Strategies of Propaganda Campaign

While there are many techniques of propaganda, researchers of mass communication identify seven frequently found devices, or ‘‘tricks of the trade.’’ These seven common instruments in the ‘‘ABCs of propaganda analyses’’ are name calling, glittering generality, transfer, testimonial, plain folks, card staking, and the band wagon effect.

Name Calling

As its title suggests, this device consists of labeling people or ideas with words of bad connotation, literally, “calling them names.” Here the propagandist tries to arouse our contempt so we will dismiss the “bad name” person or idea without examining its merits. Name calling involves the use of labels to project an idea in a favorable or unfavorable light. The latter is likely the scenario most recognize, however. Its purpose is also to discourage individuals from examining substantive evidence on an issue.

Name-calling can be used against policies, practices, beliefs and ideals, as well as against individuals, groups, races, nations. Name-calling is at work when we hear a candidate for office described as a “foolish idealist” or a “two-faced liar” or when an incumbent’s policies are denounced as “reckless,” “reactionary,” or just plain “stupid.”

One frequent use of name calling comes when stereotyping is employed to paint a negative image of the opposition or enemy. The intent may be to suggest major political or ideological differences, real or imagined. Name calling employs emotional reactions and encourages the public to draw hasty conclusions with only a cursory examination of issues.

Individuals, ethnicities, and national groups have often been disparagingly labeled. In modern society, many examples abound. During the Cold War, Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an ‘‘Evil Empire.’’ In the course of recent Gulf Wars, President Bush labeled Saddam Hussein another Hitler, and Hussein painted the United States as the ‘‘Great Satan.’’ Several countries were named as members of the ‘‘Axis of Evil.’’

Name calling propaganda is often used by governments and their media allies to describe foreign groups. Indeed, international news stories typically come from government press releases or media organizations with the connections, permits, and funding to operate abroad. With little chance of verification by the viewing public, international news is commonly distorted in this way to garner support for government policy. As a general rule, the further a news story is from its audience, the greater the level of propaganda.

Glittering Generality

Glittering generalities are really name-calling in reverse. Name-calling uses words with bad connotations; glittering generalities are words with good connotations—“virtue words,” as the Institute for Propaganda Analysis has called them. The institute explains that while name-calling tries to get us to reject and condemn someone or something without examining the evidence, glittering generalities try to get us to accept and agree without examining the evidence.

Glittering generalities tenden to associate an issue or image with a noble or virtuous term. This use of vague terms, typically with high moral connotations, is the key to the glittering generality. The device is intended to arouse both faith and respect in listeners or readers. The exact meanings of these glittering terms as presented are literally impossible to define, hence the vagueness of the generalities.

We believe in, fight for, live by “virtue words” which we feel deeply about: “justice,” “motherhood,” “the American way,” “our Constitutional rights,” “our Christian heritage.” These sound good, but when we examine them closely, they turn out to have no specific, definable meaning. They just make us feel good. Senator Yakalot uses glittering generalities when he says, “I stand for all that is good in America, for our American way and our American birthright.” But what exactly is “good for America”? How can we define our “American birthright”? Just what part of the American society and culture does “our American way” refer to? Glittering generalities can be a powerful tool by maintaining a semblance of valid information flow.

These generalities present information with minimal details camouflaging contentious ideas and possibly distorting facts. These may be used too by people who seek to muzzle freedoms and democratic governance.

Image Transfer

When one takes the power, respect, or good reputation bestowed on an existing entity or concept, and then attempts to share these positive qualities through association with a product, individual/group, or position/program, the perpetrator is hoping to benefit through the phenomenon known as image transfer.

In transference, the use of images is the key. The cross seen in Christian churches is omnipresent and immediately symbolizes Christianity along with the many teachings and the power of the church. This symbol stirs emotions. Immediately one thinks of a complexity of feelings we have with respect to church.

A better name for the transfer device is guilt (or glory) by association. In glory by association, the propagandist tries to transfer the positive feelings of something we love and respect to the group or idea he wants us to accept. “This bill for a new dam is in the best tradition of this country, the land of Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington,” is glory by association at work. Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington were great leaders that most of us revere and respect, but they have no logical connection to the proposal under consideration—the bill to build a new dam. Senator Yakalot uses glory by association when he says full-sized cars “have always been as American as Mom’s apple pie or a Sunday drive in the country.”

The process works equally well in reverse, when guilt by association is used to transfer our dislike or disapproval of one idea or group to some other idea or group that the propagandist wants us to reject and condemn.

Testimonial

A testimonial is when a distinguished or recognized person is used to cast a product, individual/group, or position/program in either a positive or negative light.

Worldwide, we often see images of politicians and government officials visiting sites of battle or memorials to war victims. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the Falklands Islands in January 1983, in the aftermath of that war. For Thatcher, the 1982 war attributed to a dramatic change in her political image, leading to a landslide victory in the 1983 elections and eight additional years in office.

To further exemplify testimonial usage, we turn to advertising, where celebrity affiliations may be arranged. Business activities benefit from arranged ties with personalities, events, or venues. There is solid evidence that suggests that celebrity endorsements (both compensated and uncompensated) can skyrocket a product from relative obscurity to nationwide recognition. The Oprah Effect is probably the best-known example of celebrity-induced rise to commercial fame. Oprah is so influential that she has a Midas-like touch: any product she mentions on her show or bills as one of her “Favorite Things” and any book she selects for her book club gain the attention of millions. Just like some YouTube videos, these products go viral. People want them, think that they need them, and buy them. When Oprah selected Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina for her book club in 2004, the 19^th-century novel reached #1 on USA Today’s Best-Selling Books list.

Plain Folks

The use of plain folks comes in when a communicator wishes to convince others that they or their ideas are good or valid since they are similar to everyone else, just everyday ordinary people. The plain-folks appeal is at work when candidates go around shaking hands with factory workers, kissing babies in supermarkets, and sampling pasta with Italians, fried chicken with Southerners, bagels and blintzes with Jews. “Now I’m a businessman like yourselves” is a plain-folks appeal, as is, “I’ve been a farm boy all my life.” America's recent presidents have all been millionaires, but they have gone to great lengths to present themselves as ordinary citizens. Bill Clinton ate at McDonald's and confessed a fondness for trashy spy novels. George Bush Sr. hated broccoli, and loved to fish. Ronald Reagan was often photographed chopping wood, and Jimmy Carter presented himself as a humble peanut farmer from Georgia.

The irrelevancy of the plain-folks appeal is obvious: even if the man is “one of us” (which may not be true at all), that doesn’t mean that his ideas and programs are sound—or even that he honestly has our best interests at heart. As with glittering generalities, the danger here is that we may mistakenly assume we are immune to this appeal.

Card stacking

Some questions are so multifaceted and complex that no one can make an intelligent decision about them without considering a wide variety of evidence. One selection of facts could make us feel one way and another selection could make us feel just the opposite. Card stacking is a device of propaganda which selects only the facts that support the propagandist’s point of view, and ignores all the others.

It is a selection of facts and distortions, elucidations and confusions, and both logical and illogical statements. Put another way, the propagandist stacks cards against the truth. It is also the most difficult to detect, for not all information has been provided, through distortion or omission, for the audience to make an informed decision.

Bandwagon Approach

The bandwagon approach involves utilization of a notion that ‘‘Everybody is doing it,’’ or ‘‘We are all doing it,’’ so that group members are encouraged to just join or follow the crowd. This call to “get on the bandwagon” appeals to the strong desire in most of us to be one of the crowd, not to be left out or alone. Advertising makes extensive use of the bandwagon appeal. (“join the Pepsi people”), but so do politicians (“Let us join together in this great cause”).

‘‘You’re either with us or against us’’ is the battle cry often heard in times of national crisis when criticism of the status quo is being discouraged. Such was the mentality when war protesters against the Vietnam War were faced with the criticism, ‘‘America, love it or leave it’’ during the 1960s and 1970s. Another slogan based on strong feelings of nationalism is ‘‘My country, right or wrong.’’

Such a reaction denies the very foundations upon which the republic had been established. British journalist G. K. Chesterton (1902) observed ‘‘‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’’’

The slogan ‘‘Four out of five dentists use this toothpaste’’ is a form of bandwagoning. Bandwagoning also appeals mostly to those who are ‘‘joiners’’; they join ‘‘because everyone else is.’’ Additional examples are the profuse use of flags, ‘‘support our troops’’ bumper stickers, or magnetic pro-troop and anticancer ribbons that people place on their automobiles.

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Propaganda is a long-established communication technique employed for public opinion manipulation. It has been in use for centuries and affects communication both domestically and abroad. Advances in communication technologies have made propaganda even more pervasive today.

Government leaders, to mould public opinion on international issues in domestic circles or to influence matters abroad, often use propaganda. It also has been used by nongovernmental entities seeking to access global communication channels for the purpose of public opinion formation or manipulation.

Not only governments, or those attempting to sway opinion making of governments, use propaganda, but public relations practitioners who may serve as agents of these parties use it as well. In modern times, these public relations campaigns have become more complicated under the rubric of public diplomacy as governments make efforts to sway public opinion through less obvious and sometimes coercive techniques of opinion ‘‘management.’’ Advertising, too, is a form of opinion manipulation, and while this falls outside our discussions on propaganda per se, its many methods are ultimately linked to the larger body of knowledge employed by the propagandist.

Communication has become more sophisticated. International terrorists seek access to many of the same communication channels that governments have traditionally sought for opinion manipulation. Some outside the societal mainstream have created catastrophic crimes against humanity and then used the media to fashion their own messages of rebellion and disorder. Marginalized groups likely will continue to seek out such nontraditional forms of persuasion, as they feel disenfranchised by mainstream global governance processes and our social and economic institutions.

Just as we discuss the implementation of various economic, social, and political policies in our countries today, so too might we expand these discussions into areas of political and corporate control of media, and the use of public funds to intentionally mislead individuals at both domestic and international levels. A true democratic system involves active participation by its many members. Using communication media to manipulate or marginalize public involvement goes against the very keystone upon which a democracy is constructed. Along with the need for greater awareness and dialogue comes a corresponding responsibility for our media to become more aggressive and look to lead, not follow, our governments and their actions.

(Based on: “Global Communication and Propaganda” by Richard C. Vincent; “Propaganda and Persuasion” by Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell; “Celebrity Endorsements and Twitter: Do we buy things when celebrities tell us to?”)

NOTES

The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) existed from 1937 to 1941; it closed down because, with war approaching, they couldn't maintain a dispassionate analysis of all propaganda. Their premise was a concern about increasing amounts of propaganda being used on the public. Their goal was to educate the public about propaganda and help them recognize and deal with it. Their concern was that increasing amounts of propaganda would weaken the peoples' ability to analyze and think rationally about issues. One of their efforts involved identifying "seven common propaganda devices" that were commonly used in propaganda materials.

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African American of the 20th century and North America's first multi-billionaire black person and has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. She has also been sometimes ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

The Falklands War was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands, and its territorial dependency, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982 and lasted 74 days ending with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina were restored in 1989 following a meeting in Madrid, at which the two governments issued a joint statement. No change in either country's position regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was made explicit. In 1994, Argentina's claim to the territories was added to its constitution.