What is Propaganda?
Article preface: My husband and I have a routine of watching the previous night’s episode of The Daily Show on Comedy Central right after dinner. I wrote this piece on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, and asked my husband to read it and give me his thoughts after dinner, just before we watched our regular comedy show. Minutes later, when we finally turned on the show, we found it hilarious that the comedian host offered his own tricks for identifying propaganda and how to tell if Trump's photos were real or fake on the March 5, 2024 episode. Feel free to watch this comical guidance and see how it confers with my own real guidance below.
One of the reasons I am writing this Substack is that I am very concerned about the spread of propaganda and disinformation, especially during the upcoming election season. With new and increasingly creative and advanced tactics for spreading propaganda, especially from modern AI and technology development, I want to give people the tools to make better choices about what they consume.
There are a lot of technological tools to aid in spotting digital manipulation, and we will go over those at another time. But I full-heartedly believe that with old-fashioned media literacy tools and critical thinking skills, we can all combat almost all propaganda and disinformation. Technology will always change, but these methods are tried and true and will never go out of style.
In my writing, I will never tell people what to think, but I will help them ask better questions and give them the tools to identify harmful tactics. As usual, we will start with definitions so we are all on the same page.
The most modern definition of Propaganda is “the systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, to promote a particular cause or point of view, often a political agenda” Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “propaganda (n.), sense 3,” September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3478124451.
However, that was not always the definition of the term. Propaganda is a modern Latin word, the neuter plural gerundive form of propagare, meaning 'to spread.' Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “propaganda (n.), Etymology,” September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7875958141.
The word originated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1600s, and it was about spreading the word of the church. Over the centuries, the word evolved from once meaning to spread religious information to spreading information in general to outright disinformation. Talk about evolution!
I will rarely conclude something is harmful, but I want to be clear: The 2024 meaning of propaganda, manipulating people at a mass level for an agenda, is dangerous. Throughout history, propaganda has played a role in every single societal disaster we have ever had—from the current war in Palestine to the rise of Hitler.
Have you ever wondered how so much disinformation was spread about the COVID-19 virus? I will explain exactly how in future posts, and it might not be as sophisticated a process as you might think.
I mentioned in a past post that public relations people always have an agenda and try to spread information. How does public relations differ from propaganda? I like to define the difference between the two as propaganda is misleading. Someone engaging in ethical public relations is not trying to mislead anyone, but they are working to change behavior. We’ll go more into that in future posts.
Takeaway: Propaganda, in the evolution of the word, is harmful to society, and it will only get more sophisticated. Journalists, public relations people, and propagandists are all trying to spread information. The difference is that journalism spreads truth, public relations spreads motivation, and propagandists spread disinformation. Media literacy and asking basic questions are always the solution to identifying propaganda, even if the technology gets more sophisticated.
What questions can I ask to identify propaganda?
It always boils down to the simple: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY
Who provided this narrative?
This question seems basic but is more in-depth than one might think. To find the root of the narrative, you might have to do some deep digging to get to the real source. If that’s not possible, it’s propaganda.
People often tell me they learned something from [PICK YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA SOURCE], but that’s not good enough to define its origin or who is spreading the narrative. The name of the media outlet doesn’t give much information to determine whether the content is propaganda or not. In other words, there is a big difference between “The New York Times said” and “Donald Trump or Joe Biden was quoted in the New York Times saying.”
Was the information in quotes in an article? Did it come from a specific account or person on social media? Who said it specifically? What was their title? Was anyone refuting it? What was their title? Titles can reveal much information about propaganda in the news industry, and I will do a whole post on that soon.
Do they work for an organization, our government, or a business? Is it an individual or an entity? It is essential to keep drilling down until you are clear about who is saying what you are noting as truth and gather as many details about them as possible.
I am also not a fan of the term “the mainstream media” because it generally indicates that someone is about to tell you something false. I want to be very clear: That’s not because the mainstream media lies; it’s because it doesn’t exist as a concept or combined entity. No one has a specific definition of what that means. Media is a tool, so it can’t speak. What is mainstream? It’s a way to make a point without directly telling you specifically where it comes from and making it seem like it has credibility by ascribing it to a generic “mainstream media.”
Some will define mainstream media as Washington Post, CNN, and New York Times. I try to picture how that works. Do people think they all gathered in a room and decided what they say that day? Having sat in newsroom editorial meetings, I can assure you it does not work like that. To avoid confusion from propaganda, you must go far deeper into the real source than simply ascribing it to “mainstream media.” In reality, the term “mainstream media” is a form of anonymity.
Is something anonymous? It’s very likely propaganda. There are some instances when, for safety reasons, someone cannot fully identify themselves, but even still, you have some indication of who they are or the source of the information. If you do not know the source, then it is propaganda. For instance, a political club that creates a “news” website with reporters who do not exist in real life is a dangerous form of propaganda and manipulation at the highest levels.
Bots and anonymous social media accounts are propaganda. This is extremely alarming behavior and something to avoid because it could cause harm or danger to you personally or to society.
What about my sister, who has an anonymous account because she doesn’t want to be online for work? Do you know it is your sister? Yes? Then, it is not anonymous, and it is not propaganda. We are talking about anonymity for no other reason than to manipulate you.
Sophisticated propagandists have created online accounts to steal people’s identities and misrepresent them for political purposes. While some of this behavior is blamed on foreign actors, I believe it is happening right here at home with our very own political parties.
(PS: If you see me personally engaging with these accounts, please know that it is for research purposes on the origins of propaganda in the elections.)
Propaganda Red Flags:
1. The mainstream media or the media says. (The (INSERT MEDIA OUTLET) says.
2. The mainstream media or the media will not tell you.
3. Anything anonymous, especially bots and social media accounts that do not reveal a real person.
What agendas might be at play?
Once you figure out who is saying it, consider what agendas might be at play. Do you feel a certain way when you see this information? Is it invoking a strong feeling or an instant urge to act? Why would someone want to make this point if it were not true? Does this person or entity have an interest in making this point—money, power, politics, persuasion, etc.?
Keep asking further questions, which will reveal more details about the level of truth involved in the presented information. Don’t take anything at face value unless you consider the agenda of the person who gives you the information.
Propaganda Red Flags:
1. The person or entity offering the information does not reveal their financial ties or has a direct monetary interest.
2. The person or entity offering the information has a political motive that undermines your physical, mental, financial, or emotional health, interests, views, or morals.
3. Based on emotions sparked by the content, you start to desire to take an out-of-character action you would not usually take.
When did I see this?
One thing I have learned about working in my field is that there is always a reason why you see something now. When I pitch a story to journalists, the first question they ask me is: why should I cover this now? The journalism industry sets the agenda for our discussion in America.
Very few things are entirely new, so why we present it now is a fundamental question.
The next question is: how frequently do I see this? Am I suddenly seeing the same narrative repeatedly days before an election everywhere I go? Are there stories that look identical? It might mean that an interested party is trying to manipulate you.
Is this distracting me from something else that is more important now?
Propaganda Red Flags:
1. The narrative starts to appear before you need to act, such as voting or deciding which healthcare plan you want to enroll in.
2. The narrative seems to show up repeatedly multiple times a day and could be distracting from something else.
3. I searched for something recently and now constantly see information about it.
Where did I see it first, and what are the origins?
I started by explaining that the source differs from the person or entity telling the narrative. Now that you have investigated who is behind the narrative, you can finally begin to look into the source. Where did I see this information?
Is the information being verified by a credible third party as a main source?
Where else was it appearing? Was the information presented the same everywhere I saw it or different every time? Does the information in the source seem the same as the information I am being presented with now?
Is there audio, photo, or video? How was photo, video, or audio collected? Who released that photo, audio or video? Do I see signs of manipulation—like if someone is on video, having said something, but you can’t attribute it directly to them as the source? Does the context seem believable that these people met at the same place, time, and location? Can I find multiple different versions of the same photo? Can the people in the photo be identified? That could be a sign of a deep fake or an AI-manipulated photo. Was it shared multiple times, by whom, and how quickly? We’ll get more into this in our shared media conversations.
Am I explicitly being targeted as someone to receive this information? For instance, is it only running in outlets that target a specific demographic?
What was the medium for where I saw it—newspaper, magazine, Facebook, TikTok, etc? Beyond the particular medium, what was the content type? Was it in a specific section? We will get more into these subjects as time goes on.
Propaganda Red Flags:
1. You’ll only see this here; no one else will cover it.
2. You can’t verify the original source of the information, or it seems to have changed repeatedly from the source, like a game of telephone.
3. Your demographic has explicitly been targeted as a recipient of the information, especially regarding race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and age.
The last question: Why is this information relevant to me, why do I believe it is accurate, and how should I interact with it?
Stay tuned for more on this topic next week, when we will explore the issues and solutions further.