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Propaganda & Persuasion
Propaganda and Persuasion, Sixth Edition, by Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, is the only book of its kind to comprehensively cover the history of propaganda and offer insightful definitions and methods to analyze it. Fascinating examples, from ancient times to present day, facilitate a solid understanding of what propaganda is. The book includes current research in propaganda and persuasion, discusses the use of propaganda in psychological warfare, and offers students a systematic approach to analyzing the propaganda and persuasion they will encounter in everyday life.
480 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 6, 2020
It is an important and critical account of the world we live in. This book is a proper textbook for understanding propaganda at its best. It is a long but necessary and in-depth examination of how the world is covered in propaganda and vice-versa.
This book made me question a lot about how one consumes data and information and what is the context on which we get this info. An analysis of the history of persuasion and information and how changing times developed this mode of communication. It also reveals the ideas of revolutions connected by this art of propaganda and hence enables us to understand the structure and life of individuals in a bigger and massive world around us in the form of communication.
The collective memory of culture is questioned and viewed in an altogether different light which enables us to ask about the anatomy of culture in basic terms.
All and all this book is an important one and provides good references and a massive collection of knowledge on every form of communication. It is a must-read book for anyone who wants to understand all the processes of communication in criticism and understanding.
This book made me question a lot about how one consumes data and information and what is the context on which we get this info. An analysis of the history of persuasion and information and how changing times developed this mode of communication. It also reveals the ideas of revolutions connected by this art of propaganda and hence enables us to understand the structure and life of individuals in a bigger and massive world around us in the form of communication.
The collective memory of culture is questioned and viewed in an altogether different light which enables us to ask about the anatomy of culture in basic terms.
All and all this book is an important one and provides good references and a massive collection of knowledge on every form of communication. It is a must-read book for anyone who wants to understand all the processes of communication in criticism and understanding.
October 21, 2019
Good historiography of propaganda. The best summary as follows:
The propagandist's audience may be the general public or a segment of the public targeted for a specific set of responses. The predispositions of the audience are canalized by the propaganda message, having the effect of resonance. Media experiences create shared experiences; thus, the public may form "communities" related to the propaganda message. For example, the abortion controversy has created moral communities among those who oppose abortion.
The public response to propaganda messages takes many forms, the public may fail to receive a message; it may choose to ignore it; it may be skeptical and suspicious; it may take sides for and against; or it may respond in desired ways. Examples of desired behavioral responses are voting, contributing money, purchasing products, joining groups, engaging in demonstrations, and putting pressure on elected officials through petitions, letters, telegrams, and telephone calls. Such responses can be observed and measured, enhancing the propagandist's effectiveness. The same responses can also be fed back into the cultural rim, creating new events, affecting the economy, creating new myths, electing new government officials, and
altering ideology over time.
The model of the process of propaganda is interactive and cyclical, with each segment having the potential of interacting with another. Propaganda is a communicative form with the potential to create change. This book has demonstrated changes throughout history, but more important, it should equip the reader with the ability to recognize and evaluate propaganda in modern society. We have learned more about propaganda in writing and revising this book, and the following generalizations, though few in number, may constitute new ways of looking at a very old subject.
GENERALIZATIONS
1. Propaganda creates and is created by strange and powerful bedfellows. Special interests cause groups that are usually diverse to unite in a common cause. The abortion controversy brought the far Right and Roman Catholics together. The antipornography movement united the Moral Majority and feminists.
2. Propaganda serves an informative function in that it tells people what to think about and how to behave. Because people turn to the media for help in understanding events and for finding out what to do about them, they unwittingly expose themselves to propaganda and may become willing or naive supporters of an invisible institution.
3. Even when it is obvious that a message is propaganda, people will respond favorably to it. Knowledge that communication is propagandistic does not necessarily neutralize people's reaction to it, especially when a message produces resonance in an audience. Sometimes, it is a matter of repetition and familiarity of a message, particularly when in the form of a clever slogan or jingle. The best examples of this can be found in advertising slogans and jingles that have worked their way into our colloquial speech—for example, Nike's "Just Do It!"
4. People tend to divide into opposing camps in response to propaganda, and public "communities" are formed that create powerful "armies" to fight for and support a cause. The media can instantly transmit information, and the community responds with instantaneous reactions.
5. New technologies are powerful allies of propagandists. Satellite dishes and home video cameras have assisted the transmission of counterpropaganda in societies where the media have been controlled. Twenty-four-hour worldwide television broadcasts reach nearly all areas of the world. Instant information is readily available at all times. The Internet offers an important channel for propaganda, as well as easy access to information often enhanced by moving
images and sounds. Unsolicited e-mail messages and advertisements ("Spam ") clutter our electronic mailboxes. "Spam" has become so proliferate that California recently passed legislation to make it illegal. People's predispositions are easily identifiable through market research, making them easy targets for propaganda,
6. External propaganda may be created for internal consumption. Displays of aggression toward an enemy may not phase the enemy, but they can bolster morale at home.
7. Propaganda is not necessarily an evil thing. It can only be evaluated within its own context according to the players, the played upon, and its purpose.
The propagandist's audience may be the general public or a segment of the public targeted for a specific set of responses. The predispositions of the audience are canalized by the propaganda message, having the effect of resonance. Media experiences create shared experiences; thus, the public may form "communities" related to the propaganda message. For example, the abortion controversy has created moral communities among those who oppose abortion.
The public response to propaganda messages takes many forms, the public may fail to receive a message; it may choose to ignore it; it may be skeptical and suspicious; it may take sides for and against; or it may respond in desired ways. Examples of desired behavioral responses are voting, contributing money, purchasing products, joining groups, engaging in demonstrations, and putting pressure on elected officials through petitions, letters, telegrams, and telephone calls. Such responses can be observed and measured, enhancing the propagandist's effectiveness. The same responses can also be fed back into the cultural rim, creating new events, affecting the economy, creating new myths, electing new government officials, and
altering ideology over time.
The model of the process of propaganda is interactive and cyclical, with each segment having the potential of interacting with another. Propaganda is a communicative form with the potential to create change. This book has demonstrated changes throughout history, but more important, it should equip the reader with the ability to recognize and evaluate propaganda in modern society. We have learned more about propaganda in writing and revising this book, and the following generalizations, though few in number, may constitute new ways of looking at a very old subject.
GENERALIZATIONS
1. Propaganda creates and is created by strange and powerful bedfellows. Special interests cause groups that are usually diverse to unite in a common cause. The abortion controversy brought the far Right and Roman Catholics together. The antipornography movement united the Moral Majority and feminists.
2. Propaganda serves an informative function in that it tells people what to think about and how to behave. Because people turn to the media for help in understanding events and for finding out what to do about them, they unwittingly expose themselves to propaganda and may become willing or naive supporters of an invisible institution.
3. Even when it is obvious that a message is propaganda, people will respond favorably to it. Knowledge that communication is propagandistic does not necessarily neutralize people's reaction to it, especially when a message produces resonance in an audience. Sometimes, it is a matter of repetition and familiarity of a message, particularly when in the form of a clever slogan or jingle. The best examples of this can be found in advertising slogans and jingles that have worked their way into our colloquial speech—for example, Nike's "Just Do It!"
4. People tend to divide into opposing camps in response to propaganda, and public "communities" are formed that create powerful "armies" to fight for and support a cause. The media can instantly transmit information, and the community responds with instantaneous reactions.
5. New technologies are powerful allies of propagandists. Satellite dishes and home video cameras have assisted the transmission of counterpropaganda in societies where the media have been controlled. Twenty-four-hour worldwide television broadcasts reach nearly all areas of the world. Instant information is readily available at all times. The Internet offers an important channel for propaganda, as well as easy access to information often enhanced by moving
images and sounds. Unsolicited e-mail messages and advertisements ("Spam ") clutter our electronic mailboxes. "Spam" has become so proliferate that California recently passed legislation to make it illegal. People's predispositions are easily identifiable through market research, making them easy targets for propaganda,
6. External propaganda may be created for internal consumption. Displays of aggression toward an enemy may not phase the enemy, but they can bolster morale at home.
7. Propaganda is not necessarily an evil thing. It can only be evaluated within its own context according to the players, the played upon, and its purpose.
August 30, 2011
have read through a 300 page social science text so fast (and so engaged) for some time. very helpful overview of both the historical development and broad uses of propaganda with lots of examples and case study.
November 27, 2019
The book is fairly informative regarding the historical evolution of the methods, goals, and character of propaganda, and provides many illustrative and relevant examples in the explication of these points. The opening chapters do a decent job in providing useful definitions and explanations of the fundamentals of propaganda, and until around Chapter 4, the narrative is decently easy to follow. Beyond that however, the organisation of the book begins to fall apart. Chapter 4 is titled 'Propaganda and Persuasion Examined'. Is that not the enterprise of the entire book? Such a chapter title is supremely unhelpful as a landmark, and the chapter itself is very messily structured, beginning with a chronological account of propaganda in WWI as per the previous chapters, before moving into highly theoretical ground in discussing social theories of propaganda and media theory. Chapter 5 then loops back to WWI, and then provides a now completely chronological walk through WWI to the Cold War.
Moreover, I found the process of digesting the points unnecessarily tedious for several reasons: Firstly, many topics such as the use of music as propaganda are discussed in several different chapters of the book and in differing levels of detail, making the process of digesting the information presented an awkward process. Some ideas such as media control in China are lightly touched upon in one chapter and then not mentioned again, whilst others, such as the power of visual symbolism, are covered repeatedly, in almost tedious detail. Points are at times organised in massive laundry lists (see Chapter 6's section on the extraordinarily vaguely titled 'Special Techniques to Maximise Effect' for the worst offender). There are also some instances where the definition of what constitutes propaganda is stretched significantly and even contradict the author's own definition of propaganda, but these instances are thankfully not many. It seems at several points that the authors were caught in a dilemma of explaining ideas as theoretical concepts or through practical examples, and an inability to decisively commit to one path or integrate them in an elegant way (perhaps a run-down of all key concepts in theory and then a fully chronological account) has resulted in a muddled narrative.
Despite these issues however, I still found much of the information insightful, but I had to reorganise and restructure the contents significantly whilst taking notes in order for me to derive real worth from it. Overall, an insightful text, but unnecessarily troublesome.
Moreover, I found the process of digesting the points unnecessarily tedious for several reasons: Firstly, many topics such as the use of music as propaganda are discussed in several different chapters of the book and in differing levels of detail, making the process of digesting the information presented an awkward process. Some ideas such as media control in China are lightly touched upon in one chapter and then not mentioned again, whilst others, such as the power of visual symbolism, are covered repeatedly, in almost tedious detail. Points are at times organised in massive laundry lists (see Chapter 6's section on the extraordinarily vaguely titled 'Special Techniques to Maximise Effect' for the worst offender). There are also some instances where the definition of what constitutes propaganda is stretched significantly and even contradict the author's own definition of propaganda, but these instances are thankfully not many. It seems at several points that the authors were caught in a dilemma of explaining ideas as theoretical concepts or through practical examples, and an inability to decisively commit to one path or integrate them in an elegant way (perhaps a run-down of all key concepts in theory and then a fully chronological account) has resulted in a muddled narrative.
Despite these issues however, I still found much of the information insightful, but I had to reorganise and restructure the contents significantly whilst taking notes in order for me to derive real worth from it. Overall, an insightful text, but unnecessarily troublesome.
July 1, 2023
Highly readable, though somewhat dated now, even the third edition. Much more detailed history of propaganda than I’ve read in other books but there’s not much new here unless one likes their model for how to analyze propaganda. It may be helpful but for me the value of the book lies in the chapters on history.
May 18, 2020
Solid academic analysis, with good historical case studies on how messages can mobilize or weaponize, and how truth is consistently under siege.
February 20, 2021
Pretty interesting reading about war time propaganda
April 22, 2022
Skimmed, somewhat dry and challenging to follow, perhaps because it's almost like a textbook aye
March 7, 2025
Comprehensive, reads like a textbook rather than a book you could sink into.
December 13, 2018
With „Propaganda & Persuasion“ Jowett and O’Donnell provide a systematic treatise on the terms and concepts of propaganda as well as a reasonable theoretical framework and historical overview of the matter, making this a standard text on the topic.
Jowett and O’Donnell start their book with a systematic overview of terms and relations, defining the scope of their work and distinguishing it from other topics. This is not easy to read or to follow, but essential for a thorough understanding of the matter. While chapter 2 provides a rough overview of propaganda activities until the nineteenth century, chapter deals with channels, institutions and audiences, which only developed in the modern era of mass communications. While different channels and institutions are properly described here, the development and functionality of modern public relations and advertising could have been more elaborated on.
Chapter 4 examines the literature and studies concerned with propaganda, its influences and conduct, whereas chapter 5 concentrates on the use of propaganda and psychological warfare in conjunction with conflicts since World War I. Here again the systematic appraisal of different means and examples is good, but especially with the modern occurrences since 2000 a more detailed analysis into the ways and means might have been good. Having discussed a framework for analysis of propaganda in chapter 6 the authors then elaborate in detail on several examples of how to use propaganda in a mass communication society in chapter 7, but interestingly take four examples unrelated to wartime propaganda, which before appeared to have been their main focus.
Finally in chapter 8 their theoretical framework on propaganda as an instrument in modern society is presented with a model and the working process of propaganda. This is a very useful model and can translate modern as well as historical examples easily. The appendix on cyber propaganda although interesting and useful makes clear how cyber propaganda is a new feature with which the authors are struggling and which they could or would not include into the body of the work. While it is to the authors credit to attach a text by a third author, where they themselves lack detailed knowledge, analyzing the topic in more detail and showing the relations and differences to former techniques would have been nice.
In summary the 7th edition of propaganda and persuasion still is a comprehensive standard text on the use and techniques of propaganda providing the interested reader with a good overview of the development, research and application of propaganda, but needs augmentation on the most recent developments in online propaganda with other works.
Jowett and O’Donnell start their book with a systematic overview of terms and relations, defining the scope of their work and distinguishing it from other topics. This is not easy to read or to follow, but essential for a thorough understanding of the matter. While chapter 2 provides a rough overview of propaganda activities until the nineteenth century, chapter deals with channels, institutions and audiences, which only developed in the modern era of mass communications. While different channels and institutions are properly described here, the development and functionality of modern public relations and advertising could have been more elaborated on.
Chapter 4 examines the literature and studies concerned with propaganda, its influences and conduct, whereas chapter 5 concentrates on the use of propaganda and psychological warfare in conjunction with conflicts since World War I. Here again the systematic appraisal of different means and examples is good, but especially with the modern occurrences since 2000 a more detailed analysis into the ways and means might have been good. Having discussed a framework for analysis of propaganda in chapter 6 the authors then elaborate in detail on several examples of how to use propaganda in a mass communication society in chapter 7, but interestingly take four examples unrelated to wartime propaganda, which before appeared to have been their main focus.
Finally in chapter 8 their theoretical framework on propaganda as an instrument in modern society is presented with a model and the working process of propaganda. This is a very useful model and can translate modern as well as historical examples easily. The appendix on cyber propaganda although interesting and useful makes clear how cyber propaganda is a new feature with which the authors are struggling and which they could or would not include into the body of the work. While it is to the authors credit to attach a text by a third author, where they themselves lack detailed knowledge, analyzing the topic in more detail and showing the relations and differences to former techniques would have been nice.
In summary the 7th edition of propaganda and persuasion still is a comprehensive standard text on the use and techniques of propaganda providing the interested reader with a good overview of the development, research and application of propaganda, but needs augmentation on the most recent developments in online propaganda with other works.
November 20, 2013
A thoroughly comprehensive work on all types and all aspects of propaganda from white to grey to black. While much of the text is concentrated, justly upon the propaganda of WWII a nascent period of development it follows historically and chronological development up to the more recent use and abuse by radical fundamentalist Islamic radicalism and modern media as well. A truly definitive source on the function, efficiency and application of propaganda as a toll of industry,an instrument of political persuasion and a weapon of warfare and armed conflict.
March 2, 2012
Klasisks - klasisks ar to ka piedāvā propagandas pētniecības metodoloģiju!
January 19, 2014
Great textbook. Used it for my dissertation.
February 22, 2015
Great overview of history of propaganda and related theories. Distinctions and similarities of propaganda and persuasion made, and also that propaganda can be good or bad.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews