ANALYZING PROPAGANDA- FROM COLD WAR TO XXI CENTURY

Analyzing propaganda

Source-content-audience-media-effects model to effectively analyze adversarial propaganda activities (2003).

1. Source: A source is the origin or sponsor of the propaganda. It may be an individual, government, organization, or combination there of. Identifying the source of the propaganda provides information concerning the purpose of the propaganda. According to Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, “Propaganda that conceals its source has a larger purpose than what is readily discernible.” For example, the Soviet Union often used left-wing front groups resident in many nations during the Cold War to disseminate its propaganda messages.

→ In one case, the Soviets provided fake scientific information to peace groups and others, aimed at stoking fear of a “nuclear winter” in an attempt to prevent the United States from putting Pershing II missiles in Europe.

2. Content: Content analysis reveals the message and determines the source’s motives and goals for the propaganda. For example, during the Cold War, the West learned much about Russian leadership and military capabilities by observing the Soviets’ annual Red Army Day parade in Moscow. Placement of an individual on the official party’s reviewing stand reflected importance within the party. Such content analysis of events may also provide information on morale, intentions, and propaganda.

3. Audience: Audience analysis reveals the group whom the propagandist is attempting to target, as well as the propagandist’s understanding of and expectations for the audience.

4. Media: Media analysis determines why a particular medium was selected, what are an opponent’s media capabilities, and how consistently it communicates a message.

5. Effects: Effect analysis reveals the impact that propaganda has had on the target audience. The IO staff is given the responsibility of determining behavioral or attitudinal changes within the intended audience and assessing the need and means to respond, as required.

Counterpropaganda techiniques

1. Direct and indirect refutation:

   Direct refutation is a point-for-point rebuttal of adversarial claims. Indirect refutation seeks to change the topic by questioning the creditability of the speaker or some other aspect of the allegation. During the Civil War, for example, the South countered Northern antislavery propaganda with themes depicting the deplorable working conditions in Northern factories.

2. Diversion:

   Diversion seeks to avoid addressing a topic through the introduction of a new topic. An example of this occurred in late 1943 when the German propaganda ministry introduced rumors of a German plan to establish a redoubt in the Alps as part of a campaign to divert attention away from increasing German battlefield defeats. The plan, titled “Alpine Fortress,” consisted of Germany’s government and military forces retreating to prepared positions in the German Alps. Rumors of an Alpine Fortress became a major concern for Allied militar.

3. Silence.

   Silence refers to not responding to the propaganda claims, other than to offer “unworthy of comment.”.An interesting note is that World War II German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would sometimes refuse to deny or refute Allied claims concerning damage from air strikes in order to deceive the Allies into believing they were achieving great successes in the air war.

→ During the Cold War (1947–1991), the United States used a wide variety of informational tools and techniques to counter Soviet communist propaganda.However, the strongest instrument for countering propaganda proved to be simply telling the truth.

To that end, the United States established several radio broadcast agencies, such as Radio Free Europe, that beamed truthful programming into areas of the Soviet Union.

4. Restrictive measures: Restrictive measures deny access to the propaganda. Russia utilized jamming and other measures during the Cold War to prevent the broadcast of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty from reaching its citizens.

5. Imitative deception: Imitative deception involves subtly altering an adversary’s propaganda in

   order to discredit it or to use it as propaganda against the adversary. During World War II, the Allies had developed a successful leaflet depicting life in an Allied prisoner of war camp. Interrogations of German prisoners indicated a fear of being shipped to America, where it would presumably take longer to get home after the war, so the Allies modified the leaflet to say that prisoners were no longer going to be shipped toAmerica. The Germans turned this around on the Allies. They disseminated the leaflet to German troops to prove that since “prisoners are no longer sent to America,” they were instead being shipped to Siberia. This was further developed into a successful propaganda.

6. Conditioning: eliminates potential vulnerabilities in the target audience before exposure to adversarial propaganda. The U.S. Army educated soldiers during the Cold War on potential Warsaw Pact propaganda themes and lines of persuasion in order to condition them against Warsaw Pact propaganda.

7. Forestalling: anticipates adversary propaganda and counters it by reaching the

   intended audience first with the message. German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used the technique of forestalling during his preparation of the German populace for the defeat and surrender of German and Italian forces in North Africa in 1942. German media reported the historic struggle of German forces in an attempt to beat Allied reporting of the surrender.

8. Minimization: The minimization technique acknowledges certain aspects of propaganda but minimizes its importance to the audience. An example is when the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007. The Soviets initially denied the shooting, claiming the aircraft was not a passenger liner but was on an intelligence collection mission. The Soviets further attempted to minimize the incident, claiming the aircraft strayed into Soviet airspace and had ignored Soviet interceptor aircraft requests for identification.