Manufacturing Consent

"So is the diversification and geographic spread of the great media companies. Many of them have diversified out of particular media fields into others that seemed like growth areas. Many older newspaper-based media companies, fearful of the power of television and its effects on advertising revenue, moved as rapidly as they could into broadcasting and cable TV" (Herman and Chomsky. 12).

This article, published in 1988, shows itself to be very outdated insofar as no mention is made of the Internet, which has revolutionized the media world. The big breakthrough is no longer cable TV (though still very important) but the evolution of the Internet has made the world a much smaller place. Someone on their computer in Ghana, Africa is immediately "face to face" with someone in Old Westbury, thanks to the Internet. All the media companies have their voices out on the Internet and can reach a far greater audience this way than through print or broadcast and cable TV. No doubt, twenty years from now, the power of the Internet will be that much greater than it is today in 2007, the early years of the 21st century.

External Characteristics of Propaganda by Jaques Ellul

Ellul describes “modern” propaganda as a scientific process based on psychology and sociology.
In his work, The Characteristics of Propaganda he breaks “modern propaganda” down into four important points of view based on science. The first category he defines, the “External Characteristics”, seemed like the most important one to me.

Modern propaganda focuses on the individual, not as an individual but as a part of the group or masses. What Ellul means by this is the modern propagandist focuses on what an individual has in common with the other individuals they are trying to sway. Modern Propagandists feel that psychologically and socially by targeting each individual and playing on their commonalities within the group, they can be pressured into doing what the propagandist wants. He seems to be referring to peer pressure when he speaks about the individual and the focuses of propaganda.

Modern Propaganda basically focuses on Men’s weaknesses emotionally and psychologically, and plays on those weaknesses to attain their goals. Whether it is newspaper, television or simply an advertising campaign, modern propaganda utilizes all tools available through “media.” Media being the press, radio, Television, movies, posters, meetings and even door-to-door canvassing or conference calling.

“Modern Propaganda seeks to “invade” a man fully, to lead him to adopt a mystical attitude and reach him through all possible psychological channels”(Ellul 7)

Modern Propaganda first through prepropaganda must be continuous and repetitive in order to be effective, it needs to be constantly reinforced. To remain effective it needs to be repeated to the point where it invades a man's entire day and night always laying in the subconscious so a person does not have a moment to reflect or think for himself.

Modern propaganda unlike the propaganda of the 1850’s no longer seeks to change a persons’ mind. Modern Propaganda seeks to incite the masses or provoke action. Whether this action is to go to war, to buy something or just to support a regime, modern propaganda wants to build up certain ideas in a man hoping they won’t think too long or hard about these ideas. The modern propagandist does not seek intelligent individuals, they seek individuals they can affect or provoke into action to help meet the propagandist’s ends.

Propaganda

"Propaganda as a mere tool is no more moral oe immoral than a pump handle. That it may be employed for subversive, fraudulent, libelous and lascivious purposes is evident." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Lasswell

PROPAGANDA- test blog

According to Harold Lasswell, "Propaganda is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations." Advertising and all kinds of publicity fall within the field of propaganda. Propaganda is carried on to promote a limited objective according to their agenda. I found it interesting that certain propaganda can be used for diplomatic, military, and economic reasons or agendas. This was shown greatly during World War I. It can be used for and against something. Propaganda can have many goals and objectives. Lastly, it can be used in the news, in advertising, in government, and in the eduaction system.

Propaganda vs. Persuasion

"Propaganda is a form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. Persuasion is interactive and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and persuadee." (Jowett, pg.1)

Propaganda - by Harold Lasswell

I found this article to be very interesting. Like many, I usually only associated propaganda with war time as a weapon against the enemy. But as this article, as well as our first class, propaganda and mass persuasion take on many forms and goals. Not only in war, but with advertising, education, news, and government, propaganda is highly effective. I also found the fact that this article was written in 1934, several years prior to WWII interesting. Much more could have been added in regards to the Nazi's use of propaganda during the 1930's and 1940's.

Modern Propaganda

According to Jaques Ellul "Modern Propaganda is based on scientific analysis of psychology and sociology." I feel this true to an extent, but i feel that propaganda is really a manipulation of the mind to make you think the way people want you think, see what they want you to see. In reference to the topic of psychology and sociology, i feel that what he's saying is partially bogus because what we learn in those areas are based on tests and statistics people recover from who knows where and were supposed to beilieve what is said. i know i personally have never been a statistic in a psychological study.

Herman on how to source mass media

Now and days all news outlets are on a constant quest to deliver breaking news first. One way to ensure this would be to essentially place cameras and reporters at essentially any and every place where important news stories take place. This, however, is impossible.
According to Herman,

"Economics dictates that (the media) concentrate their resources where
significant news often occurs, where important rumors and leaks abound, and
where regular press conferences are held."

Press conferences are a great innovation in the way the media reports the news. Essentially not only is it a way for media outlets to receive accurate and important information, but it also provides an open forum for the media to address any questions they might have. For example, NASA has recently scheduled a press conference to explain some significent findings on Mars. This is not all perfect however in the case of balanced news reporting. In a quest to actually receive the information first, many news outlets form partnerships with corporations which in effect makes the outlets afraid to offer critiquing in fear of losing this partnership. Herman explains how this innovation in reporting is a double edged sword.

Early advertisements in newspapers

According to Herman, when advertisements were first introduced to newspapers their presence was very influencial. Weather a publishing company decided to incorporate advertisements or not had important consequences. Those companies that decided to put advertisements in their pages were able to sell their news for less, because of the funding received by advertisers. The result of this was that more people favored the cheap papers. In Hermans words,

"Even if ad-based media cater to affluent audience, they easily pick up a large
part of the "down-scale" audience, and their rivals lose market share and are
eventually driven out or margananalized"

propaganda

Propaganda as a control mechanism

According to Harold D. Lasswell,

"As proposals for action along new lines arise to compete for the moral
and physical support of the masses, propaganda attains eminence as the one means
of mass mobilization that is cheaper than violence, bribery or other possible
control techniques."

It's weird to think that if no one has ever brought this to one's attention, each person in society is being controlled. It seems that no one has their own thoughts or ideas because everyone's mind is always being controlled by propaganda. The average person doesn't even know that this is happening to them.

"The skilled propagandist's task is to intensify attitudes favorable to his purposes, to reverse obstructive attitudes, to win the indifferent or at least to prevent them from becoming antagonistic."

Ellul on Total Propoganda

According to Jacques Ellul:

"Propoganda must be total. The propogandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal- the press, radio, TV, movies, posters, meetings, door to door canvassing. Modern propoganda must utilize all of the media."

It is here that Ellul is saying that propoganda will not be effective unless you are covered from every possible aspect that propoganda can be displayed from and he is right. If you are going to state something and put out an article in the newspaper, you should cover yourself and defend yourself even more by having advertisements on television or over the radio. He goes on to explain how important it is for each type of propoganda to be used so they "complement each other" and make sure that each specific area that can possibly be covered is.

Ellul on "Total Propaganda"

Taken from page 7 in The Characteristics of Propaganda "Propaganda must be total. The propagandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal - the press, radio, TV, movies , posters, meetings, door-to-door canvassing." - Jacques Ellul

What Ellul explained in this quote is that to make propaganda successful is to use all different forms of media. To use more than one outlet to get your opinion heard.

Propaganda

Harold D. Lasswell's comments in our reading packet states:

"Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form."

After reading the packet, I feel as if most of what we watch, read and listen to is propaganda that sways us in the choices we make in our daily lives. These choices may be the candidates we choose as our politicians, what our children learn in school, the products we buy in the super market and the TV show and movies we watch for recreation. The media has the ability to move individual daily decisions by the propaganda they use all around the public.

I found the article eye opening and I look forward to learning more of the effects of our daily lives through propaganda in the media.

Ellul's Total Propaganda

"Propaganda tries to surround man by all poossible routes, in the realm of feelings as well as ideas, by playing on his will or on his needs, through his conscious and his unconscious, assailing him in both his private and his public life...
Through the myth it creates, propaganda imposes a complete range of intuitive knowledge, susceptible of only one interpretation, unique and one-sided, and precluding any divergence. This myth becomes so powerful that it invades every area of consciousness, leaving no faculty or motivation intact (Lasswell. 7)."

Lasswell is expressing how propaganda must be TOTAL in order to be truly effective. It must totally draw in the objects of the propaganda campaign. Like brainwashing, the slate must be made clean and ideas and values are replaced by the propagandist. It is all about power and control, and the power must always be in the hands of the propagandist!

Lasswell's Propaganda

One idea about propaganda that I thought was important was the fact that there are so many different types of propaganda. Also, propaganda can be anything that someone believes in or thinks. If you try to get someone else to believe the same thing as you, it may be perceived as propaganda. Propaganda is usually thought of as negative but it can infact be positive. According to Lasswell,

"the process by which such techniques as those of spelling, letter forming,
piano playing, lathe handling and dialectic are transmitted may be called education, while those by which value dispositions (hatred or respect toward a
person, group or policy) are organized may be called propaganda"

Propaganda as truth?

Most of the population is only knowledgable on what the leaders and administration informs them on. Even many educated people are directed this way. Unfortunatly one of the negative aspects of mass media is that information can be controlled. As shown in Jowett and O'Donnell's Propaganda and Persuasion (pg. 30)

"Techniques of informative communication are also used in gray and black propaganda, but the information is not likely to be accurate or even based in reality. The propaganda
bureau of Nazi Germany was known as the 'Ministry of Information', an excellent example of black propaganda parading as information."

Even today, we are usually only as informed as our sources want us to be. In Nazi Germany, most everyday citizens did not know all of the evil crimes being committed by Hitler and his regime. What most people knew were the positive image he portrayed of the German people, as seen in this advertisement.

Propaganda and persuasion

According to the text Propaganda and persuasion written by Garth S. Jewett and Victoria O'Donnell:

"Propanganda is a form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that
furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. Persuasion is interactive
and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and persuadee. A model of propaganda depicts how elements of informative and persuasive communication may be incorporated into propagandistic communication, thus distinguishing propaganda as a specific class of communication. References are made to past theories of rhetoric that indicate propaganda has had few systematic theoretical treatments prior to the 20th century. Public opinion and behavioral change can be affected by propaganda."

The authors Jowett and O'Donnell are basically stating in this quote that Propaganda as a whole is a specific medium aimed at a demographic. It strives to influence the behavior of people. Propaganda at times can be misleading and often uses a pattern of reasoning which is commonly invalid.

Organizations Uses of Propaganda- LASSWELL

Depending on the interest of an organization propaganda is used in different ways. Some organizations whose goals are to express social changes through what they believe is good moral conduct; they will use propaganda to uphold the sanctity of their beliefs.

Reformist propaganda work for limited changes in the social order. As the term is used in America, reformist propaganda are those which set out to modify conditions in the name of moral standard, as, for example, efforts to prohibit the drinking of alcohol or recreation on "the Lord's Day". (Lasswell, 16)

One such example that Lasswell mentions is the relationship in Germany and France concerning the Antigovernmenta monarchist who were confronted with the progovernmental activities.

it won't let me add a picture !!!!@##$%^&* >=O

Jacques Ellul on the masses and the individual

In his passage, Jacques Ellul states,

"conversely, propaganda does not aim, simply at the mass, the crowd. A
propaganda that functioned only where individuals are gathered together would be incomplete and insufficient."

In this section of his reading, Jacques Ellul is discussing one
of the external characteristics of propaganda which is the individual and
the masses. With this particular quote, Ellul is saying that although
propaganda is intended to reach a crowd or particular group of people, it still has to be able to touch each person individually in order to be effective and receive response. In this section he also discusses how the individual makes himself part of the mass just because they share the same views and beliefs. He uses the example of the radio to convey this point and says that although when you listen to the radio you may be alone and represent yourself as an individual, in reality, you represent a mass of people as well that share the same commonalities as yourself. In all, Ellul is saying that in the case of propaganda, in order to reach the masses, you must reach the individual first and I personally agree with this because the individuals and the masses work hand in hand in the society.

Propaganda and its effect on society

Propaganda is a form of manipulation on society. It is a cheaper less obvious way of controlling the minds of the public. Laswell states

"Some exist to organize an attitude toward a person or group, others toward a
policy or institution."

Laswell states later in the reading that

"Propaganda attains eminence as the one means of mass mobilization that is
cheaper then violence, bribery or other possible control techniques."

Therefore Laswell is stating that it is a way of getting people to think and pass on information to each other with having to use other strenuous techniques. If the propagandist is cleaver they are able to draw attention to their event with no expense to themselves. Laswell explains that propaganda is a tool used to influence a mass group of people but also powerful enough to influence one person that will pass the idea onto others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Lasswell

Ellul's feelings on Radio Broadcast

Ellul feels that someone listening to a radio is never alone, therefore propaganda is spread.

"[T]he individual is considered part of the mass and included in it...
because in that way his psychic defenses are weakened, his reactions are
easier to provoke, and the propagandist profits from the process of
diffusion of emotions through the mass, and, at the same time, from the
pressure felt by an individuall when in a group. Emotionalism,
impulsiiveness, excess, etc.--all these characteristics of the individual
caught up in a mass are well known and very helpful to propaganda.
Therefore, the individual must never be cconsidered as being alone; the
listener to a radio broadcast, though actually alone, is nevertheless part
of a large group, and he is aware of it." --The Characteristics of
Propaganda

Jacques Ellul on Total Propaganda

In this passage, Jacques Ellul states:

"The propagandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal-the
press, radio, TV, movies, posters, meetings, door-to-door canvassing. Modern
Propaganda must utilize all of these media."

This one statement might be the most valid point that one could make about propaganda. In an age where people use so many different media outlets to obtain their information, it is essential for any propagandist material to be all over the place. While one person may get his news from the local paper, another individual may strictly use the internet to obtain their information. If someone looking to spread propaganda were to only use one specific media outlet to spread his/her respective message it would not be as accessible as it could be if it were spread out to other areas such as radio, television, etc.. For their to be "total propaganda" information must be accessible at a rate where many people can see it, and ultimately the more people that see the advertisements, the higher the chance of those same people buying into the message.


For more information on Jacques Ellul go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul

Lasswell Position on Propaganda

According to Harold D. Lasswell Propaganda; his position on the state of propaganda states,

"It refers solely to the control of opinion by significant symbols, or, to speak more concretely and less accurately by stories, rumors, reports, pictures and other forms of social communication."

http://www.ipsonet.org/index.php?go=awards-lasswell

Lasswell also states " Propaganda that threaten the fundamental patterns of a given group are revolutionary and invariably call counter revolutionary propaganda into existence."(Propaganda, Lasswell pg.16)

Today’s idea of propaganda weighs heavily among a type of significance aimed at influencing the judgment or actions of people. Instead of objectively providing information, propaganda is often purposely deceptive, using sound fallacy, which, while sometimes credible, is not essentially valid

To Fully Believe

Accordidng to Jacques Ellul, "Not only does propaganda seek to invade the whole man, to lead him to adopt a mystical attitude and reach him through all possible psychological channels, but, more it speaks to all men". Propaganda cannot be a complete entity unless it completely invades a man and makes him believe in the one cause it is trying to get the man to believe. If a man hears the propaganda and still only half believes in the cause, then the job is not complete. Propaganda uses many tools to achieve its goals. Tools such as the radio, television and internet are all used in the process of getting the people on your side. Sometimes even using familiar faces is a smart tool used to spread prpaganda. The two most important steps for spreading propagnada are getting the man to completely one hundred percent believe in the cause and spread to the masses, not just one or a couple of people. All of these steps and tools have been used to propagate many events such as World War 2, the Iraq War and Nazi control in Germany.

Manufacturing Consent: Filter One

Media, news, is "filtered" by five different sources by the time it gets to us, the consumer public. The first of these filters according to Herman and Chomsky is "size, ownership and profit orientation of the mass media." The technology of mass media is so expensive to own and operate that a large market must be tackled to offset costs. So to start up and build a newspaper or television network can cost millions and millions of dollars. This leaves only the extremely wealthy with the ability to control the media. There are twenty four control groups of American media. For example according to Chomsky in "Manufacturing Consent" (pg 5)

"These twenty four companies are large, profit-seeking corporations, owned and
controlled by quite wealthy people...all but one of the top companies for
whom date are available have assets in excess of $1 billion, and the median
size (middle item size) is $2.6 billion."

Even though it appears to be the cheapest media type to run it is impossible for a working class or even a moderately wealthy person to start his or her own successful newspaper. This leaves media and how we receive it in the hands of financial giants like Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner.

Lasswell Propaganda

Lasswell states "Propaganda as a mere tool is no more moral or immoral than a pump handle." Propaganda is most often seen through political and business venues, although not limited to them. These types of medians are known as indifferent and cold in regards to many issues. The propagandist is similiar to the politician or businessman in the way that his sole agenda is to get his/her message across, regardless of "moral" behavior. In order to accomplish this task, the propagandists' boundaries are inexhaustible, and will go to any length to to change opinions, through moral or immoral means.

Flaws and Foibles Magnified & Distorted

To ’08 Hopefuls, Media Technology Can Be Friend or Foe - New York Times

Hillary Clinton was caught on tape singing off-key. What does this say about the pitfalls of modern politics?

To illustrate the perils of new media coverage take a look a the msnbc video posted on youtube.

The close scrutiny of every word and facial expression limits the ability of candidates communicate except in very controlled and scripted settings. The level of paranoia in these campaigns must be extraordinary. For example take Joe Biden's recent comments on Barak Obama and the media flurry that followed. Also witness Biden's use of Jon Stewart's show to announce his candidacy.

Next Week:

(Tuesday 2/6, Thursday 2/8)
Manufacturing Consent: A Propaganda Model of the Media
Readings:
Jowett & O’Donnell, Chapter 1: “What is Propaganda . . .”
Chomsky & Herman, Chapter One of Manufacturing Consent

Welcome!

Welcome to the Spring 2007 session of Propaganda & Mass Persuasion!

Happy Posting.