The Tools of Integrated Apologetics Course 1.6.1
Analysis Of Propaganda Techniques
Dr. Johnson C. Philip, Dr. Saneesh Cherian
Chapter — I
Propaganda As A Tool Against Rational Thinking And The Christian Faith
Different societies repeatedly go through periods of hatred towards Christianity. Propaganda plays a two-fold role during such periods. First, clever propaganda hastens the onset of such attitudes against the Christian faith. Such changes of attitude then add to the spread of propaganda. In this way a vicious circle of anti-Biblical feelings and teachings is set up. Mere wishful thinking will never help the situation. The vicious circle can be broken only if a significant number of persons in such a generation understands the role and methods of propaganda.
Propaganda is the art and act of spreading information to a large number of people. The information might be true or false, depending upon the nature of propaganda, but our interest here is in the false variety of it. Further, it is to be understood that in the absence of such propaganda, that information would not go too far. Information lacks locomotion till it meets publicity. Further, in this writing, we will be using the words propaganda and advertisement interchangeably. This is because all advertisements ultimately depend upon propaganda techniques for success. Also, we will be using "attack against the Bible" and "attack against the Christian faith" interchangeably. This is because either of these automatically leads to the other.
TYPES OF PROPAGANDA: All propaganda can be classified into two groups — spontaneous and contrived. The spontaneous variety is found everywhere where people talk about their achievements and successes. They do not have to contrive a speech (long or short) to pass this information to others. Rather, when people graduate, win lottery-prizes, or acquires a special honour, they automatically and enthusiastically inform others. This is spontaneous advertising, and is a harmless mode of communication when not indulged in to excess. Contrived propaganda, on the other hand, is carefully planned and executed. It is again of two types: informative and manipulative. Informative propaganda aims at bringing people facts and expecting them to respond favourably. An element of persuasion is also sometimes present.
Manipulative propaganda, on the other hand, aims at controlling people’s behaviour in a specific manner. This prompts them to buy a certain product, think, act and dress in a certain manner, and even to associate themselves with certain movements. The classified advertisements seen in newspapers is an example of educative propaganda. Usually their aim is to inform people about products, services, sales and educational opportunities. Larger ads dealing with traffic, home safety, energy conservation, etc., may also be considered as educational/informational propaganda. On the other hand, advertisements that induce people to smoke, drink, buy a product that is not all that necessary, and that compel people to develop brand loyalties come under the category of mind-altering publicity. The same techniques are used by political parties, lobbying groups, exotic cults and various strange movements.
The above classification is to be used as an objective guideline, but one should be cautious when analyzing propaganda and advertisements. Most of these will fall clearly into one of these categories, but a few will contain elements of both. Some educational propaganda use mind-alteration techniques while some manipulative propaganda will contain educational or factual matter. What’s important for the recipients is their ability to sift information and separate facts from fiction.
MANIPULATIVE PROPAGANDA: Propagandists belonging to this group employ a wide variety of tried and proven techniques. These techniques depend upon the endless variety of human needs, desires, problems and aspirations, most of which have a deep emotional content. Since there is no end to the variety of human emotions, it is impossible to give an exhaustive list. However, the majority of methods can be classified into about a dozen or so categories. We shall list eight of them here with the confidence that this will give you sufficient insight into the subject to help you spot other techniques and logically analyze them.
At first these techniques might not strike to you as anything special, but by the time you have finished reading you will surely be alarmed by the way propaganda techniques can be used to manipulate people. In fact, these techniques have been successfully used to change the thinking and behaviour pattern of entire generations and even nations. In the next chapter we will read about the major techniques, followed by chapters on how these techniques have been used to attack the Christian faith, and also how to counter them.
Analysis Of Propaganda Techniques
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