Editing Propaganda (section)

=== Propaganda theory and education ===

During the 1930s, educators in the United States and around the world became concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism and other forms of violent extremism. The [[Institute for Propaganda Analysis]] was formed to introduce methods of instruction for high school and college students, helping learners to recognize and desist propaganda by identifying persuasive techniques. This work built upon classical rhetoric and it was informed by [[Suggestion Theory|suggestion theory]] and social scientific studies of propaganda and persuasion.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lasswell|first=Harold|title=Propaganda Technique in World War I.|publisher=M.I.T. Press.|year=1927}}</ref> In the 1950s, propaganda theory and education examined the rise of American consumer culture, and this work was popularized by [[Vance Packard]] in his 1957 book, ''The Hidden Persuaders''. European theologian [[Jacques Ellul]]'s landmark work, ''[[Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes]]'' framed propaganda in relation to larger themes about the relationship between humans and technology. Media messages did not serve to enlighten or inspire, he argued. They merely overwhelm by arousing emotions and oversimplifying ideas, limiting human reasoning and judgement.

In the 1980s, academics recognized that news and journalism could function as propaganda when business and government interests were amplified by mass media. The [[propaganda model]] is a theory advanced by [[Edward S. Herman]] and [[Noam Chomsky]] which argues [[systemic bias]]es exist in mass media that are shaped by structural economic [[cause]]s. It argues that the way in which commercial media institutions are structured and operate (e.g. through advertising revenue, concentration of media ownership, or [[Access journalism|access to sources]]) creates an inherent [[conflict of interest]] that make them act as propaganda for powerful political and commercial interests:

{{blockquote|The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of [[corporate power]], and the growth of [[corporate propaganda]] as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.<ref>"Letter from Noam Chomsky" to ''Covert Action Quarterly,'' quoting [[Alex Carey (writer)|Alex Carey]], Australian social scientist, {{cite web |url=http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54chmky.html |title=Letter from Noam Chomsky |access-date=2007-04-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710125156/http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54chmky.html |archive-date=10 July 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/25/006.html|title=Review of Alex Carey, Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Propaganda in the US and Australia|access-date=6 March 2015}}</ref>}}

First presented in their book ''[[Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media]]'' (1988), the [[propaganda model]] analyses commercial mass media as businesses that sell a product&nbsp;– access to readers and [[audiences]]&nbsp;– to other businesses (advertisers) and that benefit from access to information from government and corporate sources to produce their content. The theory postulates five general classes of "filters" that shape the content that is presented in news media: [[ownership]] of the medium, reliance on advertising revenue, access to news sources, threat of litigation and commercial backlash ([[Propaganda model#Flak|flak]]), and [[anti-communism]] and "fear ideology". The first three (ownership, funding, and sourcing) are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important. Although the model was based mainly on the characterization of United States media, Chomsky and Herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic [[Political economy|political economic]] structure, and the model has subsequently been applied by other scholars to study [[media bias]] in other countries.<ref name="propaganda_model_today">{{cite book |editor1-last=Pedro-Carañana |editor1-first=Joan |editor2-last=Broudy |editor2-first=Daniel |editor3-last=Klaehn |editor3-first=Jeffery |title=The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness |date=2018 |volume=8 |publisher=University of Westminster Press |jstor=j.ctv7h0ts6 |isbn=9781912656172 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0ts6}}</ref>

By the 1990s, the topic of propaganda was no longer a part of public education, having been relegated to a specialist subject. Secondary English educators grew fearful of the study of propaganda genres, choosing to focus on argumentation and reasoning instead of the highly emotional forms of propaganda found in advertising and political campaigns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fleming|first=David|date=2019|title=Fear of persuasion in the English language arts.|journal=College English|volume=81|issue=6|pages=508–541|doi=10.58680/ce201930223 |s2cid=201379873 }}</ref> In 2015, the European Commission funded [[Mind Over Media]], a digital learning platform for teaching and learning about contemporary propaganda. The study of contemporary propaganda is growing in secondary education, where it is seen as a part of language arts and social studies education.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hobbs|first=Renee|title=Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age|publisher=W.W. Norton|year=2020}}</ref>