We all have a picture in our minds of what propaganda looks like from a historical stand-point, but with advances in technology, the way it is being put before us is much more nuanced; does that make it more powerful?
Definitions of propaganda use words like manipulation, persuasion, and misleading as ways of influencing populations to further political causes and views. These practices are inherent in non-democratic regimes for ensuring the success and stability of totalitarian leader's reigns of power. Institutionalising the views of the party or person in charge proliferates the support of the regime and naturalises the leader into power.
Propaganda gets people on the side that the publisher wants, not necessarily with the intention that they understand what they are agreeing with, but that they think on principle it is the right side to be on. Threats, exaggeration, and misrepresentation of situations helps to rationalise radical views in the heads of those who are being targeted. Those who succumb to propaganda become pawns of the movement.
Modern propaganda is all about shaping the environment in which information is shared. This can be seen in China where there is great censorship of the use of the internet, being the place where information is most swapped and shared; the connection to the 'outside world'. Specific content and websites have been removed and blocked from being accessed in China, which opens up the perfect environment for manipulation through propaganda. Where there is only government regulated information flows the people cannot seek information that would negate what the government is telling them. This coupled with the heavy penalties that can come with unauthorised use of the internet make naturalisation into the views of the leader very effective and efficient.
With the mixture of censorship and propaganda the government can convince people that they have a choice or are allowed an opinion, but they cannot choose their facts, which are chosen for them by the government. In these situations people feel empowered by having the "facts" and feel as though they have a made an informed opinion. This means that they are likely to not believe alternative views because they can't see them as supported by facts.
Modern propaganda is smarter and more effective, but it doesn't stop people from rebelling against it.
https://renegadeinc.com/modern-day-propaganda/
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2018/china
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/12/13/propaganda-used-to-be-a-source-of-shame-now-governments-take-pride-in-it/?noredirect=on
Thanks for this, Emily. Note that in China much "forbidden" information is actually accessible, it just requires some technical savvy to access (which makes people less likely to seek out the information).
ReplyDeleteThere's a question here about how effective propaganda (even modern propaganda) actually is; studies of its effectiveness typically find that it's much less effective than one would expect!