Semantics and Ethics of Propaganda

Black, Jay

doi:10.1207/s15327728jmme1602&3_4

Cited by 22 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In a politically competitive democracy and a commercially competitive free enterprise system, mass communication functions by allowing a competitive arena in which the advocates of all can do battle. What many call propaganda therefore becomes part of that open marketplace of ideas; it is not only inevitable, but may be desirable that there are openly recognizable and competing propagandas in a democratic society, propagandas that challenge all of us-producers and consumers-to wisely sift and sort through them (Black, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pravda: Gazete Kisvesi Altında Bir Propaganda Aracı mı?

Bay¹

2019

KAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

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Much as not accepted legally as a part of the political system, the media, Fourth Estate, is an industry that exerts an indirect still huge effect on society. The most usually perceived piece of the fourth domain is the news media or the press. Pravda, the winner of the 1985 Evening Standard Best Play Award, is a satirical play by David Hare and Howard Brenton which explores this issue and shows what the genuine role of journalism must be in society. Our study deals with the mid-1980s daily newspaper industry in Britain, specifically the ones owned by the Australian media and press baron Rupert Murdoch, and why so many English newspapers choose to behave as if they were propaganda sheets in disguise of newspapers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pravda: Gazete Kisvesi Altında Bir Propaganda Aracı mı?

Bay¹

2019

KAÜ Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi

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“…If there was little scholarly analysis of PD between 1965 and 1990, propaganda and media persuasion continued to be discussed outside PD studies. In the 1960s, Milton Rokeach and Jaques Ellul developed Lasswell's ideas, exposing the connection between media influence, social belief systems, and social cohesion (Black :124–129). This “media influence” debate conceptualized propaganda's dispositional power as a “semantic” posture of mental closure and reverence for authority, but failed to address a wider range of emotional dispositions and their public effects.…”

Section: Establishing Public Diplomacy: Dispositions and Propagandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion and Public Diplomacy: Dispositions in International Communications, Dialogue, and Persuasion

Graham

2014

Int Stud Rev

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States use public diplomacy (PD) to transmit information, ideas, and values that support their interests. Despite the centrality of emotion to early academic accounts of propaganda, emotion has not yet been addressed in contemporary PD studies, even in the context of the field's recent engagement with relational communication models. This oversight leaves the current scholarship on PD with an underspecified account of what PD actually does when it works-when it influences and persuades-because emotion is involved in these functions. At the same time, investigating these questions shows that PD practices deserve greater attention in debates within International Relations (IR) about language, power, and persuasion. Drawing on theories of emotion within constructivist IR and political theory, this article reviews two key functions of PD and asks how they engage public emotions. I show that emotions are present in argument, reasoning, and persuasionparticularly in the context of discourse about values. I then show how emotional expression reflects cultural difference, thereby influencing cross-cultural dialogue, and how emotion constitutes collective identities.

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“…This rhetoric-based approach to propaganda departs from theoretical approaches that focus on communicator intent as the defining identifier of propaganda, for example Lasswell's understanding of propaganda as all communication aiming to influence human action (1937), Lee and Lee's understanding of propaganda as all communication designed to attain ''predetermined ends'' whether harmful or beneficial (1939, p. 15), or Pratkanis and Aronson's (1991) definition of propaganda as any deliberate mass influence. However, this study's textual analysis approach accords with prominent propaganda scholars such as Black (2001) who have suggested that, because communicator intent is inherently difficult to determine or confirm, a focus on textual criteria, rather than communicator intent or audience response, is productive. Assessing texts and textual manoeuvres at least enables consistent conclusions as to whether propaganda is stylistically present or absent, regardless of whether that presence is then judged appropriate in particular circumstances or contexts, or what its aims might be speculated to be.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This study's challenge was to identify what particular rhetorical devices typically characterized propaganda, and devise a reliable means of measuring their presence. Black's (2001) review of propaganda theory identified ''closed mindedness'' as a repeated concept. He proposed a new definition of propaganda, based on the presence of three rhetorical characteristics exemplifying closure: ''simplified, pat answers (usually relayed by 'authoritative sources');'' ''a world in which the good guys and the bad guys are readily identifiable;'' and ''simplistic and direct connection between causes and effects'' (p. 129).…”

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confidence: 99%

Responding to Terrorism using Ethical Means: The Propaganda Index

Tilley¹

2005

RCRR

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Determining whether communication is as ethical as possible involves assessment of means (texts, language, and communication style) as well as ends (communication intent and outcomes). This article introduces the propaganda index as a way to achieve the former. A tool that measures whether texts contain stylistic devices that have been elsewhere identified as classically propagandist, the index is first overviewed then applied to a case study text: the Australian Government ''terror kit'' information package. The case study analysis, combined with some background to the kit's reception in Australia, indicates that the high levels of propaganda were probably not helpful to the kit in achieving its aims either ethically or effectively. Public communicators face a range of difficult challenges after September 11, 2001 (9/11). In particular, many governments and public authorities, including in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia, have seen a need to issue official ''terrorism information packages.'' Communication theory offers useful risk communication guidelines for developing such documents (e.g., Argenti, 2002; Gray & Ropeik, 2002), however most of the literature is teleologically focused; that is, concerned chiefly with audience outcomes such as attitude and behaviour change. While undoubtedly a key challenge for such information is balancing potentially conflicting aims to increase public preparedness and reduce anxiety, and communication theory helps negotiate this dilemma (e.g., Wray, Kreuter, Jacobsen, Clements, & Evans, 2004) there is also a role for communication theory that focuses on means; that is, the texts, language, and techniques of ''terrorism information'' documents themselves, particularly the ethics of those means. If the highest standard of ethical communication is understood as involving both ethical ends and ethical means, communication theory also has a role guiding communication practitioners to assess their methods and messages. This article reports on an 18-month research project to develop a simple ''propaganda index'' that measures levels and types of propaganda content in texts. It is argued that communicators could make ''terrorism information'' materials and other potentially controversial public communication outputs more ethical and effective by ensuring propagandistic means are minimized. Theorizing Propaganda The propaganda index proposed here is based in theoretical understanding of propaganda as a particular type of defective argument; that is, argument containing what Toulmin (1958) terms claim and warrant, but lacking relevant supportive data. Propaganda is understood in this study as communication that uses a specific set of rhetorical devices and cognitive heuristics to make claims or assertions, and to generalize (often unstated) broader assumptions from those claims, without providing evidence. A rhetorical device that fits this description is the word ''terrorist'' itself; Severin and Tankard suggest that ''two current examples of name calling [which they identify as ...

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Semantics and Ethics of Propaganda

Cited by 22 publications

References 5 publications

Pravda: Gazete Kisvesi Altında Bir Propaganda Aracı mı?

Pravda: Gazete Kisvesi Altında Bir Propaganda Aracı mı?

Emotion and Public Diplomacy: Dispositions in International Communications, Dialogue, and Persuasion

Responding to Terrorism using Ethical Means: The Propaganda Index

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