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[CENTER] Saddam Hussein pictured as a decisive war leader in an Iraqi propaganda picture[/CENTER]
A number of techniques are used to create messages which are persuasive, but false. Many of these same techniques can be found under logical fallacies since propagandists use arguments which, although sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid.
Some time has been spent analyzing the means by which propaganda messages are transmitted, and that work is important, but it's clear that information dissemination strategies only become propaganda strategies when coupled with propagandistic messages. Identifying these propaganda messages is a necessary prerequisite to studying the methods by which those messages are spread. That's why it is essential to have some knowledge of the following techniques for generating propaganda: Appeal to fear: Appeals to fear seeks to build support by instilling fear in the general population - for example Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's Germany Must Perish! to claim that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people. Appeal to authority: Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position idea, argument, or course of action. Bandwagon: Bandwagon-and-inevitable-victory appeals attempt to persuade the target audience to take a course of action "everyone else is taking." "Join the crowd." This technique reinforces people's natural desire to be on the winning side. This technique is used to convince the audience that a program is an expression of an irresistible mass movement and that it is in their interest to join. "Inevitable victory" invites those not already on the bandwagon to join those already on the road to certain victory. Those already, or partially, on the bandwagon are reassured that staying aboard is the best course of action. Obtain disapproval: This technique is used to get the audience to disapprove an action or idea by suggesting the idea is popular with groups hated, feared, or held in contempt by the target audience. Thus, if a group which supports a policy is led to believe that undesirable, subversive, or contemptible people also support it, the members of the group might decide to change their position. Glittering generalities: Glittering generalities are intensely emotionally appealing words so closely associated with highly valued concepts and beliefs that they carry conviction without supporting information or reason. They appeal to such emotions as love of country, home; desire for peace, freedom, glory, honor, etc. They ask for approval without examination of the reason. Though the words and phrases are vague and suggest different things to different people, their connotation is always favorable: "The concepts and programs of the propagandist are always good, desirable, virtuous." Rationalization: Individuals or groups may use favorable generalities to rationalize questionable acts or beliefs. Vague and pleasant phrases are often used to justify such actions or beliefs. Intentional vagueness: Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application Transfer: This is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group, organization, nation, patriotism, etc.) to another in order to make the second more acceptable or to discredit it. This technique is generally used to transfer blame from one member of a conflict to another. It evokes an emotional response which stimulates the target to identify with recognized authorities. Oversimplification: Favorable generalities are used to provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military problems. Common man: The "plain folks" or "common man" approach attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the common sense of the people. It is designed to win the confidence of the audience by communicating in the common manner and style of the audience. Propagandists use ordinary language and mannerisms (and clothes in face-to-face and audiovisual communications) in attempting to identify their point of view with that of the average person. Testimonial: Testimonials are quotations, in or out of context, especially cited to support or reject a given policy, action, program, or personality. The reputation or the role (expert, respected public figure, etc.) of the individual giving the statement is exploited. The testimonial places the official sanction of a respected person or authority on a propaganda message. This is done in an effort to cause the target audience to identify itself with the authority or to accept the authority's opinions and beliefs as its own. Stereotyping or Labeling: This technique attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience fears, hates, loathes, or finds undesirable. Scapegoating: Assigning blame to an individual or group that isn't really responsible, thus alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned. Virtue words: These are words in the value system of the target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue. Peace, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, etc., are virtue words. Slogans: A slogan is a brief striking phrase that may include labeling and stereotyping. If ideas can be sloganized, they should be, as good slogans are self-perpetuating memes.
See also doublespeak, information warfare, meme, psyops
Techniques of Propaganda Transmission
Common methods for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, theater, books, leaflets, movies, radio , television , and posters.
Recognizing Propaganda
Some of the most effective propaganda techniques work by misdirecting or distracting the public's finite attention away from important issues. It's important to read between the lines of the news and see what isn't being reported, or what is reported once, quietly, and not followed up. In an age of information overload, distraction techniques can as effective as active propaganda. One way to test for distraction is to look for items that appear repeatedly in foreign press (from neutral and hostile countries) and that don't appear in your own. But beware of deliberately placed lies that are repeated with the hope that people will believe it if it is repeated often enough. All active propaganda techniques can be tested by asking if they tend the target audience to act in the best interests of the distributor of the propaganda.
Gloal warming and creationism?
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Propaganda presents one point of view as if it were the best or only way to look at a situation. Sometimes propaganda can be detected by the fact that it changes before and after a critical event, whereas more honest information like medicine, science or any training manual should largely remain the same after the event as before. If there are big disparities, or if some "valuable lesson" or "wake-up call" has occurred, it means that what was provided before the fact was not really "instruction" but "guessing," or - if there is no consistent explanation
Scary when you really think about it:
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Propaganda is a mighty weapon in war. In this case its aim is usually to dehumanize the enemy and to create hatred against a special group. The technique is to create a false image in the mind. This can be done by using special words, special avoidance of words or by saying that the enemy is responsible for certain things he never did. In every propaganda war two things are needed: Injustice and Faint. The faint or the injustice may be fictitious or may be based on facts, the aim is always to create hate.
Remember the WMDs?
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Other general methods used for controlling populations: 1) Isolation/control: Isolating groups can take many forms whether racial, demographic or social. Isolating groups politically can be a simple or complex process but always results in leveraged control and potential political marginalization with potential ultimate control as in a one-party state. Propaganda is an essential tool in providing the information to that will allow a particular group of people to be isolated from the mass. 2) Confusion/diversion: Splitting a major issue into separate components can work to resurrect failed but desired consequences, for example when one contentious element of an issue fails related or independent components of the issue serve as new justifications. For example the original goal in Iraq was the quest for WMD's but when WMD's were disproved the issue was transformed to providing "freedom and liberty" for the Iraqi people, and later on simply the idea of toppling Saddam Hussein was the desired goal. 3) Separation: Related to isolation and control, behaviorial psychologists sometimes refer to the principle of "divide and conquer". Divide and conquer is an extremely useful tool to maintain control over disparate groups and propaganda provides the information upon which separation is based. 4) Reaction: strength is based upon action and it is desirable to place the people and unruly groups in positions where they must react, propaganda is a useful tool and adjunct in forcing people to react as a large group. Government takes its strength from action where the strong act upon certain information and the weak and unwary are left to react. 5) Disinformation as weakness: weakness is indicated by reaction, reaction is induced by misinformation and disinformation. Strength is manifest in action to which an adjunct may be the supply of misinformation or disinformation. Individuals must not be allowed to act or think independently, and individuals must not be permitted to act in the face of government coercion. By forcing people to react to disinformation and misinformation individuals in power can pursue their own private agenda. 6) Coercion: a government's capability is determined by the government's ability to coerce citizens into adopting certain behaviors. In this manner the government may control and condition its people or the government cannot be successful. Propaganda is an essential tool and sometimes directs the manner in which the coercion is focused.
Not that the Fox News or the right wing are the only ones guilty of spreading propaganda but at this point in time, they seem to be the most powerful. When reading this information, Beck, Hannity, Bachmann and Limbaugh are the first to come to mind. They definitely use the appeal to fear technique and the stereotype technique (e.g. "all terrorists are Muslims) quite often. We saw the common man technique during the 2008 election with Joe the Plumber and Sarah Pailin (a.k.a Wal-Mart/hockey mom).
The bandwagon technique is evident, especially in this forum when we see posters parrot "no one likes Obama," that Democrats are a minority fringe group who will be extinct or that Republicans (and Republicans only) represent the American people. Scapegoating is common, especially when it comes to Obama, people were blaming him for the economic downturn the day he was inaugurated. Disinformation is being used as we speak while people continue to spread the lie of the 200 billion dollar India trip.
Glittering generalities and oversimplification are driving forces of the TeaParty. As for intentional vagueness, there is no need to go into detail there but I believe that all of these techniques have been used frequently in recent times. People have become pawns in a game where the American people lose and corporations win. If you are not encouraged to seek facts from a credible source, something is wrong. If you get your all of your information from the same biased sources, something is wrong. You are no longer in control of your own thoughts.
I am sure that most people here won't even bother to read this which is unfortunate. Some may even get angry when they read this and use this as another opportunity to spread propaganda. We joke about the media brainwashing and while the media has been and always will be an influential force in politics, people are seriously being brainwashed in a hardcore fashion by the so-called right-wing media outlets. I am not a conspiracy theorists but this is something to think about.
Try turning off the TV and the computer for a couple of days and try to see the world for what it really is rather than what the media tells you to think of it. It's not as bad as you think. Hopefully one day, people will start to wake up from this hypnotic trance that they've been in since 2008, otherwise we could end up like Nazi Germany. There has never been another "news" channel like Fox News. Think about it and think about how strong their influence is. It's far from normal and they do not encourage people to think for themselves.
Not that the Fox News or the right wing are the only ones guilty of spreading propaganda but at this point in time, they seem to be the most powerful. When reading this information, Beck, Hannity, Bachmann and Limbaugh are the first to come to mind. They definitely use the appeal to fear technique and the stereotype technique (e.g. "all terrorists are Muslims) quite often. We saw the common man technique during the 2008 election with Joe the Plumber and Sarah Pailin (a.k.a Wal-Mart/hockey mom).
The bandwagon technique is evident, especially in this forum when we see posters parrot "no one likes Obama," that Democrats are a minority fringe group who will be extinct or that Republicans (and Republicans only) represent the American people. Scapegoating is common, especially when it comes to Obama, people were blaming him for the economic downturn the day he was inaugurated. Disinformation is being used as we speak while people continue to spread the lie of the 200 billion dollar India trip.
Glittering generalities and oversimplification are driving forces of the TeaParty. As for intentional vagueness, there is no need to go into detail there but I believe that all of these techniques have been used frequently in recent times. People have become pawns in a game where the American people lose and corporations win. If you are not encouraged to seek facts from a credible source, something is wrong. If you get your all of your information from the same biased sources, something is wrong. You are no longer in control of your own thoughts.
I am sure that most people here won't even bother to read this which is unfortunate. Some may even get angry when they read this and use this as another opportunity to spread propaganda. We joke about the media brainwashing and while the media has been and always will be an influential force in politics, people are seriously being brainwashed in a hardcore fashion by the so-called right-wing media outlets. I am not a conspiracy theorists but this is something to think about.
Try turning off the TV and the computer for a couple of days and try to see the world for what it really is rather than what the media tells you to think of it. It's not as bad as you think. Hopefully one day, people will start to wake up from this hypnotic trance that they've been in since 2008, otherwise we could end up like Nazi Germany. There has never been another "news" channel like Fox News. Think about it and think about how strong their influence is. It's far from normal and they do not encourage people to think for themselves.
Joseph Goebbels would be working for Rupert Murdoch if he were alive today.
Whew!! It's been a good 12, maybe even 15 minutes since the last "Fox News is (fill in the blank)" thread. Thought you guys might be sleeping.
At least it's more interesting than the Chamber of Commerce obsession of a few weeks ago.
Slightly less interesting than the 'Koch-brothers, Dick Armey controlled Tea Party corporate puppeteers'. Although in all honestly...that week's outrage from the left was only amusing in the number of times Maddow was used as a reference.
Victims of mind control are the last ones to know about it.
The deliberate emphasis on bombarding the mind with misinformation and too much detail has resulted in people not trusting their own intuition, the small voice within, and their own gut. Turn off the sources of this campaign to disempower you and learn the language of your body, your heart, your real mind: the real you that is 100% trustworthy. Then the sentence at the top will come to life and you'll realize you are free.
Whew!! It's been a good 12, maybe even 15 minutes since the last "Fox News is (fill in the blank)" thread. Thought you guys might be sleeping.
At least it's more interesting than the Chamber of Commerce obsession of a few weeks ago.
Slightly less interesting than the 'Koch-brothers, Dick Armey controlled Tea Party corporate puppeteers'. Although in all honestly...that week's outrage from the left was only amusing in the number of times Maddow was used as a reference.
Whew!! It's been a good 12, maybe even 15 minutes since the last "Fox News is (fill in the blank)" thread. Thought you guys might be sleeping.
At least it's more interesting than the Chamber of Commerce obsession of a few weeks ago.
Slightly less interesting than the 'Koch-brothers, Dick Armey controlled Tea Party corporate puppeteers'. Although in all honestly...that week's outrage from the left was only amusing in the number of times Maddow was used as a reference.
With good reason. Her facts are checkable and not so much with her right wing counterparts. It is quite obvious CD. Facts to them are like Kryptonite to Superman...it weakens them, disorients them and sends them reeling.
Obsession? Problems with The Chamber of Commerce is a very legit issue and you would see that too if you do real reading and research. Obession is ranting about Obama using a teleprompter on about 5000 thousand threads. Is sounding off about an illegal war that killed and mamed thousands and put us into a ditch while enriching war pofiteers obsessing to you too?
Victims of mind control are the last ones to know about it.
The deliberate emphasis on bombarding the mind with misinformation and too much detail has resulted in people not trusting their own intuition, the small voice within, and their own gut. Turn off the sources of this campaign to disempower you and learn the language of your body, your heart, your real mind: the real you that is 100% trustworthy. Then the sentence at the top will come to life and you'll realize you are free.
Very true. I assume that people can't be gullible enough to believe all this information and that they are spreading lies intentionally but maybe they are so far gone that they actually believe this and don't even attempt to think for themselves.
I examine the prevailing attitudes, and reflexively take a different stance.
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