Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to
impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus
lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the
cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.
Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.
Propaganda shares techniques with
advertising and
public relations. Advertising and public relations can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person or brand, though in post-World War II usage the word "propaganda" more typically refers to political or
nationalist uses of these techniques or to the promotion of a set of ideas, since the term had gained a pejorative meaning, which commercial and government entities couldn’t accept. The refusal phenomenon was eventually to be seen in politics itself by the substitution of ‘political marketing’ and other designations for ‘political propaganda’.
Propaganda was often used to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues, particularly during the split between the
Catholic Church and the
Protestants. Propaganda has become more common in
political contexts, in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments, political groups, but also often covert interests. In the early 20th century the term propaganda was also used by the founders of the nascent
public relations industry to describe their activities. This usage died out around the time of World War II, as the industry started to avoid the word, given the pejorative connotation it had acquired.
Literally translated from the
Latin gerundive as "things which must be disseminated", in some cultures the term is neutral or even positive, while in others the term has acquired a strong negative connotation. The connotations of the term "propaganda" can also vary over time. For example, in
Portuguese and some
Spanish language speaking countries, particularly in the
Southern Cone, the word "propaganda" usually refers to the most common manipulative media — "advertising".
In English, "propaganda" was originally a neutral term used to describe the dissemination of information in favor of any given cause. During the 20th century, however, the term acquired a thoroughly negative meaning in western countries, representing the intentional dissemination of often false, but certainly "compelling" claims to support or justify political actions or ideologies. This redefinition arose because both the
Soviet Union and
Germany's government under
Hitler admitted explicitly to using propaganda favoring, respectively,
communism and
fascism, in all forms of public expression. As these ideologies were antipathetic to liberal western societies, the negative feelings toward them came to be projected into the word "propaganda" itself.
What could be the difference between propanda and advertisement?
Search on the web and find an example you like about the use (good or bad) of propaganda and mention its results.
3. Tell some anecdotes about parents and grandparents and how they met. “Imagine” a family history, either inspired by actual events or made up of fictional people and how they met. The stories must begin with an ending such as the one in The Danish Poet: "If it hadn't been for a Danish poet and Sigrid Undset and a rainy summer in Norway and a slippery barn plank and a careless mailman and a hungry goat and broken thumb and a crowded train, my parents might never have met."
