Propaganda

• Mass persuasion--does it work? Sometimes . . .
• 'Moving' public opinion to 'voluntarily' accept views of others as one's own (the 'others' being the ones attempting to influence the public)
• Effective propagandists are not rock stars . . . why not?
• Researchers speak in terms of 'communicators' and 'targets'
• Tools of the propagandist
  • Stratagems of persuasion
    • pre-persuasion
    • source credibility
    • message control (words ... images)
    • appeal to emotion
  • Central vs peripheral routes to persuasion--when do you think people are most susceptible to efforts to persuade them: When they're intellectually engaged, or vegged out in front of the TV?
• Some clips
  • First gulf war
  • Smoking gun to mushroom cloud
  • Post invasion analysis
• Using imagery (White House backdrops 1 and 2; less effective image manipulation; Appeals to fear)
• But . . . . who would fall for this (who wouldn't??)?