the country. Shown on YouTube and Facebook, this new genre of unconventional, low-cost ads has been a big hit on the web (Steinhauer, 2010). Attempt. The goal of propaganda is to "attempt," or try, to create a certain state in a certain audience; thus, propaganda is an attempt at directive com munication with an objective that has been established a priori. The desired state may be perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, or all three. Each one of these is described with examples as follows: