Editing Propaganda (section)

==Techniques==

{{further|Propaganda techniques}}

[[File:Anti-capitalism color Restored.jpg|right|upright|thumb|[[Anti-capitalist]] propaganda (1911 [[Industrial Workers of the World]] poster)]]

Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, [[junk science]], books, leaflets, [[propaganda film|movies]], radio, television, and posters. Some propaganda campaigns follow a strategic transmission pattern to [[indoctrinate]] the target group. This may begin with a simple transmission, such as a leaflet or advertisement dropped from a plane or an advertisement. Generally, these messages will contain directions on how to obtain more information, via a website, hotline, radio program, etc. (as it is seen also for selling purposes among other goals). The strategy intends to initiate the individual from information recipient to information seeker through reinforcement, and then from information seeker to [[opinion leader]] through indoctrination.<ref>Garth S. Jowett and Victoria J.: O'Donnell, ''Propaganda & Persuasion'' (5th ed. 2011)</ref>

A number of techniques based in [[social psychology|social psychological]] research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be found under [[Fallacy|logical fallacies]], since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid.

Some time has been spent analyzing the means by which the propaganda messages are transmitted. That work is important but it is clear that information dissemination strategies become propaganda strategies only when coupled with ''propagandistic messages''. Identifying these messages is a necessary prerequisite to study the methods by which those messages are spread.

[[Theodor W. Adorno]] wrote that fascist propaganda encourages identification with an [[authoritarian personality]] characterized by traits such as obedience and extreme aggression.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Tu |first=Hang |title=Sentimental Republic: Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |year=2025 |isbn=9780674297579}}</ref>{{Rp|page=17}} In ''The Myth of the State,'' [[Ernst Cassirer]] wrote that while fascist propaganda mythmaking flagrantly contradicted empirical reality, it provided a simple and direct answer to the anxieties of the secular present.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=63}}

Propaganda can also be turned on its makers. For example, postage stamps have frequently been tools for government advertising, such as [[North Korea]]'s extensive issues.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://qz.com/1017141/north-koreas-america-hating-postage-stamps-are-mini-masterpieces-of-anti-imperialist-propaganda/|title=North Korea's America-hating postage stamps are mini-masterpieces of anti-imperialist propaganda|first=Anne|last=Quito|date=30 June 2017|website=Quartz}}</ref> The presence of [[Stalin]] on numerous Soviet stamps is another example.<ref>{{cite journal| url = https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/184/199| title = Stalin on Stamps and other Philatelic Materials: Design, Propaganda, Politics| year = 2013| doi = 10.5195/cbp.2013.184| last1 = Kolchinsky| first1 = Alexander| journal = The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies| issue = 2301| doi-access = free}}</ref> In [[Nazi Germany]], [[Hitler]] frequently appeared on postage stamps in Germany and some of the occupied nations. A British program to parody these, and other Nazi-inspired stamps, involved airdropping them into Germany on letters containing anti-Nazi literature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.psywar.org/stamps.php|title=Propaganda & Espionage Philately – Part I|first=Herbert A.|last=Friedman|website=PsyWar.Org|access-date=1 July 2019|archive-date=7 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207193700/https://www.psywar.org/stamps.php|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bestmastersinpsychology.com/10-wwii-stamp-forgeries-used-as-psychological-warfare/|title=10 WWII Stamp Forgeries Used as Psychological Warfare|website=Best Masters in Psychology}}</ref>

In 2018 a scandal broke in which the journalist [[Carole Cadwalladr]], several [[whistleblowers]] and the academic [[Emma Briant]] revealed advances in digital propaganda techniques showing that online human intelligence techniques used in [[psychological warfare]] had been coupled with psychological profiling using illegally obtained social media data for political campaigns in the United States in 2016 to aid [[Donald Trump]] by the firm [[Cambridge Analytica]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/membership/2018/sep/29/cambridge-analytica-cadwalladr-observer-facebook-zuckerberg-wylie|title=Exposing Cambridge Analytica: 'It's been exhausting, exhilarating, and slightly terrifying'|date=29 September 2018|author=Carole Cadwalladr, as told to Lee Glendinning|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/fake-news-briant-evidence-17-19//|last=Briant|first=Emma|date=16 April 2018|title=Research on Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica strategy published|website=UK Parliamentary Committee on Digital, Culture Media and Sport}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://qz.com/1231643/cambridge-analytica-illegally-obtained-data-from-50-million-facebook-users-to-run-trump-ads/|title=Facebook knew Cambridge Analytica was misusing users' data three years ago and only banned the company this week|first=Annalisa|last=Merelli|date=17 March 2018|website=Quartz}}</ref> The company initially denied breaking laws<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/cambridge-analytica-denies-breaking-any-laws-in-data-scandal/|title=Cambridge Analytica denies breaking any laws in Facebook data scandal|first=Steven|last=Musil|date=9 April 2018|website=CNET}}</ref> but later admitted breaking UK law, the scandal provoking a worldwide debate on acceptable use of data for propaganda and influence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/cambridge-analyticas-parent-pleads-guilty-to-breaking-uk-data-law/|title=Cambridge Analytica's parent pleads guilty to breaking UK data law|first=Natasha|last=Lomas|date=9 January 2019|website=TechCrunch|access-date=24 October 2020|archive-date=21 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221204104/https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/cambridge-analyticas-parent-pleads-guilty-to-breaking-uk-data-law/|url-status=live}}</ref>