Propaganda

Not inherently good or bad.

What’s more important is the motivation behind the message, and

what the receivers of that message do with the information or misinformation.

Examples of propaganda

• Agitprop– Taken from two words: Agitation and Propaganda,

from the Russian Socialists, or Bolsheviks, in the lead up to the October Revolution. Now attached to any leftist, progressive or highly politicized art or propaganda.

Enlistment Agitprop Poster

for Russian Socialist Army

Cultural Messages in the Media

• Stereotype: “An image or character that generalizes and oversimplifies a particular group of people.”

• “Subliminal” Chapter 7: “Sorting People and Things” – Leonard Mlodinow– Is our tendency to categorize and generalize a

conscious choice? – How do we know this?

• What were the different experiments done to test our brain’s tendency to categorize?– Henri Tajfel, a Polish Jew captured by the Nazis in

France during WWII, living 4 years in an internment camp. • The line experiments – lengths – colors

– Shoplifter experiment– Implicit Association Test• IAT grouping categories – male relatives/male names;

female relatives/female names/

• Hello to: male name OR female relative• Goodbye to: female name OR male relative

– Maria, uncle, grandmother, Benji, Marsha, mother, brother, sister, grandpa, John, Sharon, Lisa, father

The same test can show internalized biases:race, class, gender, etc.

Walter Lippmann

• Theorist on the media and the public.• 1922 book “Public Opinion” demonstrates his

understanding of “stereotyping” before social psychologists came up with ways to prove this.

• Lippman fears the mass audience’s ability to distinguish all the factors necessary to make informed, educated decisions in politics, and says that we need stereotypes.

Media Effects Theories

• Direct Effects Theory (1920’s – 1930’s)– Largely discredited theory that we are passive

receivers of media messages.– Challenged by the “People’s Choice Study” (1940)• Studied voter motivation:

– Voters already have made up their minds– Voters who haven’t look to their friends and families for to

decide, not the media.

• Agenda Setting Theory– Theory that mass media determines the issues

that the public considers important.• Example: Fox News has a conservative “agenda”

• Uses and Gratification Theory– Individuals use media to satisfy specific needs or

desires:• Information• Entertainment• Communication with specific group• Self-expression

• Spiral of Silence– Theory that individuals who hold a minority

opinion silence themselves to prevent social isolation.

– This theory is used to explain the role mass media plays in the formation and maintenance of dominant positions.

1. Someone is silent2. Illusion of consensus is built3. Social pressure to adopt dominant position4. The Spiral of Silence continues

• Symbolic Interactionism Theory– Theory that the self is derived and develops

through human interactions through the use of symbols or other symbolic references.• We use symbols to communicate to others what we

think, feel, and believe.• The media is powerful enough to create and spread

these symbols for us.

• Media Logic– A theory that says that common media formats

and styles serve as a way of perceiving the world.• Cultivation Analysis– Theory that heavy exposure to media cultivates an

illusory perception of reality.