The purpose of this essay is to offer criteria for the identification of propaganda as a type of discourse, and for the analysis and evaluation of argumentation used in propaganda.1 Ten essential characteristics (as well as several other typical properties) of propaganda as an identifiable type of discourse are given. Some advice is given on how to analyze argumentation in propaganda, and to re...

This article explores shifting definitions of propaganda, because how we define the slippery enterprise determines whether we perceive propaganda to be ethical or unethical. I also consider the social psychology and semantics of propaganda, because our ethics are shaped by and reflect our belief systems, values, and language behaviors. Finally, in the article I redefine propaganda in a way that...

This paper examines Jason Stanley’s account of propaganda. I begin with an overview and some questions about the structure of that account. I then argue for two main conclusions. First, I argue that Stanley’s account over-generalizes, by counting mere incompetent argumentation as propaganda. But this problem can be avoided, by emphasizing the role of emotions in effective propaganda more than S...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of an index in increasing recognition of misleading problem framing in articles and manuscripts. DESIGN A propaganda index consisting of 32 items was developed drawing on related literature. Seventeen subjects who review manuscripts for possible publication were requested to read five recent published reports of randomized controlled trials concerning ...

Propaganda and surveillance are pervasive in contemporary society. Extensive literatures have developed around each. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is an important point of reference in both literatures. Orwell takes both propaganda and surveillance to extreme limits: total surveillance and total propaganda. Writing them large he brings important aspects of each into sharp relief, which i...

or propaganda. Propaganda is a wide term; it doesn't simply mean warning the people of the existence of an evil?tuberculosis in this instance?and working them up into a state of panic, nor, on the other hand, telling them^that they simply have to do is this or that, and all will be well?with them and their families at least. It is much more comprehensive than this. Unfortunately, during the las...

The Water Environment Federation's elaborate effort to rename sewage sludge as "biosolids" is an example in practice of the "propaganda model" of communications, which sees its task as indoctrinating target audiences with ideas favorable to the interests of the communicators. The propaganda model assumes that members of the public are irrational and focuses therefore on symbolic and emotional a...

This article summarizes and compares the principal arguments and strategies of propaganda at the home front, the military front, as well as in neutral and enemy countries. These included the Manichean approach, the ridiculing of the enemy, the use of scapegoats, the qualities of holding out, duty and sacrifice, the rewards promised for after the war, and the campaign against the enemy’s politic...

Influencing the public attitude towards certain topics had become one of the strongest weapons in today’s information warfare. The ability to recognize a presence of propaganda in newspaper texts is thus a treasured phenomenon, which is not directly transferable to algorithmic analysis. In the current paper, we present the first steps of the project aiming at detection and recognition of select...

The evolution of opinions in a population of individuals who constantly interact with a common source of user-generated content (i.e. the internet) and are also subject to propaganda is analyzed using computer simulations. The model is based on the bounded confidence approach. In the absence of propaganda, computer simulations show that the online population as a whole is either fragmented, pol...