JOUR 351/431-10 Public Opinion and Propaganda

Roosevelt University

School of Communication

Summer 2008

Peter K. Fallon, Ph.D.

Contact me:

pfallon@roosevelt.edu

http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/Fallon/

Statement of Philosophy

As I state in the course outline for another class (JOUR 375/470 Media Criticism), "Ideally, journalism is concerned with more than just 'the news.' It is concerned with the pursuit of truth and its publication." If this proposition is itself "true," then the study of journalism ought to be concerned with (among other things) the investigation of truth, what criteria we hold information to in order for it to qualify as truth, and what we are to make of information that does not conform to these criteria. In this respect, the study of propaganda becomes profoundly important.

What is propaganda? In this very political season of Presidential campaigns and hit documentaries (who ever heard of such a thing?), the word is being resurrected, dusted off, and put into use to describe political advertisements, political rhetoric, and political movies. But what is propaganda?

In a mass culture, this is a critically important question. In all cultures, human beings make decisions—career decisions, life decisions, political decisions, economic decisions—based on the quality of the information available to them. In a mass culture such as ours, where much if not most of our experiences are mediated, where most if not all of what we know of the world comes from television, radio, movies, or print, the quality of our information has enormous consequences not just for us, but for the world.

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I heard the word "propaganda" used a lot, usually to describe overt messages—sometimes of dubious truth value—which cast a positive light on the Soviet Union: "communist propaganda." I also heard it used to describe messages which cast doubt on the wisdom or righteousness of US policies around the world. In the early part of the 1960s, any overtly anti-war message was labeled "communist propaganda," whether the messenger was communist or not.

With the demise of Soviet communism at the end of the 1980s, the "P-word" all but disappeared. What was once a powerful ideology at war with western ideologies of capitalism and democracy disintegrated, and in its absence a "new world order" was proclaimed. Capitalism became the dominant global ideology, and propaganda became a thing of the past. Or so the story goes.

In order to answer the question "what is propaganda?," we must first answer the question "what is not propaganda?"  I repeat a simple (and perhaps simplistic) answer: Truth. In the Christian New Testament, the evangelist Matthew quotes Jesus as saying "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:15-16) As journalists, we should be ready, willing, and able to judge whether a "prophet" is a false one or true. We should be ready, willing, and able to judge whether they "walk the walk" as well as they "talk the talk."

Course Description and Format

This course examines the characteristics of propaganda in all its forms and seeks to dispel misconceptions about the nature of propaganda. It looks at the rise of new forms of propaganda peculiar to mass culture, and their relationship to public opinion and socially constructed reality. It encourages questions about American (and global) culture, and fostering habits of critical thought in the student.

It will unfold over the next seven weeks as a textual exegesis: we need to decipher Ellul's meaning before we understand his analysis. As such, this class is profoundly dependent on your active participation – if you do not plan on reading the book(s), questioning the book(s), and discussing the book(s) every evening we meet, consider dropping this class right now. This will not be a class you can let slide until week three or four.

Texts

JOUR 351 and 451 students:

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. Jacques Ellul (New York: Vintage Press, 1973).

JOUR 451 students:

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman (New York: Pantheon, 1988).

Recommended for all students:

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Neil Postman (New York: Penguin Books, 1985).

Additional Materials

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Sun-Times

New York Times (on-line or paper)

Sunday New York Times (paper only)

Class hand-outs

Magazine editions TBA.

Media journal/diary/log.

Course Goals and Objectives

The over-arching goal of this course is to get students to understand propaganda—its characteristics, pervasiveness, and consequences. In order to do this, students must first engage and grapple with many cultural assumptions usually unquestioned. One of the first assumptions necessary to fight with is central to our understanding of democracy, but also critical to the success of propaganda: the need to effectively measure public opinion. The "voice of the people" reflects the "will of the people," and in a democracy a well-informed and politically active citizenry ensures the righteousness of their actions. The critical component of this equation, however, remains unstated: a culture, nation, or state is only as "good" as its information. The quality of information is profoundly important.

And so our goals for this course center around three things: understanding what propaganda is, understanding the characteristics of propaganda, and looking closely, objectively, and critically at our own culture to assess the presence (or absence) of propaganda. While the first two of these goals are straightforward and (relatively) simply, the third one is quite difficult. The successful student will achieve the following objectives:

1] learn and remember the various categories of propaganda;

2] exhibit comprehension and understanding of the internal and external characteristics of propaganda;

3] exhibit comprehension and understanding of the psychological and socio-political effects of propaganda;

4] exhibit comprehension and understanding of the relationship between myth, truth, ideology, "facts," and propaganda;

5] create, research, and write a critical analysis of some mediated example of propaganda of the student's choice.

Grading Criteria

Based on the above objectives, I have determined the following criteria for grading:

Reactions to readings, written assignments, media journals: 25%

Midterm examination:                                                         10%

Final paper/presentation:                                                     25%

Attendance and participation:                                              40%

TOTAL:                                                                           100%

Tentative Class/Topic Schedule

Week One (9/2): What is propaganda?

 Questions: What is the relationship between persuasion and propaganda? What are the differences? What are the similarities? What makes propaganda propaganda? What is your definition of propaganda?

Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. I, parts 1 & 2, pp. 6-60.

Other: Attend to your culture. Watch television, play video games, go to the movies, read books, newspapers, and magazines. Begin your media journal, taking note of messages you encounter that you believe are propaganda or propagandistic. Explain why you think this is so. Due next class. Also, prepare a list of main points from the week's reading, to demonstrate that you have comprehended the author's message; at the same time prepare a list of muddy points, i.e., ideas that you're having trouble wrapping your brain around.

Week Two (9/9): Characteristics of Propaganda

 External and internal characteristics. Why propaganda is a mass, not an individual, phenomenon. Why propaganda is a total phenomenon. How propaganda is organized. Who propaganda works on, and doesn't work on.  The uncomfortable relationship between  propaganda and truth.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. 1, part 3, pp. 61-89.

 Other: prepare a list of "main and muddies" for next class.

Week Three (9/16): Categories of Propaganda

 Political and sociological propaganda. Propaganda of agitation and of integration. Vertical and horizontal propaganda. Rational and irrational propaganda.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. II, parts 1 & 2, pp. 90-120.

Other: Media journal. Who are you? What do you "believe in?" What are your core values? Where did they come from? What are the core values of your nation and your culture? What are the unquestionable "truths" of your society? Are they yours? Do a heartfelt, self-critical, and objective evaluation of the things that make you the person you are. Also: More "mains and muddies." Both due next week.

Week Four (9/23): Conditions for the Existence of Propaganda

 The relationship between the individual and the society. How public opinion is related to propaganda. Why propaganda is not possible without mass media of communication. The importance of being "average." Myth and ideology.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. III, parts 1 & 2, pp. 121-162.

 Other: m&m's, due next week.

Week Five (9/30): The Necessity for Propaganda

 The state's necessity and the individual's necessity.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. IV, pp. 163-192.

 Other:  Media journal. Do a self-evaluation of the level of your own connectedness to the mass, popular culture. Take a "Personal Media Inventory," logging the number of hours in each day that you are "experiencing" the world through some medium other than your five senses. How many hours per day do you spend watching television? Playing video games? Reading newspapers or magazines? Watching movies at home? In a theatre? Downloading and/or watching/listening digital entertainment? Listening to a walkman or I-pod? Be both objective and self-critical. Also (as usual): m&m's. Both due next week.

Week Six (10/7): Psychological Effects of Propaganda

 Psychological "crystallization." Alienation through propaganda. "Psychic dissociation." Creation of the need for propaganda. The ambiguity of psychological effects.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, Chapter V, parts 1 & 2, pp. 193-211.

 Other: m&m's, due next week.

Week Seven (10/14): Socio-Political Effects of Propaganda

 Traditional relationship between propaganda and ideology. The new relationship between propaganda and ideology. The meaning of public opinion and its centrality to processes of propaganda. Converting opinion into action.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, ch. V, parts 3 & 4, pp. 212-258.

 Other: Media journal: At this point, it should be becoming apparent to you that the idea of propaganda is a bit more complicated than you originally assumed. What things—if any—in your culture appear somewhat different to you now than four weeks ago? Why? Why not? How has your own personal definition of propaganda changed? Due next week.

Week Eight (10/21): Review and Midterm Examination

Assignment: Identify a case study you would like to explore for your final paper. An in-depth explanation and discussion of this paper will take place in class. At this point in the semester, you ought to be a bit more sensitive to the pervasiveness of propaganda as an inherent part of a highly technological society. You ought to be able to choose one example of a message or set of messages that function within a system of propaganda, with an eye toward examining it, analyzing it, criticizing it, and understanding it. Due next week.

Other: JOUR 451 students—if you haven't already begun reading Manufacturing Consent, please begin. A chapter-by-chapter critical evaluation of the authors' arguments will be due on the evening of our last class.

Week Nine (10/28): Socio-Political Effects of Propaganda, continued.

The need for segregated groups in a propaganda system. The effects of propaganda on political parties, labor, and religion. The need for "democratic" propaganda. International and internal propaganda.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, Appendix I, part 1, pp. 259-276.

Week Ten (11/4): Effectiveness of Propaganda

The difficulties of measuring the effectiveness of propaganda. Inadequacy of the methods of measuring the effectiveness of propaganda.

 Reading assignment: Ellul, Appendix I, part 2, 3, & 4, pp. 277-303.

Week Eleven (11/11): Effectiveness of Propaganda, continued

Propaganda can be effective and ineffective. Propaganda has limits.

 Reading assignment: None.

Other: Final Media journal. How have your ideas about and perceptions of propaganda changed in the last eleven weeks? Have they changed? Why or why not? What part(s) of Ellul's arguments do you find valid and compelling? Which part(s) do you find lacking in some way? Why? Can you see propaganda at work in your culture that you didn't see previously? Give examples. Citing examples in popular culture, give me as much information as you feel necessary to illustrate the way(s) in which your understanding of propaganda has changed; or explain to me in as much detail as possible why your understanding of propaganda remains unchanged. Due week thirteen.

Week Twelve (11/18): Other views: THUS SPOKE THE SPECTACLE

Thus Spoke The Spectacle is a music video media critique concerning the nature and effects of media, technology, celebrity, news, empire, consumerism, propaganda and other forces at work in the experiment in civilization called "America."

The project has been screened and performed across the United States at theaters, colleges, high schools, festivals, conferences, galleries and other performance spaces, and its videos have been viewed and used in classrooms worldwide.

Weeks Thirteen (12/2) and Fourteen (12/9):

Class Presentation of Final Papers, Discussion, and Feedback