|
|
Challenge 13
We must find effective ways to
PREVENT PROPAGANDISTS FROM EXACERBATING CONFLICT
|
Conflict profiteers and hate mongers must be stopped from intensifying conflict for their own selfish gain.
Efforts to promote more constructive approaches to conflict are generally not in the best interests of tyrants, "tyrant wannabes," and other people who seek to dominate others. One must expect and be prepared to respond to a broad range of sophisticated, propaganda-based assaults on efforts to promote more
constructive conflict. We need to learn what forms propaganda takes, how it influences people (through rational and emotional arguments), and what can be done to counter its effects.
Deciding what is legitimate "education" and what is illegitimate "propaganda" is, of course, highly political. The challenge is to not only make that distinction, but then to figure out how to counter destructive propaganda while furthering peaceful "coexistence education." Most often, the term "propaganda" is used to refer to communication from "the other" or one's "enemy," but dispute resolvers must develop a much more sophisticated understanding of this kind of communication and how it can be used. Such an understanding needs to focus on the way in which propaganda deceptively tries to trick people into doing things that are against their interests.
|
Meeting the Challenge: What We Now Know
|
Communication scholars and psychologists have developed a fairly sophisticated understanding of propaganda and how it works. Advertisers, for better or worse, have done so as well. Conflict professionals would do well to learn the "tricks of the trade" from all of these folks, so we can not only play the "propaganda game," but also counter the negative effects of propaganda when it is used to exacerbate tensions and conflict rather than to ameliorate them.
Articles related to this topic include:
Knowledge |
Availability |
|
|
Utilization |
|
- Media Propaganda is most effectively spread through the mass media. Both journalists and conflict resolution practitioners are just starting to explore the relationship between mass media and conflict. This introductory article, and the following articles begin exploring this relationship and how the media can be used on either destructive or constructive ways in the context of conflict.
- Mass Media Mass media is necessary for large-scale communication, but it is also capable of seriously escalating conflict. This resource explores how media can both hurt — and help — conflicts and their resolution.
- Propaganda Propaganda involves the obscuring, manipulating, or misconstruing of information for political gain. It may involve efforts to garner support amongst followers or to dampen the spirits of one's opponents.
h more difficult than it appears.
- Political Communication Political communication is a broad term that incorporates everything from election campaigns to propaganda to influencing the morale of battlefield opponents. It can be considered a synonym for propaganda when looked at from one's own side.
- Public Diplomacy Public diplomacy provides a means of influencing foreign publics without the use of force. This brief article describes its history, discusses how it has been used by the U.S. in the "War on Terror," and gives a list of "best practices."
Book Summary:
Other Resources of Interest:
- Myra Marx Ferree, William A. Gamson, Juergen Gerhards and Dieter Rucht 2002. Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the US. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Description
- Richard Gunther and Anthony Mughan, eds. 2000. Democracy and the Media. Cambridge University Press
Publisher's Description
- Daniel C. Hallin, Paolo Mancini 2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Description
- Pippa Norris 2000. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Post-Industrial Democracies. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Description
- Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, (2001) Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion Owl Books.
Publisher's Description
- Randall L. Bytwerk, Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2004).
Publisher's Description
- Henry T. Conserva, Propaganda Techniques, Authorhouse, 2003.
Vendor's Description
- Wilson P. Dizard Jr.: Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the US Information Agency. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Renner, 2004.
Publisher's Description
- Jacques Ellul, Propaganda, Vintage, 1973.
Publisher's Description
- Finn, Helena K. "The Case for Cultural Diplomacy: Engaging Foreign Audiences" In Foreign Affairs, Nov-Dec 2003 v82 i6 p15.
Author's Description
- Gerd Horten, Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda During World War II (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).
Vendor's Description
- Garth S. Jowett & Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion, Sage Publications, Inc, 2005.
Publisher's Description
- Shawn J. Parry-Giles, The Rhetorical Presidency, Propaganda, and the Cold War, 1945/1955 (New York: Praeger Publishers, 2001).
Vendor's Description
- Patrick Lee Plaisance. 2005. "The Propaganda War on Terrorism: An Analysis of the United States' 'Shared Values' Public-Diplomacy Campaign After September 11, 2001." Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 20(4), 250--268.
Author's Description
- Anthony Pratkanis & Elliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda : The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion, Owl Books, 2001.
Vendor's Description
- Ross, Christopher (2003) Pillars of Public Diplomacy, Harvard Review, August 2003.
http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/2003/08-21-3.htm Author's Description
- Rosaleen Smyth "Mapping US Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century" Australian Journal of International Affairs Volume 55, Number 3 / November 1, 2001, pp. 421 -- 444.
Author's Description
- Welsch, D. 2002. The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda. New York: Routledge.
Publisher's Description
- Bruce Bimber 2003. Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power. Cambridge University Press.
Vendor's Description
- Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges edited by Frank Esser and Barbara Pfetsch. University of Chicago Press.
Publisher's Description
- W. Lance Bennett and Robert Entman, eds. 2000. Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Description
- Gadi Wolfsfeld 2004. Media and the Path to Peace. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Description
- Edward Bernays. Propaganda, New Ed. Ig Publishing, 2004.
Vendor's Description
- Brief History of Psychological Operations (Psyops)
- Center for Media and Democracy: Propoganda
- Bollier, David The Rise of Netpolitik How the Internet Is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy. Roundtable on Information Technology Washington, D.C. 2003 A Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Department of Education and Training Teaching materials and case studies on refugee, women's, and indigenous rights.
- Public Diplomacy Council
- The Propaganda Critic, Institute for Propaganda Analysis
- Political communication
Conflict Publishers | Conflict News | Google Scholar
- Propaganda
Conflict Publishers | Conflict News | Google Scholar
- Disinformation
Conflict Publishers | Conflict News | Google Scholar
 |
Something missing? Send us your suggestions. |
|
- Propaganda peace alternatives
Conflict Publishers | Conflict News | Google Scholar
|