Transcript Most Commonly Used Propaganda Techniques

Persuasive Elements
and Techniques
Freshmen English
Propaganda Techniques
 What are they?
 The methods and approaches used to
further a cause
 Examples
 Political
 Commercial
 Religious
 Civil
Propaganda Techniques
 Why are they used?
 To manipulate reason and emotion
 To persuade you to
 Believe in someone
 Buy an item
 Vote a certain way
Most Commonly Used
Propaganda Techniques
 Name Calling
UnAmerican
 Used to attack a person, not the topic/idea
 Glittering Generalities
 General statements that cannot be proved or
disproved
 Transfer
Good
The Best Candidate
 Attempt to convey the prestige of a positive
symbol to a person or idea
American Flag as backdrop for Candidate
Most Commonly Used
Propaganda Techniques
(cont.)
 False Analogy
 Two things are portrayed as being similar
 Testimonial
 “Big Name” personalities are used to endorse a
product or idea
 Plain Folks
 Ads used to depict people as ordinary
 Card Stacking
 Words may be omitted in an ad or commercial,
leading to a series of half-truths
Most Commonly Used
Propaganda Techniques
(cont.)
 Bandwagon
 Encourages you to think that because everyone
else is doing something, you should do it too.
 Either/Or Fallacy
 AKA “Black & White” Thinking
 Only two choices: If you’re not for us, you’re against
us
 Faulty Cause and Effect
 B follows A, so A must cause B
Errors of Persuasion
 Errors of Faulty Logic
 Errors of Attack
 Errors of Weak Reference
Errors of Faulty Logic
 Contradiction
 Information presented is in direct opposition to other
information within the same argument
 Accident
 Someone fails to recognize that an argument is based on an
exception to the rule
 False Cause
 Temporal order of events is confused with causality
 Begging the Question
 A person makes a claim and then argues for it by using the
same statements or arguments
 AKA “Circular Reasoning”
Errors of Faulty Logic
(cont.)
 Evading the issue
 Someone sidesteps an issue by changing the
subject
 Arguing from ignorance
 Someone argues that a claim is justified because its
opposite cannot be proven
 Composition and Division
 Composition: an assertion about a whole that is true
of its parts
 Division: an assertion about all of the parts that is
true about the whole
Errors of Attack
 Poisoning the Well
 A person is so committed to a position that he/she
explains away absolutely every other offer in
opposition
 Ad Hominem
 A person rejects a claim based on derogatory facts
about the person making the claim
 Appealing to Force
 Someone uses threats to establish the validity of the
claim
Errors of Weak Reference
 Appeal to Authority
 Authority is evoked as the last word on an
issue
 Appeal to the People
 Someone attempts to justify a claim on the
basis of popularity
 Appeal to Emotion
 An emotion-laden “sob” story is used as
proof for a claim
Your job:
Finish taking notes by writing a summary at the end
of what you have learned.
Homework:
Watch ads on TV (or look for an ad in a newspaper
or on the internet.)
•Describe what the ad is for and what it looks like.
•Explain at least two persuasive elements used.
Would you buy/use this product? Explain