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LM350 Computer Mediated
Communication
Politics and the Internet:
Propaganda
Propaganda and
Persuasion
Propaganda
• is deliberate
• aims to control or alter people's
attitudes
• aims to produce predictable behaviour
by those who have had their attitudes
controlled or altered
• does not depend on violence or bribery
• Persuasion + negative connotation?
Insititute for Propaganda
Analysis
• 1937, U.S.
• to educate American public about
dangers of political propaganda
• identified seven basic propaganda
devices
• How do they translate to Internet?
Word Games: Name calling
• Linking a person or idea to a
negative symbol, e.g. commie,
pig,terrorist, subversive
• More subtly - stingy, spendthrift vs
prudent, generous
Name calling
• Newt Ginrich’s negative words to use
about opponents:
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–
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–
–
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–
Betray
Collapse
Crisis
Decay
Hypocrisy
Radical
Shallow
israel
Whites
Glittering Generalities
“Virtue” words, that we all aspire to
“own”, e.g.
– Progress
– Improvement
– Justive
– Fairness
– Democracy
– Freedom
– Health
– Pride
Glittering Generalities
“Name calling seeks to make us form a
judgement to reject and condemn without
examining the evidence, the Glittering
Generality device seeks to make us
approve and accept without examining
the evidence”
IPA 1938
Glittering Generalities
Current favourites?
•
•
•
•
Choice
Families
Modernisation
Others???
stormfront
Aryan Family Network
And baby drive…
White children site
Word games: Euphemisms
• Ministry of Defence
• Collateral damage
• Friendly fire
• Liquidation
• Post traumatic stress disorder - not
shell shock
False connections:
Transfer
… the device by which the
propagandist carries over the
authority, sanction and prestige of
something we respect and revere to
something he would have us
respect.”
e.g. Church, nation, folk tradition
Examples
• Politician closing meeting with a
prayer
• And now for the science…
• Land of Hope and Glory & Union
Flag in Conservative Party
conferences
banners
Transfer x 2
False connections:
Testimonial
• JFK/James Dean wore chinos
• David Beckham’s kids wear M&S
• John Wayne supported handguns
• “sugar coating a distortion, a
falsehood, a misunderstood notion
or an anti-social suggestion”
Special appeals: plain
folks
• Speakers attempt to persuade their
audience that they, and their ideas, are
“of the people”
• Richard Branson wears woolly jumpers
• Tony Blair plays guitar and poses with
his family
• William Hague wears his baseball cap
Special appeals:
Bandwagon
Propagandist appeals to the desire,
common to most of us, to follow the
crowd. Because he wants us to follow the
crowd in masses, he directs his appeal to
groups held together already by common
ties of nationality, race, sex, vocation…
= everyone else is doing it, so should you
Special Appeals: Fear
• “Rivers of blood” - Enoch Powell
• “The universities are filled with
students rebelling and rioting.
Russia is threatening us with her
might…Yes, danger from within
and without. We need Law and
Order! Without it our nation cannot
survive:” - Hitler
• Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Special Appeals: Fear
Warning audience that disaster will ensue
if they don’t follow a particular course of
action.
Structure:
1. Threat
2. Specific recommendation
3. Audience belives effectiveness of action
4. Audience believes thay are capable of
action
Examples
• Scary AIDS tombstone campaign
• Insurance company ad showing
destitution after fire, sickness etc
• Ad showing terrible road accident &
appeal to wear seatbelt
mexico
Card stacking
“Card Stacking is a device in which the propagandist employs all the arts
of deception to win our support for himself, his group, nation, race,
policy, practice, belief, or ideal. He stacks the cards against the truth. He
uses under-emphasis and over-emphasis to dodge issues and evade
facts. He resorts to lies, censorship, and distortion. He omits facts. He
offers false testimony. He creates a smoke screen of clamor by raising a
new issue when he wants an embarrassing matter forgotten. He draws a
red herring across the trail to confuse and divert those in quest of facts
he does not want revealed. He makes the unreal appear real and the real
appear unreal. He lets half-truth masquerade as truth. By the Card
Stacking device, a mediocre candidate, through the buildup, is made to
appear an intellectual titan; an ordinary prize fighter; a probable world
champion; a worthless patent medicine, a beneficent cure. By means of
this device propagandists would convince us that a ruthless war of
aggression is a crusade for righteousness.”
Endangered species