Propaganda and Persuasion

Chapter 1 What Is Propaganda, and How Does It Differ From Persuasion? 23

Figure 1.3 The "battle of the stamps" continued with this British "black" parody of a German stamp. The meaning of the iconography is obvious. Here again, this stamp was probably more effective as anti-Nazi propaganda in Britain than in Germany itself.

letter bearing his name until his father congratulated him for getting it published in his hometown newspaper. All of the interviewed soldiers said they agreed with the information in the letters even though they did not write them. The actual source has not been uncovered. This is clearly gray propaganda with acceptable information attributed to a nonhostile source that was not the actual source. Gray propaganda is widespread. Companies that distort statistics on annual reports, advertising that suggests a product will achieve results that it cannot, films that are made solely for product placement, and television evangelists who personally keep the money they solicit for religious causes all tend to fall in the gray propaganda category. Another term used to describe propaganda is disinformation. Disinfor mation is usually considered black propaganda because it is covert and uses false information. In fact, the word disinformation is a cognate for the