Politics and the Internet: Propaganda

1. Politics and the Internet: Propaganda LM350 Computer Mediated Communication

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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

5. Name calling • Newt Ginrich’s negative words to use about opponents: • Betray • Collapse • Crisis • Decay • Hypocrisy • Radical • Shallow

7. israel

8. Whites

9. Glittering Generalities “Virtue” words, that we all aspire to “own”, e.g. • Progress • Improvement • Justive • Fairness • Democracy • Freedom • Health • Pride

10. 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

11. Glittering Generalities Current favourites? • Choice • Families • Modernisation • Others???

12. stormfront

13. Aryan Family Network And baby drive…

14. White children site

15. Word games: Euphemisms • Ministry of Defence • Collateral damage • Friendly fire • Liquidation • Post traumatic stress disorder - not shell shock

16. 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

17. Examples • Politician closing meeting with a prayer • And now for the science… • Land of Hope and Glory & Union Flag in Conservative Party conferences

18. banners

19. Transfer x 2

20. 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”

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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?

24. Special Appeals: Fear Warning audience that disaster will ensue if they don’t follow a particular course of action. Structure: • Threat • Specific recommendation • Audience belives effectiveness of action • Audience believes thay are capable of action

25. Examples • Scary AIDS tombstone campaign • Insurance company ad showing destitution after fire, sickness etc • Ad showing terrible road accident & appeal to wear seatbelt

26. mexico

27. 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.”

28. Endangered species