Sanchita A. Kadam

Professor Dr. Joseph

Ethics and Public Policy

Masters in Public Policy

St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai

23/11/2014

Propaganda: Ethics and Praxis

Abstract

My paper explores the many definitions of propaganda and how it

is looked at from an ethical point of view. With the help of many

scholarly articles I was able to study the link between ethics

and propaganda. The following paper specifies the origin of

propaganda and its usage in other various fields of work. The

practical application of propaganda through various media has

been looked at. The various techniques used in application of

propaganda are explained with suitable examples. The paper

explores the unique position of propaganda in the field of

ethics.

Propaganda: Introduction

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe

it.” -----Joseph Goebbels, propaganda expert and Reich Minister of

Public Enlightenment and Education, for Nazi Germany.

The word propaganda has a very negative connotation to it and at

face value appears to be professing all things bad. According to

the Merriam Webster dictionary, “propaganda is a set of ideas or

statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are

spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a

government, etc.” Propaganda is clearly not a scientific term

that can be defined within the confines of a few words. It is a

social phenomenon having containing views of various social

thinkers and practitioners over the years. We will explore these

definitions further in the paper.

Propaganda is a form of persuasion that seeks to manipulate the

minds of the receivers in pursuit of a desired goal mainly by

authority. In theory people buy commodities of their choice and

create opinions based on a process of free thought but in reality

these choices and opinions are fed, mostly unknowingly, in their

minds by various manifestations of propaganda through various

media. Propaganda is politically skewed information designed to

persuade or educate the populace, normally in an effort to

disseminate a particular ideology (Clark).

Propaganda as a word has the most negative connotations and

sinister appearance among the larger public. While considering it

under the discipline of semantics, propaganda can be said to one

of the most misunderstood concepts as it is perceived as

unethical and immoral by general public. This can be credited to

the times of Second World War when Nazi Germany used propaganda

as a significant tool to spread anti-Semitic sentiments and to

gain popularity for electoral gains. Millions of Germans voted

for the Nazi party in free elections due to skillful application

of propaganda techniques by the party.

Some contemporary definitions blame propaganda of dehumanizing

the receiver through manipulation and persuasion. In short it

blames propaganda of killing critical thought process among the

audience. Such an allegation is a wee bit like stretching it too

far. Humans are very much capable of willfully pursuing critical

thoughts and thus even though propaganda has been successful in

manipulating minds it has not gone as far as to blind the public

entirely. In this digital day and age when any kind of

information is at the mercy of every internet user, analysis and

cross checking is an easy task. Thus propaganda can go only so

far as to play with the minds of those who either do not have

access to the vast arena of information on the internet or to the

ones who do not seek such a source of information.

It seems like an exaggeration to claim that propaganda robs us of

our freedom and turn us into automatons, yet it certainly sets

impediments in our way, thereby inhibiting our capacity to know

and to act well (Black). Thus it can be inferred that propaganda

impairs the quality of volition and will of people and if they

were informed otherwise or given a chance for critical thought,

they could judge speak or vote otherwise.

Propaganda is a far more diversified and complex phenomenon than

just uttering lies and the slick manipulation of beliefs and

language.

Edgar Henderson claimed previous definitions fell short, and

proposed that “propaganda is a process which deliberately

attempts through persuasion techniques to secure from the

propagandee, before he can deliberate freely, the responses

desired by the propagandist”

Leonard Doob in his book, Public opinion and Propaganda,

suggested that propaganda is an absolutely inevitable social

phenomenon and it cannot be exorcised by calling it evil names.

Propaganda is a social phenomenon that poses as communication and

exploits communication resources (Black).

The ‘success’ of propaganda should not be measured purely in

terms of its ability radically to change opinions and attitudes.

Propaganda is as much about confirming as about converting public

opinion (Welch).

One of the major reasons for the existence of a social phenomenon

like propaganda is the persistent human want for power. It

explains like this, when the monarchy, feudalism and imperialism

had the power to have a strict control over the lives of their

subjects, they did not need a measure like propaganda to

manipulate them. It’s when concepts of universal suffrage, human

rights and universal literacy came into practice when power

started to slip from these entities and it got disseminated among

the public through the power of knowledge and state of awareness

infested through education.

Whether propaganda is good or bad depends upon the merit of the

cause urged, and the correctness of the information published

(Bernays).

Origin of propaganda

Propaganda as a term first came into use as a result of

missionary activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th

century. The church had resorted to holy wars to re-establish

their faith by force of arms which turned out to be highly

unfruitful. So Pope Gregory XV established the Sacra Congregation

de propaganda fide (Congregation For The Propaganda Of Faith) in

1622 in pursuance of the goal of persuading people to accept

catholic ideals and doctrines. A College of Propaganda was set up

under Pope Urban VIII to train priests for the missions.

Propaganda has been very much prevalent through the middle ages

to modern times. Propaganda was involved in the conflict between

the king and the parliament in England; it was used in the

American freedom movement as also the French revolution. Later,

fascism and communism engaged in intense revolutionary propaganda

(American History Assn.).

With development in politics, especially in democracies

propaganda was found to be useful for promotion. A candidate has

to indulge in promotion as a part of political to get elected to

office and thus uses propaganda techniques to appeal to his

voters.

Propaganda praxis

Propaganda as a phenomenon has evolved over the years and has

assimilated into various social practices. It can’t be said that

everywhere persuasion is used propaganda comes into play unless

it is used rigorously to accomplish a personal motive.

Propaganda, as per its apparent first application evolved into

religious propaganda, furthermore with world war it emerged into

political propaganda as also war time propaganda. At around this

time the newly emerged medium of advertising was used to further

propaganda. In the post war years it was employed by fascists and

communists to invoke revolutionary propaganda. In many countries

either overly or covertly propaganda is vehemently used through

the medium of education in the subject of history. In today’s

modern age, propaganda is mostly covertly used in democratic

societies through the practice of public relations. Although many

practitioners of public relations refute that they are involved

in bad propaganda, one has to admit there is a very fine line

between public relations and propaganda.

In fact the evolution of public relations as a practice began

with the motive of propaganda in mind. Edward Bernays, the father

of public relations, cringed from the negative connotation that

the word propaganda had and thus renamed it as public relations.

He is very well known for employing means to using propaganda to

promote America’s involvement in the First World War. He saw

propaganda as democratic leadership.

Propaganda techniques

There are numerous techniques of propaganda used by various

media. A few of the prominent ones are as follows:

Ad hominem: It is a Latin phrase which means attacking one’s

opponent instead of attacking their arguments which is most

of the times evident when there is conflict between two

political party workers in democratic societies.

Appeals to fear: It seeks to build fear by invoking panic and

anxiety in general public like Joseph Goebbels instilled the

fear that the Allies sought to exterminate German people in

order to invoke war sentiments and to garner mass support.

Bandwagon: It attempts to persuade target audience to take

course of action that everyone is else is taking, basically

forwarding the herd mentality among the people.

Cherry picking (selective truth): During the Second World War Britain

had a psychological warfare division and the deputy director

explained that a good propagandist is someone who tells that

part of the truth which is requisite for his purpose and

tells it in a way that the receiver does not realize that he

is receiving propaganda. Therefore one cannot claim that

propaganda is involved in lying to the public. In fact,

propaganda involves telling the truth but not its entirety.

(Cole)

Since the focus of the paper is ethics of propaganda and its

applications in various fields, very limited techniques of

propaganda have been mentioned above. There are many more such

techniques being used by people in the field of public relations,

advertising and other such fields.

Public relations

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds

mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their

publics (PRSA).

In this definition communication process refers to a top-down one

way communication. This kind of communication has been

incorporated into a public relations model called the press

agentry/ publicity model by Grunig and Hunt where complete truth

is not essential (Grunig et al). Propaganda fits into this

category of hiding facts and selective exposure of information.

Thus, it can be said that public relations does not follow the

pure art of persuasion as put forward by Tench and Yeoman in

their book Exploring Public Relations.

Cutlip et al (1985, cited in Tench and Yeomans, 2006) suggest

that the objective of most public relations campaigns is either

“to change or neutralise hostile opinion, crystallize uninformed

or latent opinion, or conserve favourable opinions by reinforcing

them” (Lovell).

The new profession of public relations has grown up because of

the increasing complexity of modern life and the consequent

necessity for making the actions of one part of the public

understandable to other sectors of the public (Bernays)

At the same time one cannot say that public relations and

propaganda are congruent in absolute terms. While practitioners

of public relations argue that only unethical public relations

can be affirmed as propaganda, scholars believe that propaganda

and public relations are terms that can be used interchangeably.

Ethical theories for propaganda

In order to understand the ethics in propaganda it is essential

to understand which ethical theory does propaganda conform to.

Among the various approaches in ethics, propaganda as per its

various definitions comes close to conforming to the

consequentialist theory. This theory bases the moral evaluation

on acts and their consequences. Under this, the utilitarian

approach is a purely consequential ethical theory which states

that morality depends on the relation of the act to the

maximization of the utility.

Act utilitarianism as stated by John Stuart Mill is the one where

it seeks to promote capability of achieving happiness for large

amount of people.

Deontology is an ethical position which judges the morality of an

action on the basis of its adherence to a set of rules. It does

not concern itself with the consequences of the action unlike

utilitarianism. Thus deontology could apply to ethics of

propaganda since propaganda abides by its set rules and

principles but its consequences being good or bad, amounting to

happiness in the short run or proving fatal in the long run is

quite debatable.

Jacques Ellul who has been a pioneer in the area of ethics of

propaganda said, “Propaganda seems to be… a purely neutral

instrument in itself, and one which therefore can be used for any

kind of cause- a good cause such as peace… an evil cause such as

militarism. In reality nothing is further from the truth (Ellul).

Propaganda does obey a certain ethic but not taken in the moral

sense but rather as a rule of behavior (Ellul). As a system of

intervention, propaganda is purely formal but as an integrated

part of social reality, it needs to have content of moral nature.

The techniques that propaganda uses can be justified for its

methods and principles through deontology but when it is being

received by the audience and furthermore interpreted, the

question of morality arises. When the utility of the actions of

propaganda is raised, one can claim that propaganda is simply a

neutral instrument that can be used for good or bad causes as

mentioned by Ellul. The consequence of the propaganda determines

whether it is ethically justified or not.

Ellul instead puts forth a new way of linking ethics to

propaganda. He says that propaganda itself creates a morality, an

ethic. It furnishes man with a criterion for good and evil.

We are in the presence of the making of an artificial and

ideological morality, and I mean by that a morality which

imposes itself upon a group of humans who have not chosen

it; neither was it developed slowly through usages and

customs, trials and errors, uncertainties and choices, nor

was it passed on from generation to generation by a slow

cultural transmission, but rather as a whole of systematic

behaviors obtained by rapid and active technical means…and

always with a totalitarian goal, that is to say,

encompassing all of man, leaving no latitude of choice nor

any field undetermined, which would be completely

destructive to propaganda. (Ellul)

Ellul states that propaganda constitutes a psycho political

universe in which a person situates oneself and while in that

universe if he makes any criticism of propaganda he will end up

contributing to the reinforcement and growth of propaganda. Thus

morality and ethics have no power over the actions of propaganda

because judging it ethically would deviate propaganda from the

political or economic universe and propaganda as its goal has to

hide reality within an ideological discourse which acts as a

justifier because it is moral.

Edward Bernays

According to Edward Bernays, a pioneer of public relations,

manipulation of opinions and habits of the public is an important

element in democratic societies. The people who engage in such

manipulation are a part of an invisible government which is the

true ruling power of our country. Propaganda is the executive arm

of the invisible government. This invisible government is in the

hands of the wealthy few since the cost to reach millions of

people through advertising is an expensive affair.

So our opinions are formed, our volition is formed largely by

people we have never heard of or seen and in order to live in a

smooth functioning society one has to come to accept such a way

of life. If the masses studied and analyzed every single

economic, political issue in every question then it would be

difficult to come to any conclusion about any issue at all. Thus

another viewpoint of looking at persuasion methods and propaganda

is that they help in narrowing our field of choice to pragmatic

proportions thus making it easier for the society to function.

An alternative to propaganda would be having committees of few

chosen wise men who could choose our government, dictate our

conduct and choose the best commodities for us to use which seems

much similar to a dictatorship.

Public relations: a code of ethics

During World War One Edward Bernays was a part of Woodrow Wilson

government’s committee on public information and he was

instrumental in promoting the idea of America entering the war by

convincing people at large that war efforts were aimed at

bringing democracy to all of Europe. Seeing the effects of

propaganda in wartime Edward Bernays thought of engaging in the

same practice during times of peace. Eventually the public

relations counsel in US has developed from itself a code of

ethics realizing that public relations has developed into a

significant profession.

A public relations professional should refuse a client whom he

believes to be dishonest, presenting a product which is

fraudulent or putting forward a cause which he believes to be

anti-social. This is his social responsibility. On the

professional front, he must not accept a client whose interests

conflict with those of another client of his. He must not accept

a client whose product seems unmarketable to him. He must

reiterate to his client that his job is not to fool or deceive

the public (Bernays).

If he is sending out propaganda the source should be clearly

mentioned, the editor should be in the knowhow of the source and

he must accept or reject it judging the news by its merit.

Propaganda through education

Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate

cognition, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of

the propagandist.— Garth S. Jowell and Victoria O‘Donnell, Propaganda

and Persuasion

According to a report of 2009, much of the information being

taught to America‘s 7th grade students regarding Islam, its

history and its founder, Muhammad, does not meet the academic

definition of history. But it perfectly fits this formal

definition of propaganda (Act for America).

The American Textbook Council (the Council) was founded in 1989

as an independent national research organization. ―The Council

reviews history textbooks and other educational materials. It is

dedicated to improving the social studies curriculum and civic

education in the nation's elementary and high schools. According

to the Council, textbooks being used by thousands of public

schools across the country are blatantly glorifying and promoting

Islam.

Covertly revising history and leaving out important facts are

proven thought-control techniques that were used extensively by

the Nazis and the Communists in their quest for world domination.

More recently, the Saudis and the Iranians have employed and even

improved upon these tactics of deception.

In the reviewed textbooks glittering generalities about Islam

include statements that are unsupported by or even contradictory

to historical facts. These ―propaganda points‖ ignore factual

information about Islam‘s violent history of holy war, conquest

and subjugation.

In the reviewed textbooks everything about Islam is praised and

glorified. Problems in Islamic history and culture are simply

left out of the textbooks. Students learn about Islam‘s ―great

cultural flowering as it ―spread to other cultures, but nothing

about the later centuries of stagnation, decline and decay.

While the finding of this report can be given credit because of

its sources, the claims that it has made about the holy Quran

were unnecessary and to me it seems like an attempt at creating

anti-Islamic sentiments among parents of school-going children,

which in itself can be rounded off as an attempt at spreading

anti-Islamic propaganda.

Propaganda and journalism

Propaganda sometimes leads to erosion of ethics of journalism due

to the interdependence of media and the corporate sector. This

can be illustrated with a simple example. If a residential

building is coming up on a land entitled to be used for public

infrastructure and there is a nexus of the government official

and the owner then the public relations practitioner would advise

on how to package the proposal and ways to mollify public

objections. It is the job of the news media to alert the public

about the implications of the concerned project but they would be

unable to do so if they carry the ads of the same builder

(Marlin).

This point is noteworthy that the media is at the mercy of the

corporate because of the advertising revenue that they provide.

As pointed out by Noam Chomsky advertising revenue is one of

filters in his propaganda model. The reason why news through

print is accessible to us at such low prices is because of the

advertising revenue they get from the corporate sector

Public relations practitioners often advise how to package

proposals and how to anticipate and defuse public objections     

War time Propaganda

While many examples of war time propaganda have can be followed

from many decades in the modern age, World war one can be a good

one to illustrate. It is said that the propaganda employed during

world war one actually started the formal practice of propaganda

by appointing officials to carry out the act of manipulative

persuasion. While public relations and advertising are very

subtly mild forms of propaganda what actual propaganda stands for

is well demonstrated by the govt. officials during World War One.

Persuading people to buy a product now seems like an in front of

the hill that the propaganda in war time manipulated people who

were anti-war to develop war sentiments.

At the turn of the 20th century, the economy was geared towards

the mass production of consumer goods at prices within the reach

of many. In a market now virtually flooded with goods, finding

demand for these helped to give rise to modern marketing and

advertising. Part of that process frequently entailed creating a

want, if not a need, for goods where none had existed before.

Consumers were encouraged to shift from making rational, fact-

based decisions towards choices based more on emotional impulses

Products were advertised keeping war as the theme and in that way

both war sentiments were invoked and private enterprises

benefited demand being generated for their product. So, along the

way they could draw on a sense of romanticism, recreating the war

in a romantic way and reinforcing recruiting propaganda that

spoke to the sense of adventure that characterized the conflict.

In the face of shortfalls in recruits into the army prior to the

outbreak of war, J E B Seeley, the Secretary of State for War in

Britain, had recruited the services of the publicist Hedley Le

Bas of the Caxton Publishing Company. Le Bas’s solution had been

to launch an advertising campaign, drawing on emotional appeals,

which met with a good deal of success. Subsequently, these

services were retained and many in government acknowledged for

the first time the contribution that advertising practitioners

might make either in an ‘official’ capacity or by their own

volition in joining the patriotic crusade as a means of promoting

their goods as the nation went to war.

Conclusion

Propaganda as a practice has been employed into various fields

over the years now. Although its application keeps evolving, the

core of the concept remains intact- manipulative persuasion.

There’s no reason for one to believe that manipulative persuasion

is an unethical practice. The concept of propaganda in itself

cannot be determined as unethical or ethical without considering

the context in which it is used and what outcomes it bears. For

instance when propaganda actually began in practice, it was used

to preach the Christian faith and to gain more followers. There

was no harm intended and the outcome was pretty much harmless.

Public service advertisements are put out with the intention of

creating awareness about policies, or to invite suggestions

regarding policies which is essential for good functioning of a

democracy. To encourage people to take their children for a polio

dose every time a polio drive is arranged with the use of

celebrities in their ads was a propaganda technique by the

government but the outcome was very much beneficial for the whole

lot of the population. Thus, in this case propaganda becomes

morally viable and an ethical practice.

On the other hand when propaganda is used via techniques like

half truth and glistening imagery in order to form positive

public opinion about a certain thing and thus create a negative

public opinion of a certain other opposing idea then one can

question the ethicality of propaganda. The recent ads of the

political party BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) encouraging people to

become a member of the party while the media covers positive news

about the leaders of the party is a milieu of various techniques

of propaganda employed by the party that will have far reaching

effects in the long run which are difficult to gauge presently.

In defense one can say that these are just Public relations

activities of the party and it is a professionally viable

practice. That is where the lines between propaganda and public

relations get blurred and thus it is difficult to determine

whether public relations is an ethical practice or not in such

contexts. A public relations practitioner must follow certain

ethics so that it doesn’t veer towards bad propaganda and have a

bad long lasting effect on the masses in the long term.

Thus, any individual, organization or group intending to indulge

in propaganda to further their purpose must follow some self-

imposed ethical codes in order to avoid veering off to bad

propaganda that can hurt the concerned audience n any manner.

Also, the study of ethics of propaganda is very contextual and

cannot be done without considering its effects and circumstances.

Works Cited

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Welch D. The Third Reich Politics and Propaganda. New York. Routledge,

2002. Print.

Bernays E. Propaganda. 1928. Web.

Cole, R. Encyclopedia od Propaganda. 1998. Print.

PRSA. Public Relations Society of America.

http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/publicrelationsdefined/#.VHDFYdKUcx

h

American History Association. “The Story of Propaganda”.

http://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-

and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/what-is-propaganda/

the-story-of-propaganda

Grunig, J. Hunt, T. Managing Public Relations. 1984. Print.

Ellul, J. The ethics of Propaganda. 1981. Web.

Chomsky, N; Herman, E. Manufacturing Consent. 1988. Web.

Tench, R. and Yeomans, L. Exploring Public Relations, Pearson

Education, 2006. Harlow.

Lovell, E. “Ethical Propaganda”. Web.

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in Education Joint Subcommittee, 2009.

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Journalism Ethics. Global media Journal, 2010. Web.

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