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Chapter 9
Persuasion and Propaganda
f you teach this course with students across all communication disciplines, this chapter
may be the most fun—and challenging—of the semester. It can be a sight to behold
when smug journalism students who see themselves as beacons of truth (See Figure
7.1’s “truth continuum) square off against advertising/public relations students who see
themselves as legitimate advocates (and, not to mention, doing the work that pays the
Some students (and instructors) may be turned off by the term “propaganda,” which
has plenty of negative connotations. We use the term purposely, because the term
This chapter concludes with Figure 9.1, “A Model for Moral Persuasion,” that we debut
for this textbook. The models show the dynamic tension in persuasive communication
Learning Objectives
I
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A successful discussion of Chapter 9 will lead students to:
See how all of us, to some extent, engage in persuasion and propaganda in our
lives.
Develop a richer understanding of the term “propaganda,” and how it is both
inevitable and necessary in many societies.
Teaching Suggestions
We suggest these activities:
1. Give students copies of the most recent edition of the campus (or another)
newspaper, and ask students to determine the original sources of information—not just
stories, but also advertising, announcements, and opinion columns. With a little
2. If enough students took the tour or remember, work through Practical
Application 1, in which students are asked to remember the college-sponsored tour they
3. Work through the chapter’s key points in a lecture/discussion. If using the
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accompanying PowerPoint, the points include:
a. A reminder of the Fourth Question (“What’ it worth?”).
b. Issues facing mass media: Commercials inside “news” content, such as Video
News Releases produced by government and PR firms that look like broadcast news
c. Asking students to define themselves as having the “Type A” laissez faire or
“Type B” social responsibility perspectives on advocacy. Be sure to make it clear that
d. Ask: Is advocacy ethical? (Our answer: Yes, and necessary in a democracy. But
there are plenty of values and loyalties that must be balanced.) Ask students to name
some of the loyalties and values that must be balanced. Loyalties include yourself,
clients, recipients of the message, society, competitors, government regulators, etc.
Values might include professionalism, justice, fairness, equity, the profit motive, self–
respect, some of the Rokeach values mentioned in Chapter 6, etc.
f. The bottom line: Both “buyers” of persuasive messages and the “sellers” of
persuasive messages have responsibilities. Buyers should do due diligence before
deciding. Sellers should consider the importance of truth, and loyalties to more than
just the client.
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openness in how the message was made, and how the messenger’s motives.) We
assume that communicators should be held accountable for their messages, which
requires transparency. And people who are the subjects of manipulation can and should
be able to respond to the manipulator.
h. Propaganda:
…works best on the closed-minded. It requires critical thinking to see through
propaganda and to see it for what it is.
i. Propaganda definitions: “The deliberate and systematic attempt to shape
perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that
furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2006).
Ellul says we need propaganda in modern society to eliminate information overflow.
We let propaganda create the “shortcuts” in our mind. And he says intellectuals are the
most vulnerable to propaganda, because they have the greatest need to know and to
have an opinion and to share it.
l. Persuasion may be ethical, and not all propaganda is unethical. But propaganda
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has some characteristics that can make it suspect: It is a problem when it:
Dehumanizes its audiences, has a power imbalance over its audience., has
characteristics of close-mindedness, relies on authority, abstractions, fixed views, all-
inclusive categories, simple cause-and-effect relationships, etc.
But propaganda can overcome by open-mindedness. The bottom line: It may be
Case Study Notes
Case 9.1) Journalism: Taking Sides During Battle
Very few people will remember the 1980s “Ethics in America” series on PBS that
“astonished” at Jennings’s answer and that journalists place a higher value on truth
than to the troops. Next up was an American general who said he had “utter contempt”
for the journalists.
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they gain their First Amendment freedom through the nation’s strength. But others may
see a more complicated issue, especially since the case puts the enemy nearby. The
reality of commercialism—of losing viewers who believe that the media they consume
Case 9.2) New Media: To Link, or Not to Link?
When the topic is propaganda, the question becomes how much publicity to give to the
propagandists. The FFF in this case is a few characters away from KKK, which may be a
more practical way for students to think: Do I link to the KKK’s site or not?
Question 6—about creating rules for linking content—deserves special consideration
from students. The “bloggers code of ethics” does not touch the subject, and its
“Identify and link to sources whenever feasible” falls short of answering the question.
Case 9.3) Public Relations: Responding to a Smelly Crisis
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appropriate thing and seeks comment, should the organization use the information to
blunt the news? Smart students will focus on loyalties and the multiple stakeholders.
This case would be particularly useful in a class consisting of students from PR and
journalism disciplines.
Case 9.4) Advertising: The Not-So-Accidental Tourist
Savvy students might recognize that it’s questionable to ask for help when you’re really
wanting something else. (At the extreme, this may be like parking your car with its
On the other hand, students may be so inured to the world’s constant barrage of ads
that they may not see the issue. Using Figure 9.1, they might argue that nearly anything
Case 9.5) Entertainment: To Screen, or Not to Screen
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Some entertainment-focused students may not it as a non-moral issue—that a studio
should do what’s best to maximize profit, and that means hiding the product
sometimes for best effect. Others may see that movie companies hold the power in such
situations, and that there are other stakeholders involved.