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Truth or Dare I Say It - Propaganda?
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by Emilio Lizardo | August 3, 2008 at 10:19 am
661 views | 44 Recommendations | 15 comments
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August 3, 2008 2:14
Now Public Contributor E. Lizardo
OPINION:
In a sense, everything we read, write, or say qualifies as propganda. After all, writers and speakers just try to get their point across to their readers or listeners. The same might be said to hold true for perhaps other forms of media communication, for if such communication is not about presenting a viewpoint then it is nothing at all.
Here's what an on-line encylopedia has to say about it
Propoganda
Systematic spreading (propagation) of information or disinformation (misleading information), usually to promote a religious or political doctrine with the intention of instilling particular attitudes or responses. As a system of spreading information it was considered a legitimate instrument of government, but became notorious through the deliberate distortion of facts or the publication of falsehoods by totalitarian regimes, notably Nazi Germany.
One example of propoganda in real life might be the way an image of a skull was used to add a dimension of fear to a quotation from Joseph Goebbels, the German minister of propaganda, at the time of the invasion of Russia during World War II. Here is a typical example of the kinds of things he wrote.
Another might be a World War II poster showing a steadfast image of Winston Churchill, backed by the armed forces, supporting his view that the nation would ‘go forward’. Here is a typical example of Churchill's.
Marshal McLuhan and the New Media
Professor Marshal McLuhan became quite famous in the 1960's and 1970's for what he had to say about communications and media, and we may find a short bio for him in Wikipedia
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, C.C. (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communications theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village."
What McLuhan had to say about the way people are affected by the printed word, the things that we all read, a general topic known as print culture is particularly interesting
... McLuhan's [thesis] (later elaborated upon in The Medium is the Massage) is that new technologies (like alphabets, printing presses, and even speech itself) exert a gravitational effect on cognition, which in turn affects social organization: print technology changes our perceptual habits ("visual homogenizing of experience"), which in turn affects social interactions ("fosters a mentality that gradually resists all but a... specialist outlook"). According to McLuhan, the advent of print technology contributed to and made possible most of the salient trends in the Modern period in the Western world: individualism, democracy, Protestantism, capitalism and nationalism. For McLuhan, these trends all reverberate with print technology's principle of "segmentation of actions and functions and principle of visual quantification."
To put it all into layman's terms, McLuhan's laboratory research findings showed very clearly that what people see in printed form we tend to believe. Doesn't matter if it's actually true or false! The single most important factor is the printed form of the information. He theorized why this might be so by suggesting our brains are wired to automatically assign more importance to visual data than other sensory inputs. A totally unconscious process.
Publish it, allow people to read it, and viola'- one has created, if not outright believers, then at least a trend in public opinion. It's measurable!
Was McLuhan right? Does it really work that way? Are we that easily influenced by the things we read?
We might find some answers if we pay close attention, even as we read today's news!
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Emilio Lizardo
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (15)
at 10:31 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, good stuff.
at 10:35 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 10:51 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 10:54 on August 3rd, 2008
Thank you, all - honored!
at 12:18 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 13:27 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 14:03 on August 3rd, 2008
Speaking of propaganda, I'd also point out Edward Bernays, cousin to Freud and grandfather of the public relations industry.
In his 1928 book, Propaganda, Bernays argued that such manipulation was necessary in a democratic society...
That's propaganda in and of itself -- but no less a key point of logic.
Then there's stuff like logical fallacies - which almost all of us use on a regular basis (to win arguments, justify beliefs and trick people into accepting outright lies). "You're with us or with the terrorists!" is a classic fallacy.
Looking at the bigger picture you're pointing at, Emilio -- I'd say yeah, technically speaking, everything is propaganda because there is no such thing as truth or fiction. It's all belief derived primarily from our own perception and imagination. None of it is absolute: science or math, the bible or the Q'uran, the latest news on Brad and Angelina. We gotta draw the line at some point though, otherwise most of us would become lunatics.
at 20:17 on August 14th, 2008
What I really set out to do in this piece was to make the case for one of the key empirical facts that McCluhen's research demonstrated - that if people see something in print they tend to believe it - whether it is true or false ! I was always pretty impressed by this in my younger days and wondered if it was really true ... now, much later in life I don't have to wonder any more - it's very true, and it is the reason advertising works and the reason the most money will win an election !
Bernays seems to be pretty good, but here's one I like even better - John Acton, who is the source of a pretty famous quotation, 'Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
at 14:15 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. Written propaganda is replaced today by sublime video messages underlaying the reality. Today we don't believe the news of our ancient "home Newspaper" we google a multidimensional video, writing, image, map world. Looking back to WW II without Internet, TV brings nothing. Better to analyse today, how many of us write opinions for whom? In France this just came up last year, "permanent writers" presenting "reader's comments", sometimes funny like on the Washington post with french english during visits of politicians. Internet is one of the great freedoms America contributed to world progress. As long as it works, we are free to make our opinion, propaganda has no chance.
at 15:28 on August 3rd, 2008
If what you mean is subliminal messages, I agree with you - it's technically feasable, and I know of many who claim it's being done. Wouldn't suprise me in the least.
Thanks for comment and GS !
at 15:55 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio you are right, the expression I meant is "subliminal video"
at 16:59 on August 3rd, 2008
Thought so !
at 19:28 on August 3rd, 2008
Emilio Lizardo, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Okay, if i write: "Chicken does leg split and boogied down the street". Will you believe me? Lol..great piece by the way. :)
at 03:47 on August 4th, 2008
I think I'd need to see the video on that one, tiha ! Thanks for GS !
at 22:46 on August 14th, 2008