6.4.2.4 Propaganda Techniques
Politicians have used propaganda techniques to manipulate public opinion for centuries, often without people realising that it is happening
In his book Propaganda, Bernays defined it as the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”. People don’t always realise that they are being manipulated. They can be persuaded to support people and policies that are not necessarily working in their best interests. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis paper, Propaganda Techniques, describes several ways of exerting influence – including making false connections, being selective about the truth and creating fear.
Propaganda can be effectively disseminated by State control of the media. For example, President Putin is controlling Russian public opinion with outrageous falsehoods, as Jade McGlynn described in the article What TV is telling Russians – and why they believe it. McGlynn watched many hours of Russian television in his research and came up with some startling examples:
The television shows “are punctuated with clips of Vladimir Putin celebrating a successful and pre-emptive mission to free Donbas from genocidal Ukrainian butchers. Russians and non-Russians alike see the human misery and detritus of an unprovoked invasion by a fascistic army – except Russians think that army belongs to Ukraine.
Clips and quotes from Putin’s interviews are repeated across Russian media for days on end. Vesti Nedeli, a flagship weekly news roundup show fronted by propagandist-in-chief Dmitrii Kiselev, is a good example of the genre. It intersperses Putin’s wild accusations with stories about Pentagon bioweapon networks in Ukraine, Nazis torturing children, economic collapse in the West, efforts to cancel Russia, and transgenderism.”
He concluded that “many ordinary Russians have made a choice to believe a narrative where they are the heroes or the victims, but never the perpetrators.”
One of the most effective propaganda techniques is the endless repetition of snappy slogans:
● The slogan “take back control” was effective in the campaign to persuade Britain to leave the EU in a ‘Brexit’; It was incorporated in the Vote Leave campaign website identity.
● Slogans were extensively used in the 2016 American presidential election, for example in the Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Rally in Sarasota, Florida: “make America great again”, “drain the swamp”, “build a great wall” and “crooked Hillary Clinton”.
Politicians can use any of these propaganda techniques, and they can personally use the Internet to continuously reinforce their messages – with a stream of tweets, for example, as described below (6.4.2.6).
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/6424a.htm.