Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion

I am writing a thesis for a my master's on myths, and relating that to propaganda, which led me to this book. I can't say enough great things about this book. I relates all of the ideas to everyday occurances common to the "layman". This book is great for research, and also just to learn how the world is really ran. Get it.

"Age of Propaganda" spells out in plain terms [contrary to another reviewer's finding of the book as being too "wordy"] how mass media is as a leveraging tool used by those in positions of power to coerce "decision by persuasion." To quote the authors, "the goal of modern propaganda is not to inform and enlighten but rather to move the masses toward a desired position or point of view...these appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and debate but through the manipulation of symbols and of our most basic human emotions...[and that]...the most important determinant is the thoughts running through one's head as a persuasive communication is seen and heard[and]in general, we humans seek to conserve our cognitive energy by taking mental short-cuts whenever we can, and we attempt to rationalize our thoughts and behavior so that they appear reasonable to ourselves and others. Most propaganda appeals attempt to take advantage of these two human tendencies." Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson really put together a humdinger here. I'd like to offer a personal thanks to them as their book had a profound influence on me. In the early 90s I was working as a janitor at a college and found a stack of "free for all" books, and, being a reader, rummaged through and came up this dandy heavy hitter. Although, say, much like Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick's in depth documentary on dissident Noam Chomsky and media propaganda, "Manufacturing Consent," also from that era, some of the info has in a short time span become not so much obsolete as it's become more dire and omnipresent in governmental/corporate policy and application. For instance, if I recall, at the time when "Manufacturing Consent" was released, there were some forty parent corporate giants controlling mass media worldwide, as where now power has been consolidated, and that number is around five or six. That in itself should deeply concern everyone, yet most people probably aren't aware of it, and would only give you a blank stare if you brought it to their attention. And that's precisely why "Age of Propaganda" is such a useful book; it simplistically lays out the historical foundation of propaganda, and how and why it's used against us. The statistics presented to show how many mass media messages are consumed annually by the average person alone is quite disturbing and offers a clear example - hopefully to those who refuse to acknowledge the magnitude of the process - of how the power of persuasion works. As of 1992, the U.S. spent four-hundred million per year on propaganda {imagine what it must be now!}. 1-4 headings are taken from the book, the explanations aren't. 1)"The message must attract the recipient's attention." Often this is the classic Problem/Reaction/Solution ruse: government *creates* the dilemma, misdirects and places blame elsewhere, uses the media to exploit the public's fears over the dilemma, and as the public demands resolution, even if they're trul

Peoples' data-processing capabilities are limited. In the information-dense world people are unable to critically review all the information they receive. In order to be adequate to the situation, they resort to so-called heuristics, simple cues or rules for solving the problem. Heuristics are based on peoples' previous experience in similar situations. Although relying on heuristics is sometimes a useful way of dealing with the onslaught of the decision-rich environment, basing our decisions primarily on heuristics can present some problems. First, heuristic cues that we possess may be false. Furthermore, a rule may be appropriate in certain situations but be misapplied in others. Another serious problem is that heuristics can be easily faked and manipulated. Knowledge of heuristics enables propagandists to control peoples' course of action. The authors did a research of propaganda techniques and set four stratagems of persuasion:1. You create favorable climate for the massage (called pre-persuasion). You subtly outline what picture has to be drawn in the end. Here you decide what way thoughts and perceptions of the audience will be shaped and channeled. Having established right basis for further discourse you secure the results you seek. At this stage you should identify some statements as axioms, i.e. `what everyone takes for granted' and `what everyone knows'. You attribute labels (positive or negative) to objects of further discussion, put black-or-white colors in non-disputable way. You use generalities to depict the situation - they are usually so ambiguous that you may change their meanings in the future. You use rumors and gossips.2. You create a `source credibility', i.e. establish a favorable image in the eyes of the audience. The message must come from `experts' or `unbiased' and, of course, personally attractive communicators. Try to switch on the self-persuasion mechanism of the audience. 3. You create a message that focuses the target's attention and thoughts on exactly what you want them to think about. Research has identified at least five conditions that are likely lead to heuristics. Heuristics are most likely to be used when people do not have time to think carefully about the issue, when they are so overloaded with information that it becomes impossible to process it fully, or when they believe that the issues at stake are not very important. Heuristics are also used when people have little other knowledge or information on which to base a decision and when a given heuristics comes quickly to mind as they are confronted with a problem.4. You create an emotion of the target that will help you channel thoughts of audience in right direction. Fear appeals are most effective when they raise high levels of fear and suggest a doable and effective responses (the authors also explain why sometimes fear does not work). Guilt: once we are filled with guilt, our thoughts and behavior are directed towards ridding ourselves of this fee

This book was a real bother! I usually read a 300 page book in about two hours and am used to reading through them quickly and getting onto the next one. This book was so fascinating that I slowed down to make sure that I got every bit of information out of it that was available. This book should be required reading for everyone who wants to know how they are being influenced by the marketing people, unscrupulous sales people, cult leaders, governments and others promoters of influence. It is a thorough course in how to spot an attempt to manipulate you and how you can analyse the situation to see if it is really something you want or not.It has some of the most complete advice on how to examine an item and how to respond of any book on influence that I have read. On the "A" list of must-read books.

This is an excellent book which explains how the media, demagogues, politicains and marketers are able to gain compliance from their various publics. The use of lab studies and real world examples bring both theory and practice together. I have used this book for a class in propaganda since its first edition, and without fail students rave about the book in their course evaluations. It is a well-written book devoid of educationalese. This is an important book that provides the reader with genuine insight into a world of total propaganda and how as "cognitive misers" we allow ourselves to be manipulated.