Every year, the American Government spends 400 million dollars to produce propagandistic
materials (including magazines, movies, and radio broadcasts for Voice of America), the average
American viewer watches 37,822 TV commercials, and the "top ten marketing research firms have
combined revenues" of over one billion dollars (Pratkanis and Aronson, 1992). Yet, a century ago,
propaganda and public relations were still marginal industries : these activities have witnessed a
soar in their use by governments, businesses, and private interests, and the trend seems to be for
even more development in the upcoming years (Chomsky 2002), so far as Pratkanis and Aronson
(1992) talk about an "age of propaganda".
As pointed out by Landrin (2008), "few analysis categories are as polysemic as the notion of
propaganda" : the term is often used "to evoke practices and technique [...] whose forms and
utilisations are historically variable" (ibid.). We shall here define it as the "systematic, widespread
dissemination or promotion of particular ideas, doctrines, and practices to further one's own cause
or to damage an opposing one" (Johnston 2003), and note that it is reckoned as a negative activity.
It is more difficult to define public relations, which is often described in relation to propaganda :
Moloney (2006) describes it as "weak propaganda", whereas Landrin (2008) characterizes it as the
private equivalent of propaganda.
[...] Yet a closer look shows that editorial choices or the availability of images can have their influence : during the Flight 847 hostage crisis in Beirut in 1985, the American television networks” relied on images “generated by the Lebanese hijackers”, which presented case for the Shiite Muslims in a [favourable] light” (Jowett and O'Donnell 2006). The most recent channel for propaganda is the Internet, which makes it possible for anyone to act as a journalist and disseminate information under the cover of anonymity. [...]
[...] The first public relations firm was founded in 1906 by Ivy Ledbetter Lee, who became famous for improving the public image of John D. Rockefeller (Landrin 2008) : soon, many competitors emerged, and public relations specialists penetrated all companies : in the USA, over 200,000 individual practitioners are numbered nowadays (Bates 2006). Government propaganda soon followed the trend, and became a widely-used tool to influence public opinion, the most obvious example being during World War I : created in 1916, the Creel Commission turned pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population” (Chomsky 2002) by denouncing “German aggression and atrocities” in Europe (Sproule 1997). [...]
[...] “White propaganda comes from a source that is identified correctly, and the information in the message tends to be accurate” (Jowett and O'Donnell 2006) : for instance, when the Ministry of Health launches a campaign to inform the public about the danger of smoking, which is scientifically proven. Finally, grey propaganda is “somewhere between” the two, as source may or may not be correctly identified, and the accuracy of the information is uncertain” (Jowett and O'Donnell 2006) : during World War the United Kingdom published the “Bryce Report” about “German atrocities” in Belgium : the information seemed dubious, for the “witnesses” were mostly “hearsay renderings” (Sproule 1997). All major medias are used for propagandistic purposes in order to foster the government's interests. [...]
[...] Yet this one-sided argument can be discussed : first, it is based on the assumption that the public is extremely malleable. Most people choose not to watch advertising, most notably on websites, or do not actually pay attention to it, as in the case of television : “from the more 2,000 ‘messages' we are exposed to everyday, we remember at most only (Heilbroner 1985, quoted in Jowett and O'Donnell 2006) : this puts into question the efficiency of propaganda campaigns. [...]
[...] A second purpose can be to “render an audience passive, accepting, and nonchallenging”, which defines “integrative propaganda” (Szanto 1978, quoted in Jowett and O'Donnell 2006) : in order to prepare the coup d'état of 1954 in Guatemala, the CIA launched a vast disinformation campaign against President Árbenz Guzmán and publicized the upcoming invasion of the country by massive forces, so that the 480-soldier Guatemalan army of liberation “entered the capital virtually unopposed and installed a government friendly to Washington” (Johnston 2003). Three different forms of propaganda must be distinguished : black, white, and grey. [...]
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