Propaganda and Persuasion

Flashcards related to propaganda and persuasion

Propaganda

A form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

Persuasion

Interactive and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and persuadee.

News Management/Spin

Shapes information by emphasizing positive features and downplaying negative ones to cast institutions in a favorable light.

Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide

Established in 1622 by the Vatican, meaning the sacred congregation for propagating the faith of the Roman Catholic Church whose propaganda lost its neutrality and subsequent usage has rendered the term pejorative.

Spin Doctors

Press secretaries and public relations officers who attempt to launder the news.

White Propaganda film

Neither deceitful nor false, the source was known, but it shaped viewer perceptions and furthered the desired intent of the filmmaker to vilify the enemy and encourage American patriotism.

Jacques Ellul

Focused on propaganda as technique itself (notably, psychological manipulation) that, in technological societies “has certain identical results,” whether it is used by communists or Nazis or Western democratic organizations.

Leonard W. Doob

Defined propaganda in 1948 as 'the attempt to affect the personalities and to control the behavior of individuals towards ends considered unscientific or of doubtful value in a society at a particular time.'

Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson

Regarded propaganda as the abuse of persuasion and recognized that propaganda is more than clever deception (mass ‘suggestion’ or influence through the manipulation of symbols and the psychology of the individual).

Alex Carey

Regarded propaganda in the corporate world as “communications where the form and content is selected with the single-minded purpose of bringing some target audience to adopt attitudes and beliefs chosen in advance by the sponsors of the communications.

Shawn J. Parry-Giles

Defined propaganda as “conceived of as strategically devised messages that are disseminated to masses of people by an institution for the purpose of generating action benefiting its source.

Bertrand Taithe and Tim Thorton

See propaganda as part of a historical tradition of pleading and convincing and therefore as a form of political language, however, propaganda is always articulated around of system of truths and expresses a logic of exclusive representation.

O’Shaughnessy

Recognized that propaganda is a “co-production in which we are willing participants, it articulates the things that are half whispered internally…Propaganda generally involves the unambiguous transmission of message . . . it is a complex conveyer of simple solutions.

Terence H. Qualter

Emphasized the necessity of audience adaptation: 'Propaganda, to be effective, must be seen, remembered, understood, and acted upon . . . adapted to particular needs of the situation and the audience to which it is aimed.

Propaganda

The deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

Systematic Propaganda

Precise and methodical, carrying out something with organized regularity involving expensive production for airtime and creative use of digital technologies (ads for the Web).

Shaping Perceptions

Usually attempted through language and images (slogans, posters, symbols, and even architectural structures).

Healthy Forests Initiative

Legislation designed to increase timber thinning in national forests.

Doublespeak

Language that evades “responsibility and accountability

War on Terror

Phrase used to heighten fear while simultaneously tapping the righteous indignation of citizens in ‘civilized nations’ against barbaric murderers who would perpetrate despicable atrocities on innocent victims.

Activated ideology

Propaganda is almost always in some form of activated ideology.

Agitative Propaganda

Attempting to rouse an audience to certain ends and usually resulting in significant change.

Integrative Propaganda

Attempting to render an audience passive, accepting, and nonchallenging.

White Propaganda

Comes from a source that is identified correctly, and the information in the message tends to be accurate. This is what one hears on Radio Moscow and VOA during peacetime.

Black Propaganda

When the source is concealed or credited to a false authority and spreads lies, fabrications, and deceptions. Black propaganda is the big lie.

Gray Propaganda

Somewhere between white and black propaganda where the source may or may not be correctly identified, and the accuracy of the information is uncertain.

Disinformation

False, incomplete, or misleading information that is passed, fed, or confirmed to a targeted individual, group, or country. It is covert and uses false information.

Subpropaganda

The propagandist’s task is to spread an unfamiliar doctrine, for which a considerable period of time is needed to build a frame of mind in the audience toward acceptance of the doctrine.

Facilitative communication

Designed to keep lines open and maintain contacts against the day when they will be needed for propaganda purposes.

Public opinion

Four forms that public opinion usually takes: (a)popular opinion as generalized support for an institution, regime, or political system; (b) patterns of group loyalties and identifications; (c) public preferences for select leaders; (d) intensely held opinions prevalent among a large public regarding public issues and current affairs.

Communication

A process in which a sender transmits a message to a receiver through a channel.

Persuasion

A complex, continuing, interactive process in which a sender and a receiver are linked by symbols, verbal and nonverbal, through which the persuader attempts to influence the persuadee to adopt a change in a given attitude or behavior.

A belief

A perceived link between any two aspects of a person’s world (expresses a relationship between two things or a thing and a characteristic of that thing).

A value

A special kind of belief that endures and is not likely to change, it is prescriptive and a guideline for a person’s behavior (honesty, sensitivity, success, power).

An attitude

A readiness to respond to an idea, an object, or a course of action. It is an internal state of feeling toward, or an evaluative response to, an idea, person, or object.

Behavior

Can be used as an anchor not only because it is an overt expression of a way of being but also because behavioral patterns are fair predictors of future behaviors.

Group Norms

Beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors derived from membership in groups.

Rhetoric

The faculty of discovering in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion.