“The
function of propaganda is…not to make an objective study of the truth…and then
set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own
right, always and unflinchingly.” – Chapter 6 of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf
What
is propaganda? Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines it as “ideas, facts,
or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an
opposing cause”.
Why and how does it work? There are many reasons and explanations for these questions, however perhaps the most comprehensive answer lies with the ideas of central and peripheral persuasion. Propaganda is extremely good at peripheral persuasion, as it will typically attempt to invoke feelings of patriotism, love, anger, fear, etc. It attempts to place the consumer's attention and thoughts more-so on not the truth or the facts, but on the context of the situation that is already present, or the one they're attempting to create. Take Uncle Sam for example. He was the product of the War of 1812 when the US was attempting to recruit more soldiers for its fight against the UK. The goal of Uncle Sam is to invoke a feeling of patriotic fervor for the people of the US. It employs many tactics of peripheral persuasion, including wearing the "stars and stripes" - the symbol of the nation.
Retrieved from Britannica.com
Propaganda not only works with peripheral persuasion, however, it commonly attempts to use peripheral persuasion to sort of "cover up" certain aspects of central persuasion. It attempts to use certain biases such as the availability heuristic and the misuse of statistics to make it appear that they have logic on their side as well, however this often tends not to be the case. Part of the job of the peripheral persuasion is to manipulate the view of the information that is presented, and attempt to hide the existence of any other information that may be harmful to the propagandists' arguments.
Modern Forms of Propaganda
As many of us are still aware, the ideas with which propaganda lives by are alive and well even in a world that is more connected and informed than ever. Although at the moment the propaganda doesn't appear to be advocating for genocide (depending on your personal view on certain topics), there are many different sides always attempting to advocate for their views, such as this fellow in the video below (Disclaimer: this video discusses abortion and takes a...not particularly friendly approach to the idea. In addition, I don't necessarily agree with the points being made by either side in this video, and it in no way represents my personal thoughts and feelings).
Retrieved from YouTube
It is up "
References
Explore Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/
Hitler,
A., Hartmann, C., Vordermayer, T., Plöckinger, O., Töppel, R., Trees, P., . .
. Seewald-
Mooser, M.
(2017). Mein Kampf. München: Institut für Zeitgeschichte.
Dictionary
by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved
from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
The Office (US) s07e25 Episode Script | SS. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-office- us&episode=s07e25
I believe another good example to mention is North Korea's Propaganda. We've seen how their leaders over the years have been shown to the public as gods essentially. Each home in North Korea has a dedicated wall for a picture of the Leader, in a sense its a shrine. In the book "Nothing To Envy" by Barbara Demick, the story is told through the experiences of a girls life in North Korea and eventually narrowly escaping to South Korea. What the reader and the protagonist come to realize is how North Korea is so isolated from the rest of the world just because of the propaganda that is so strongly influenced in the the culture.
ReplyDeleteThe book is a good read and I would recommend it.
Good topic choice Kenneth!
That's a really good point! I also had that book for my orientation group at tech & it was extremely interesting. The thing that really stuck with me about that book was how she details the sheer pervasiveness that North Korea propaganda had. Like the example of a photograph in every house of the current / past leader, they also had very strict media, radio, and advertisement rules, as well as massive censorship in their universities.
DeleteAbsolutely, I found it interesting that public status based on your career/education and family history was also large part of North Korea's culture.
DeleteAs Morgan states well, "propaganda is often political" and North Korea is taking that path to the highest level. Their society functions around dictatorship, with strict laws that could land you in prison for months for the smallest felonies to the limited information from the outside. From scare tactics to limited knowledge, North Korea is definitely an intimidating place to live.
Propaganda is often very political as we all know. Many of us learn about propaganda as a young child and how it was used a lot during wars to push young men to join the Army and women to keep the homeland strong. As you explained in your well written post, there are forms of modern propaganda. There are even movies that have been accused of being propaganda including the 2012 film “Zero Dark Thirty”. The CIA gave the movie directors “inside information” that they didn’t give to anyone else. Many people including a chairman of the intelligence committee knew that the movie was a lie. It has been accused of being propaganda to show people how they want people to think the whole mission was executed. In the video I linked below, it talks about how the CIA and Senators butted heads over what really happened. The CIA claimed (as seen in the film) many tortures lead to the finding of Bin Laden and the senators had a different story to tell. It’s crazy to think that the CIA would possibly do as much as to tell movie makers the “truth” in order to get people to believe a certain thing. I remember watching this movie when I was younger and seeing what I believed to be a true story, but that might not be the case. I think it’s interesting to see how things such as propaganda can sway people into believing or doing something. You did a nice job with this post, but I especially liked the Robert California quote at the end.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Frontline PBS. (2015, May 15). Is The Movie "Zero Dark Thirty" CIA Propaganda? | FRONTLINE. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brVHpirFwec
I find that a lot of this is properly portrayed in George Orwell's "1984." Not only do you have posters and other representations of Big Brother strewn about the world, but the Party depicts Emmanuel Goldstein -- the supposed leader of the anti-Big Brother movement -- as the biggest threat to the people's well-being, due to his outspoken opposition. The craziest thing about Goldstein is the fact that it's not made clear whether he truly exists or not; he may very well be an inverse Uncle Sam of sorts, a fictional character made for the sole purpose of strengthening the masses' allegiance, in this case to Big Brother. (And yes, I'm aware Uncle Sam was based on a real person, but the character himself is still fictional.)
ReplyDeleteThat's an awesome connection! I would argue that the symbol of Uncle Sam has changed a bit though. He started as a symbol of revolution, a person who inspired others to be a part of protecting our relatively newfound freedom. Today however this iconic poster gets memed and remade with different figures as the background to promote any cause! ("I want YOU to turn your homework in on time" with a picture of a teacher pointing rather than Uncle Sam, etc.) (Just search "Uncle Sam memes, it's worth it!) So I in your opinion is this still propaganda? If yes, is it just because they're using an iconic image or for some other reason? If no, why not?
DeleteNice blog post Kenny. I am not sure if I quite understand the closing statement to combat propaganda. Are we supposed to combat the message, the behavior resulting from the message, or both? Being informed and vocal may be the first steps to finding common ground, but understanding where their informed message is coming from, how to appeal to the audience, and the delivery of the constructed message seems to play a role to not inducing psychological reactance or being 'flattened'. Is there a best practice for replacing or rephrasing the message that propaganda supports?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the misuse of statistics, this is used so often in not only propaganda but by other attention grabbing media outlets (news articles, websites, advertisements, ect.). This twisting of the truth is something as consumers we are constantly aware of. By cutting the context out of statistics you can manipulate the numbers to serve your overarching goal. This is a use of central persuasion in an otherwises peripheral persuasion heavy image. I think that we often blindly accept these numbers without further research. This is exactly the purpose of these images.
ReplyDeleteThat quote by Hitler reminded me on the trial against Socrates. Socrates was accused of using rhetoric, "making the weaker argument appear the stronger". Something like this used to be an offense on the law, this coming from the idea that people should be inherently good, and argue in just and logical ways. Modern propaganda is the exact opposite of making a logical argument, is is just used to manipulate people. Its pretty crazy that we're all just OK with this kind of stuff existing. Rhetoric has just become a staple of day to day life, despite once being looked on as pure evil.
ReplyDeleteRhetoric is simply the art of using forms of communication effectively, is it not? That would include everything from a GENUINE debate to a teenager trying to convince their parents why it's a good idea to let her have the car for the night. Was that along the same lines as you were thinking or did you have a different definition in mind?
DeleteAlso, going with old quotes, Epictetus once said, "Only the educated are free". Born a slave, he studied philosophy and was freed mentally (and physically I believe). So with this vein I think that part of this quote is about learning how to think critically for oneself. Thus, while Socrates may have been able to make the weaker argument appear to be the stronger one, other thinkers would be able to see through his rhetoric to the truth. I don't know if that's at all where you were going but I thought it was interesting!
I guess when I was thinking of rhetoric i was more thinking as more of a means to push an idea you don't necessarily believe in. I supposed rhetoric could be viewed as simply a means of effective communication, but in that case why would Socrates be put do death for using it? I thought that Socrates whole idea was to poke holes in they logic of people, he was able to make nonsense arguments to prove how silly the idea of this kind of knowledge was. Almost like in satire, he wanted people to get smarter, and did this by showing everyone how dumb they were.
DeleteYeah, that's a fair point!
DeleteI find this post to be particularly interesting about talking about the Milgram experiment in class today. Considering your initial quote of this blog post was from Hitler, I am curious if you see any connection between the Nazi's of Hitlers time and the research on them being suggested to perform these horrific acts? Surely this is a specific example, and slightly taken out of context for your blog but it made me curious when I saw the name of your post and the quote.
ReplyDeleteI feel like far too often--in a variety of fields--people tend to address only the evidence that supports their viewpoint, and seldom the evidence against it. Sure, a well-written essay may have a counterpoint or two that are refuted, but how often do you see a paper that analyzes all data from all angles of something, and comes to a conclusion from all of that data, admitting any caveats or things they can't account for?
ReplyDelete