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Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS

Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS. Lecture 1 What is propaganda?. (At least) 2 schools of thought. Propaganda, however it is defined, is inherently deceitful and thus morally reprehensible Or - that it is a process of persuasion and, as such, is inherently neutral or value neutral

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Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS

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  1. Public Diplomacy, Propaganda and PSYOPS Lecture 1 What is propaganda?

  2. (At least) 2 schools of thought • Propaganda, however it is defined, is inherently deceitful and thus morally reprehensible • Or - that it is a process of persuasion and, as such, is inherently neutral or value neutral • This course takes the latter view….. • ….and thus sees propaganda as a process of persuasion which can be used for good as well as ill.

  3. (At least) 2 models • Authoritarian/Totalitarian – coercion or force in support of persuasion; total censorship; permeates every aspect of society from schools to sport; ‘The Big Lie’ • Democratic – consensus through persuasion, minimal censorship, news rather than views, issue-based, ‘The Strategy of Truth’

  4. What is Propaganda? • Original meaning – to propagate the ‘faith’ -(Congregatio de Propaganda Fide – 17th Century) • Sowing seeds of thought to translate into action (or inaction) • Acquired pejorative meaning 1914-18

  5. ‘A Good Word Gone Wrong’ • Atrocity propaganda • Lies and half-truths • A ‘black art’ ‘defiling the human soul’ at a time when the mind was only just becoming understood (psychology) • Better to persuade than perish?

  6. What it is not • Education …. But? • Is it COMPLETELY honest? • It is not about ‘Truth’ • Confined to dictatorships/authoritarian regimes • Designed to benefit solely the recipient

  7. What is propaganda? • It is a process of persuasion • It is on the spectrum of communication from who says what to whom, when, how and with what effect • It injects the question ‘why?’ into that spectrum • Therefore it is about intent

  8. Intentions • As a process, propaganda is value-neutral • As such, it is neither a ‘good’ nor a ‘bad’ thing • Value judgements like this are more appropriately directed as the intentions behind doing it • More useful to speak of ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’ propaganda (results)

  9. ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ Intentions?

  10. Propaganda is something someone else does!! • ‘Democracies only resort to propaganda in wartime’ • ‘Totalitarian regimes do it all the time’ • We tell the ‘truth’; they tell lies • In fact we tell our ‘truth’ and they tell their ‘truth’ • Whose ‘truth’ is right? • Better to talk about credibility

  11. Propaganda – NATO definition ANY INFORMATION, IDEAS, DOCTRINES OR SPECIAL APPEALS, DISSEMINATED TO INFLUENCE THE OPINIONS, EMOTIONS, ATTITUDES OR BEHAVIOUR OF ANY SPECIFIED GROUP IN ORDER TO BENEFIT THE SPONSOR, EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY

  12. PROPAGANDA CATEGORIES • WHITE - overt, attributable to a definite source • BLACK - covert, deliberate deception where a false source is definitely implied • GREY - where a source is concealed and not acknowledged by the originator

  13. COHESIVE PROPAGANDA • CREATE GOODWILL • PROMOTE FRIENDSHIP • RAISE MORALE • STRESS COMMON INTERESTS • GAIN CO-OPERATION

  14. DIVISIVE PROPAGANDA • LOWER MORALE • CREATE APATHY, DEFEATISM & DISCORD • PROMOTE DISSENTION, PANIC SUBVERSION, RESISTANCE, DESERTION, SURRENDER & DEFECTION

  15. PROPAGANDA VARIANTS • INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC INFORMATION (Public Diplomacy/Cultural Diplomacy) • PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE/OPERATIONS • INFORMATION WARFARE/OPERATIONS • PUBLIC RELATIONS/SPIN DOCTORING • ADVERTISING/MARKETING (?) • PUBLICITY • NEWS? (‘the shocktroops of propaganda’)

  16. PROPAGANDA AUTHORITARIAN MODEL (Censorship, police enforcement Media are state controlled, Opposition denied) DEMOCRATIC MODEL (Regulation rather than censorship, media are free/act as watchdog, Opposition essential) Messages compete with others, internally and externally, top down to bottom up to see consensus (ie ‘prevailing truth’) emerge Messages are top down, Centrally coordinated, Outside world sealed off to deny competing ‘truths’

  17. The process of persuasion spectrum in the democratic model POLITICALCOMMS (‘spin’) PROPAGANDA EDUCATION ADVERTISING PUBLIC RELATIONS Who to vote for (benefits the party) Who to like (benefits the company) What to think? (benefits the source) How to think (benefits the recipient) What to buy (benefits the profits)

  18. PROPAGANDA PRINCIPLES IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN • IT IS BASED UPON CREDIBLE TRUTH • PRESENTED IN AN ATTRACTIVE FORM • IT AROUSES A NEED • IT SUGGESTS SATISFACTION

  19. ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES • REFRAIN FROM RIGID DOGMATISM • AVOID ANTAGONISM • IDENTIFIES ITSELF WITH THE TARGET • EXPLOITS, WHEN OPPORTUNE, WEAKNESSES IN HOSTILE PROPAGANDA TO THE MAXIMUM

  20. Key Propaganda Writers Walter Lippmann & Harold Lasswell Aldous Huxley & George Orwell Hitler Jacques Ellul Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman R S Zaharna (on PD) A Pratkanis

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