Propaganda And Propaganda Theory
Study for Undergraduate Students
Propaganda
Propaganda is a term that is often used pejoratively to denote any idea, opinion or information that is biased or misleading in order to influence the minds of the masses or their opinions to garner a response that supports the intention of the one who wishes to propogate the message. The term has been defined in the following ways:
Definition of the Term
“Propaganda is a form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propogandist. Persuasion is interactive and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and pursuadee. A model of propaganda depicts how elements of informative and persuasive communication may be incorporated into propagandistic communication.” (Jowett and O’Donnell, 2012)
The word ‘Propaganda’ can be defined basically as any opinion, idea or means of information, that is one sided, biased or misleading in nature in order to influence the opinion of the people or the masses at large (Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary).
The dictionary of Oxford Languages highlights that the word, ‘Propaganda’ could also mean “information that could be biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or Point of view” (Oxford Languages).
Etymology of the term ‘Propaganda’
The Word can be basically traced to 1622 where the “Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for propagating the Faith) was established by the Catholic Church. The word was derived from the Latin term, ‘Propagare’ which meant ‘to propogate’, ‘to sow’, ‘set forward’, ‘spread’, ‘increase’. It was basically a term used by the Catholic Church in the context of propagating faith or spreading the faith and opposing Protestantism. However, the modern use of this terminology is traced to the time around the year 1929, during the World War I where it was used to indicate information propagated to advance a cause and did not have negative connotations (etymonline.com). The later use however turned Pejorative and also indicated the meaning of ‘propagation of a message’, or ‘spreading a message using deceit, mind control’ and psychological impact. In the long run, it has also been associated to ‘Spin and News Management’ (Jowett and O’Donnell, 2012) an activity often associated with the field of Public Relations.
In the field of Mass Communication, one of the Communication Scholars who did massive work in this field is Harold Lasswell. The book written by him, titled ‘Propaganda Technique in the World War’ highlighted how in the case of a war, it must be made to appear to the people that they are fighting a “menacing, murderous Aggressor”. Lasswell (1927) further stated, “If the propagandist is to mobilize the hate of the people, he must see to it that everything is circulated which establishes the guilt of the enemy” (Patrick and Thrall, 2007). Lasswell’s Model with the 5 W’s was also a Linear model which highlighted the message being sent to the recipient and creating an impact. It was linear and had not feedback. IT was basically a model that had a similar conceptualisation where Mass media was used as a tool to create an impact by passing on messages. Many Theories of Communication revolved around studies based on this thought.
Over a period of years, the term Propaganda was defined by renowned scholar, Edward S. Herman in these words- “The propaganda system allows the U.S. leadership to commit crimes without limit and with no suggestion of misbehaviour or criminality.”
Jowett and O’Donnell, (2012) rightly state the definition of the term Propaganda as the act of “conveying an ideology to an audience with a related objective. Whether it is a government agency attempting to instil a massive wave or patriotism in a national audience to support a war effort, a terrorist network enlisting followers in a jihad, a military leader trying to frighten the enemy by exaggerating the strength of its army, a corporation pursuing a credible image to maintain its legitimacy among its clientele, or a company seeking to malign a rival to deter competition for its product, a careful and determined plan of prefabricated symbol manipulation is used to communicate an objective to an audience”. Many other scholars, have attempted at defining the term Propaganda, in view of their scenario.
The term therefore has been used both in the context of a theory and a model. The Older perspective is that of the Classical Propaganda Theory. The later version is the perspective put forth by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in their book the Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media and is termed as the ‘Propaganda Model’.
The Classical Propaganda Theory
Among one of the popular theories that is associated by some researchers is the rhetoric theory by Aristotle, wherein a speaker enlightens and persuades his audience and convinces them through the use of Rhetoric. Pedro-Carañana, J., Broudy, D. and Klaehn, J. (eds.) (2018) state that “Aristotle developed a systematic analysis of rhetoric as the art of persuasion, arguing that rhetoric had often been used to manipulate emotions, hide crucial facts, and seek to convince the other party of ideas and concepts contrary to their own interests, but which could also be developed into modes of persuasion based upon philosophical knowledge for enlightenment and the common good”.
The initial Classical ‘Propoganda Theory’ is also derived from the ‘Hegemonic Theory’ which consisted of the word propaganda being used to address the ideas of the ruler, ruling class or the elite, or aristocrats being perpetrated to the ordinary masses in a subtle manner. The initiation of the Propaganda and persuasion theories could also be traced post the French Revolution and the hailing of the Industrialisation, wherein Propaganda theory led to the understanding that the Dominant classes continued to be Dominant despite the development as their ideas were only being perpetrated to the masses with subtleness. The masses continued to be dominated and ruled by the elite and were victims of the consumeristic trends and idea that were perpetrated to make the rich get richer.
Antonio Gramsci (1971), stated that the ruling elites were able to exercise noncoercive dominance through the use of symbols communicated through cultural institutions such as school and the mass media (Patrick and Thrall, 2007). In other words, “Propaganda and mis-education would serve as the principal tools in re-engineering the desires and tastes of a largely rural, self-organised and cooperative population and presenting to it a specific form of industrialisation centred around a system of wage-labour promoted by the aristocratic State, bankers, and other corporate leaders.” (Pedro-Carañana, Broudy,and Klaehn, 2018)
The entire concept of the Propaganda Theory today could be interpreted as the Government-Press Media Nexus in terms of the government’s ability to channelise information being passed on to the people through filters created by the Government themselves in order to propogate their opinion or a certain opinion in their favour. The masses are considered to be naive and partially informed. They are also generally considered to be people who need simplified explanation at the cost of accuracy, which often promulgates the ruling authority to maximise their influence on the thought process of the masses. However, scholars across the world have highlighted that people will buy any opinion by the ruler only if the ruler sell content that people want to buy. This is the crux that lies below Hegemonical Practices. The people are made to believe that a given ‘idea, opinion or piece of Information’ is absolutely necessary for a better living through massive use of perpetrating these messages through mass media as a tool, thus garnering support for the rulers who actually propagated the concept.
The Propaganda Model by Herman and Chomsky
In the model prescribed by E. Herman and N. Chomsky media serve booth as a tool that performs the functions of amusing, entertaining, informing and as a system that inculcates individuals with “with the values, beliefs, and codes of behaviour that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society”. Both the Experts highlight how in an attempt to avoid major conflicts that could stem from class interest, media is used for systematic propaganda to propogate the values of the dominant elite. (Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in the excerpts from the Book Manufacturing Consent)
Chomsky and Herman also add that in many countries power ultimately lies in the hands of the State Bureaucracy which gives them a monopolistic control over the media arena, further confirming to the media system’s succumbing to the dominant Elite. Furthermore, they point out that even when Media critiques and exposes “corporate and governmental malfeasance”, the critique is still narrowed down and filtered before publishing.
Herman and Chomsky’s model focusses on how money and power which are at the disposal of the State Bureaucracy and Corporates leads to filtering of the news fit to print, marginalising of dissent, and the permeation of messages which are suitable to the palate of the government and dominant private interests to the public. The model categorises
(I) “The size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth, and profit orientation of the dominant mass-media firms;
(II) Advertising as the primary income source of the mass media;
(III) The reliance of the media on information provided by government, business, and "Experts" funded and approved by these primary sources and agents of power;
(IV) "Flak" as a means of disciplining the media; and
(V) "Anticommunism" as a national religion and control mechanism.
These elements interact with and reinforce one another. The raw material of news must pass through successive filters, leaving only the cleansed residue fit to print. They fix the premises of discourse and interpretation, and the definition of what is newsworthy in the first place, and they explain the basis and operations of what amount to propaganda campaigns.” (Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in the excerpts from the Book Manufacturing Consent)
REFERENCES
2. Cambridge advanced Learners Dictionary and Thesaurus, dictionary.cambridge.org
3. Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky, A Propaganda Model- Excerpted from Manufacturing Consent, 1988, https://chomsky.info/consent01/
4. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon, 1988, 2002.
5. Gart S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, 2012, Propaganda and Persuasion, 5th Edition, Sage Publications, UK
6. Lasswell H. D, 1927, Propaganda technique in the World War, p.47, New York: Knopf.
7. Propaganda, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/propaganda
8. Pedro-Carañana, J., Broudy, D. and Klaehn, J. (eds.). 2018. The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book27. License: CC‐BY‐NC‐ND 4.0
