What is Propaganda?

First of all, you must understand the concept of propaganda. People tend to view propaganda as something that it is not intended to be. Today’s society has perverted propaganda’s definition to contain the connotations of something evil that “the other side does” (Why We Think as We Do by Listen, Robert A, the book jacket). This falsehood, however, is not the case at all: “Propaganda is deliberate promotion, usually emotional, by an individual or a group, using any form of communication, to create, change or control the attitudes and actions of others” (The Persuaders Propaganda in War and Peace by Gladys and Marcella Thum, page12). Summarized, propaganda is “ anything-from any source-that attempts to influence a person’s opinions” (Why We Think as We Do by Listen, Robert A, the book jacket). The public’s view of propaganda is not entirely accurate.

Many people would interpret any information to be propaganda under the said definition. This conclusion is anything but the truth. Not everything is propaganda. In order to grasp the concept of propaganda, one must distinguish the difference between education and propaganda: “education teaches people to think; propaganda teaches people what to think” (The Persuaders Propaganda in War and Peace by Gladys and Marcella Thum, pages 11and 12). Therefore, in order for a source to be propaganda, it must go beyond being informative and become bias.

It could be said that there is a science to propaganda. In order to fully understand the concept of propaganda, you must first understand these terms. Not all the propaganda terms are listed here, I’m sure there are mainly more, but these are some of the more common ones.

Propaganda Terms

• Bandwagon Device- urges the target to join with a group or idea due to its popularity.
• The Plain-Folk Device-makes an idea or group more appealing because it is composed of common people.
• The David-and-Goliath Device-makes of an idea or group seem as though another more powerful group is bullying it and, thus, causes the target of the propaganda to feel sympathy for the group.
• The Humor Device - the presentation of a topic in a humorous, more appealing way.
• The Distraction Device - hides or conceals information by distracting the audience with something else.
• The Logical-Fallacy Device - makes something appear to be logical.
• Misleading Association – using a remote association to assume an association on a much larger scale.
• Over-Simplification Devices - slogans and stereotypes that attempt to simplify something that is complex.
• Selection devices - include taking something out of context, using a scapegoat, card stacking, and false emphasis, are careful selections favoring the promoted idea.
• Word devices - variety of devices that use careful word choices in order to hinder or promote an idea or principle.
• The Appeal to Emotions Technique - using something designed to make emotional ties with the ideas or topic.
• The Big Lie Device - the telling of a lie so large that few people would dare to question its validity.