analysis Archives

THE RISE OF MEDIA THEORY IN THE AGE OF PROPAGANDA (Review)

December 1, 2016 No Comments

MASS COMMUNICATION THEORY Foundations, Ferment, and Future (Book) Chapter#4: THE RISE OF MEDIA THEORY IN THE AGE OF PROPAGANDA (Review) Muckraker Crusading journalist, typically challenging the powerful on behalf of those less so. Propaganda No-holds-barred use of communication to propagate specific beliefs and expectations. White propaganda Intentional suppression of potentially harmful information and ideas, combined with deliberate promotion of positive information or ideas to distract attention from problematic events. Propaganda theorists abandoned idealism in favor of strategies they regarded as realistic and scientific. Propaganda must be resisted by whatever means possible. Even though the threat of propaganda was great, there might be a silver lining to this cloud. If we could find a way to harness the power of propaganda to promote good and just ideals, then we would not only survive its threat but have a tool to help build a better social order. This was the promise of […]

THE INSTITUTE FOR PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS

October 25, 2016 No Comments

Should the power of propaganda be used for democratic ends (the Lasswell/Lippmann view), or because propaganda, by its very existence, was antidemocratic, was education the best way to deal with it (the Dewey view)? The disagreement over the proper place of propaganda in a democracy was no theoretical exercise. Social scientists believed the fate of the country, the world in fact, rested on its outcome. In 1937, the threat of external propaganda was so great that a group of social scientists, journalists, and educators founded the Institute for Propaganda Analysis with the goal of orchestrating a nationwide educational effort to combat its effects. During the four years of its existence, the institute was quite productive, generating numerous pamphlets, books, and articles explaining how propaganda works (read more about propaganda techniques in the box entitled “Applying the Seven Propaganda Techniques”). The institute was successful in developing an antipropaganda curriculum adopted by […]