Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Propaganda techniques
Summary
A number of propaganda techniques based on social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be classified as logical fallacies, since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Propaganda techniques emerge from abusive power and control tactics.
In their book Propaganda and Persuasion, authors Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell define Propaganda as the "deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist". Harold D. Laswell's definition targets even more precisely the technical aspect: "Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form." Manipulation can be organized or unorganized, conscious or unconscious, politically or socially motivated. The concept reaches from systematic state propaganda to manipulate public opinion (Edward Bernays) to "sociological propaganda" (propaganda of integration), where the unconscious desire to be manipulated and self manipulation leads the individual to adapt to the socially expected thoughts and behaviours (Jacques Ellul).
The transition from non-propaganda to propaganda is fluid. Effective manipulation presupposes non-manipulative embedding in order to unfold its effect, which is why the reference to these contexts is not yet a refutation of the manipulative character of an act of communication.
Propaganda is understood as a form of manipulation of public opinion. The semiotic manipulation of signs is the essential characteristic ("Propaganda is a major form of manipulation by symbols" ).
Thus, propaganda is a special form of communication, which is studied in communication research, and especially in media impact research, focusing on media manipulation. Propaganda is a particular type of communication characterized by distorting the representation of reality.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.