Encyclopedia of propaganda methods. Part 3

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Encyclopedia of propaganda methods. Part 3

"Eyewitnesses" of the event.
A very effective technique, often used to create Emotional resonance. A lot of random people are interviewed, from whose words the necessary semantic and emotional series is formed. A particularly strong effect is produced by screaming old women, crying children, and young disabled people.

The classic example was the Gulf War. In October 1990, a fifteen-year-old girl told the world's media that she had seen Iraqi soldiers pull fifteen babies out of the hospital and lay them on the cold floor to die. The girl's name was ostentatiously withheld for the safety of her family. US President George W. Bush used the story of dead babies ten times in the forty days before the invasion of Iraq. The Senate debate on the approval of military action also repeatedly returned to this fact. It was later revealed that the girl was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family. Even later, it became known that most of the other "witnesses" were prepared and exhibited by the well-known public relations firm Hill & Knowlton. But no one cared anymore.

Rewriting history
The method is effective in the long term, when you need to gradually form the right worldview. In order to "brainwash" an entire society, perform a major manipulation program on it, and disable the common sense of several generations, it is necessary first of all to destroy the historical memory.

Modern technologies of mind manipulation can destroy the knowledge obtained from real historical experience in a person, replace it with artificially constructed" director " knowledge. An artificially formed picture of historical reality is transmitted to individual individuals through books, lectures, radio and television, the press, theatrical performances, films, etc. In this way, an illusory world is built, which is perceived as real. As a result, a person can perceive all real life as an unpleasant dream, and those chimeras that propaganda, advertising and mass culture inspire him, putting him into a trance, perceives as reality.

In this case, the cinema is especially effective. Cinema, as a means of propaganda, can have an extremely high emotional impact (see Emotional resonance). It actively generates in the viewer's imagination an illusory picture of the world in a very idealized form. In accordance with the author's idea, a movie can arbitrarily create a sense of "justice" and moral rightness of a particular character, regardless of its actual role in the story. At the same time, propaganda influence on a person occurs covertly, on an emotional level, outside of his conscious control. No rational counterarguments work in this case. A simple example: On a rational level, we are all well aware of who Adolf Hitler was and what he did. However, using special dramatic techniques and the play of talented actors, the film director may well present everything in such a way that the audience's sympathies will definitely be on the side of the Fuhrer. His heinous crimes will not seem like crimes at all, but a noble cause — because the victims themselves will look like villains who deserve to be killed. And the people sitting in the cinema hall will weep sincerely, watching as an honest and noble Fuhrer puts a bullet in his temple in April 1945...

Manipulating the sense of" justice " of a particular character is actively used by Hollywood. Everyone has seen the American action films " Rambo "and" Rambo-2", so they know that America, having shamefully lost the war in Vietnam, successfully won it on movie screens. The West has produced thousands of such films — and flooded the whole world with them. Apart from the courageous response in the form of x/f "Solo Swimming" (1984), the Soviet Union (and then Russia) did not oppose them anything.

At the same time, it is difficult to overestimate the importance that the expansion of Western mass culture in general and Western cinema in particular played in the collapse of the Soviet system. Purposefully or spontaneously, the Western worldview and Western standards of living were introduced into society. In general, it should be said that one of the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War was the loss at the level of mass culture. The Soviet propaganda machine could not create an attractive virtual world that would be spectacular, exciting, interesting for a mass audience and at the same time" correctly " interpret world history, promote Soviet values and lifestyle. (Individual masterpieces such as x/f "Kuban Cossacks" do not count. These are exceptions that confirm the rule). The West is extremely successful in producing "delicious" illusions.

In the field of mass culture, despite its extreme primitiveness, the United States today enjoys an unparalleled appeal, especially among young people around the world. According to Z. Brzezinski, mass culture (along with military and economic power), provides the United States with a political influence that no other state in the world has close to.

(Information for reflection. In 1994, a Hollywood film studio shot the action film "Bullet to Beijing" with Michael Caine in the title role. He was filmed in St. Petersburg, and his characters fought with the Chechen mafia. When the film was almost ready, the Chechen war had just begun and the whole world sympathized with Chechnya, so it became politically impractical to show "bad Chechens". A picture... banned by American censorship. The film was put on the shelf despite the millions of dollars spent on its production. This fact clearly demonstrates the importance of the propaganda factor in the modern US entertainment industry.

Please note: the "bad guys" in American action movies always clearly correspond to the current foreign policy course of the United States. If in the past decades, film supermen like Rambo or James Bond courageously fought mainly with insidious Soviet spies and sadistic colonels from the KGB, then according to the plot of the film, released in 2002, Agent 007 is captured by the North Koreans (modern representatives of the "world axis of evil") and is subjected to brutal torture there. An elegant and unobtrusive method of propaganda brainwashing, using the effect of perspective ) Another popular topic today is rewriting the history of the Second World War. After watching American blockbusters, you will finally understand that the backbone of Nazism was broken not in Stalingrad and near Kursk, but during the rescue of American private Ryan from captivity . And in the super films Stalingrad (1994) and The Enemy at the Gate (2001), you will see how noble and civilized Germans bravely fight against Russian savages and, in general, come out victorious in Stalingrad. And the Germans, it turns out, were all anti-fascists, "they just honestly performed their military duty." K. Loch, an English film director, once said: "It is important that history is written by us, because the one who writes history controls the present."

The result is obvious: today's knowledge of the Second World War in the average Westerner is well illustrated by the following dialogue:

Question: "Do you know how many Americans died in World War II? "
Answer:" Oh, a lot. I would say... Fifty thousand, I think... —
- And how many Russians?
"I don't know... But, of course, not as many as Americans.
— What makes you think that?"
"Well, they only joined us at the very end of the war... Is not it so? Really earlier? Oh, that's the thing!

The success of Western propaganda in this field is so significant that it should concern the public in states with a "non-Western" type of culture. So, to the questions of who first created a nuclear power plant, a nuclear icebreaker, an artificial satellite of the Earth, the most powerful launch vehicle, hydrofoils and hovercraft, took a man into space, won a decisive victory in the Second World War, a significant part of the Russian (!) youth calls... United States. (Probably, it can not be otherwise after the Hollywood blockbuster "Armageddon" (1999) was a great success on Russian screens, where the Russian cosmonaut is depicted as a complete crank with a noticeable share of idiocy, walking around the orbital station in a hat with earflaps and repairing on-board computers with a sledgehammer .) The list of such pseudo-achievements of the West can be continued indefinitely. At the same time, some of their actual achievements in the West for some reason do not advertise. For example, the priority of inventing the atomic bomb, and then testing it on the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (By the way, today 30% of young Japanese people sincerely believe that these cities and their population were destroyed by the Russians, dropping atomic bombs, and the Americans selflessly saved the victims.). It should be noted that in recent years, Russia has taken some steps in this direction. First of all, they are associated with the formation of a favorable public opinion regarding the actions of the authorities to resolve the Chechen conflict. For this purpose, in particular, mass culture is actively used. An example is the numerous TV series about the special forces, about the cops, and in general — about "our guys", simple and fair, who are bravely fighting in Chechnya "for you and me". The general direction of "manipulation of justice" in this case is characterized by a quote from the film " War " (2002, dir. Alexey Balabanov):

— How much does it cost to buy? (a hostage for ransom)
- In Chechnya, there is an exchange: buy one thing, and order quite another...
- How is it, order?
- Well, how do they order murders? Well, you are just like from the moon...
- So these are bandits...
- And the Chechens are bandits!
"Everything?"
- Yes, everything! (etc.)

The leading songs of the group "Lube" in the Russian charts ("Batyanya Kombat", " Let's go for...", etc.) are from the same opera.

Perspective.
When covering a conflict ,the "independent" media give the floor to only one participant and actually play on his side, creating a one-sided perspective. In particular, this technique is used when covering military operations.

Thus, during the Yugoslav conflict in 1998, 80% of Western media reports had a negative context regarding the Yugoslav or Serbian side, while there was practically no negative context regarding ethnic Albanians. According to Western news agencies, the violence in 95% of cases was carried out by the Serbs or their leaders (S. Milosevic and Co.). Major T. Collins of the US Army Information Service admitted in February 2000 that CNN — "the mainstay of world democracy and freedom of speech"-actively used and paid for the services of PR specialists from the ranks of the US army during the war: "They helped to produce the necessary information about Kosovo."

And here is another recognition of a NATO employee: "When we know that it was done by the Serbs, we say that it was done by the Serbs. When we don't know who did it, we say the Serbs did it. And when we know that it wasn't the Serbs who did it, we say we don't know who did it." (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 7, 1999).

To justify the war, NATO used scientific methods of manipulating information. At one time, scientific articles on the technology of "demonizing the Serbs"were published in the West. The main conclusion: if you continuously and for a long time put the word "Serb" in a negative context (just include it in the description of terrible events and in the environment of unpleasant epithets), then viewers, regardless of their position, have a stable dislike for the Serbs. In addition, it is necessary, of course, not to give access to the TV camera to any of the Serbs. Similarly, Western propaganda demonizes the images of S. Hussein, M. Gaddafi, F. Castro and other " bad " political leaders.

In a similar way, the Russian government media today covers the events in Chechnya.

Repetition
"The masses call truth the information that is most familiar," wrote Joseph Goebbels. "Ordinary people are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Therefore, propaganda, in essence, should always be simple and endlessly repetitive. Ultimately, the most outstanding results in influencing public opinion will be achieved only by those who are able to reduce problems to the simplest words and expressions and who have the courage to constantly repeat them in this simplified form, despite the objections of high-brow intellectuals."

One of the most effective methods of propaganda is the relentless repetition of the same statements, so that people get used to them and begin to accept them not with reason, but on faith. A person always seems to be convinced by what he has memorized, even if the memorization occurred in the course of a purely mechanical repetition of a commercial or an annoying song. At the same time, it is necessary to influence not the ideas and theories of the enemy, but the ordinary consciousness, everyday "small" thoughts, desires and actions of the average person. The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote: "This is not a statement of some truth that would make a revolution in consciousness. This is a huge number of books, magazines, pamphlets, newspaper articles, conversations and disputes, which are constantly repeated and in their gigantic aggregate form the additional effort from which the collective will is born, which is necessary for action to come out."

Psychologists have conducted a huge amount of research to find out the characteristics of repeated messages that ensure memorization. The presence of a critical time value was detected: a complete message should fit in the interval from 4 to 10 seconds, and individual message particles - in the intervals from 0.2 to 0.5 seconds. In order to perceive a message that does not fit in 8-10 seconds, a person already has to make an effort, and few people want to do it. Such a message is simply discarded by the memory. Therefore, qualified editors of TV shows bring the text to the primitive, often throwing out logic and coherent meaning, replacing them with associations and wordplay.

Repetition is the main means of unfair propaganda. Therefore, it serves as a good sign of its presence. If they suddenly start to talk about the same topic every day and use the same verbal constructions-it's not right.

For example, every year at the time of the harvest, the press is organized to cry about high taxes on diesel fuel; periodically there are campaigns against the abolition of benefits to monopolists, against the prohibition of advertising alcohol and tobacco; shortly before the election, all government media, as a selection, begin to praise some figures and scold others, etc. Here there is a deliberate bet on suggestion, since there are usually no reasonable arguments-just the usual shadow order, paid for by a certain number of banknotes with images of non-Russian presidents.

Substitution
Substitution is one of the variants of the notorious "double standards". It consists in using favorable definitions (euphemisms) to refer to unfavorable actions and vice versa. The main purpose of using the technique is to create a favorable image of violent actions. So, pogroms are called "protest demonstrations", bandit formations - "freedom fighters", mercenaries-volunteers.

At one time, the propagandists of the Third Reich achieved great success in this field. To reduce the perception of looting, torture, murder, and genocide carried out as a state policy, the Nazis used numerous euphemisms. For example, the Gestapo did not arrest citizens, but "subjected them to pre-trial detention." The SS did not rob the property of the murdered Jews, but "took it under reliable protection." The invasion of Poland in 1939 was a "police action", and the subsequent murder of its citizens was an "extraordinary appeasement action". Buildings in concentration camps were given joyful names such as "Happy Nightingale", "Paradise". The prisoners there were never gassed or killed; they were simply brought to a "final decision" or given "special treatment".

Today, the same techniques are used in Western propaganda. In the coverage of "anti-terrorist operations" and "peacekeeping actions", the expressions "defensive reaction", "limited air strike" are used, the designations are used: "the moral duty of the United States", "the program of the united forces of democracy". Subversive organizations that are created by Western special services to overthrow unwanted political regimes receive beautiful names such as "National Foundation for Democracy Support", "International Democratic Forum", "Open Society Institute", "Free House", etc. When Americans or Jews are killed somewhere in the Middle East, it is terrorism; when Russian soldiers are killed in Chechnya, it is a struggle for independence and the right of the people to self-determination...

In general, the method of verbal substitution is used very widely. If you are flying to bomb military installations in another state... No, you are not an aggressor, you are a member of a peacekeeping operation. It's us who catch spies, they also catch our scouts. When our special services eliminate state criminals, it is forced self — defense, when they are dirty political murders. When the natives fight against us-they are "dushmans" (bandits), when on our side — "Mujahideen" (fighters for the faith). The list goes on indefinitely.

The second Chechen war in Russia led to the emergence of a whole host of verbal substitutions designed to" correctly " describe the situation: "This is not a war, but an anti-terrorist operation...", " There is a cleaning of territories...", " Federal troops have occupied, the federals have advanced...". G. Pocheptsov gives an interesting example of the use/disuse of the word "border" in relation to Chechnya. Since crossing the border involves an act of aggression, this word quickly disappeared from the lexicon of the Russian media.

Half-truth.
The historical writings of the Marquis Astolph de Costin have decomposed the brains of more than one Russian "freethinker" of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Marquis demonstrated that the core of the propaganda war is a lie. So, describing the poor sanitary conditions of life in Russia and the wild customs of the local population, he completely "forgot" that at the same time in every respected French house, including the royal one, during a game of cards, a special plate was placed on the table to crush lice that periodically ran out of the luxurious clothes of ladies and gentlemen...

The half-truth method was actively used during the collapse of the USSR. In the late 1980s, centrifugal tendencies emerged in the Union republics. To strengthen them, the Republican elites, who sought power and complete independence from Moscow, actively formed the image of the enemy. The idea was introduced: Russia is robbing us. The Estonians were deeply convinced that they were the ones who fed the entire USSR. The same idea was very popular in Ukraine, where they were very fond of counting the number of regions "working" to provide Moscow with food. Similar myths were developed in the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. They were actively used to form and manage the national movements that swept most of the Union republics in the early 1990s. Indeed, the republics gave most of their gross product to the Union for use. This fact was actively used to incite discontent with the Union in general and Moscow in particular. But at the same time, the fact that the Union republics received nickel, tin, cadmium, oil, gas and other resources necessary for the functioning of national economies "from the center" was completely "forgotten". This is a classic example of applying a half-truth.

Today, many in Russia are annoyed by the speed with which the former "brothers in the socialist camp" from Eastern Europe ran to NATO. Psychologically, this is not difficult to explain. The Balts, Poles, Bulgarians and other peoples still have a very fresh memory of vassalage from the USSR, the rigid ideological dictate of the "big brother" — that's why they want to get under Uncle Sam's nuclear umbrella as soon as possible. However, today, for some reason, no one in these countries says that in return they had free weapons, ultra-cheap energy carriers and a giant market for their goods. The "Fraternal friendship" with the Soviet Union is remembered only in a negative way. It is time to sympathize with the former satellites for such a one-sided memory — instead of orders from Moscow, they now have to fulfill any whims and sexual whims of Washington , buy expensive NATO weapons with their own blood, feed a huge army of NATO officials and generals (by the way, George Bush's visit to Lithuania at the end of 2002 cost her 600 thousand dollars — it was much cheaper to accept "senior comrades" from Moscow).

The method of half-truths is used not only to solve issues of big politics. The authorities actively use it, for example, at the next increase in prices for utilities, trying to convince us that it is necessary to pay for light, gas and water at world prices — as they pay in America or Europe. The fact that then the income of the population should be increased to the European level is delicately silent. The contrast principle
White is clearly visible on a black background, however, as well as vice versa. Psychologists always emphasize the role of the social background on which a person or group is perceived. A loafer next to working people is much more reprehensible. Against the background of evil and unfair people, a good person is always perceived with special sympathy.

The principle of contrast is used when for some reason it is impossible to say directly (censorship, the danger of a lawsuit for libel), but you really want to say it. In this case, speculation is provided in the right direction.

For example, all mass media widely use a special layout of the topics of news reports, leading the recipient of information to quite unambiguous conclusions. This is especially noticeable during election campaigns. All internal conflicts and scandals in the camp of political opponents are covered in detail, with relish for details. Like, "they're all there" — a bunch of demagogues and brawlers. On the contrary ,the " own " political movement is presented as a close-knit team of like-minded people who are professionally engaged in real constructive affairs. News stories are selected accordingly. The " bad "ones are fighting for places on the party lists — the "good" ones are opening a children's hospital built at their own expense, helping disabled people and single mothers. In general, the scenery is such that while some politicians are fighting for power and sorting out relations among themselves, others are engaged in creative work for the benefit of the people.

Some media outlets put some electoral blocs in a more favorable light, while others put others in a more favorable light. By the bias of journalists, you can easily guess which financial and political group controls this media.

Trial balls
Political and military propaganda campaigns are always carefully prepared by experts in the field of psychology, advertising, and marketing, and are usually paid for by public relations firms (PR agencies) hired by customers. Through preliminary surveys and other research, experts study the conscious and unconscious reactions of the public in order to develop the most effective tactics. Often there is a kind of "test in practice" of a certain range of propaganda topics in order to identify the most "passable" of them. To do this, a certain number of "sensational messages"are thrown out on the media market. Those of them that do not receive a public response are removed from the agenda. And the most successful ones begin to be actively promoted with the help of controlled media (see Creating an information wave )

During the war in Yugoslavia, the propaganda campaign conducted by NATO was preceded by the launch of test balloons. For Kosovo, such topics were refugee flows, killings (which took place, but on a much smaller scale than is represented by NATO), and some others. Terrible accusations were made against the Serbs: "concentration camps", "shields of living people", "mass rapes"...

Thus, on 30 March 1999, the Serbs were accused of driving Albanians into a 25,000-seat football stadium in Pristina to be executed. The accusation is symbolic, specifically referring the mass consciousness to the crimes of the Pinochet regime. The next day, the reporters went to the stadium: absolute emptiness. The Western media did not mention it again. There was no refutation either. April 7, 1999 In a report by the same France-Presse, Yugoslavia is accused of creating "human shields" from Albanians: "The fate of thousands of Kosovars, who are not allowed to leave Kosovo by Belgrade, causes concern to the world community..." And this topic was not continued, since it was later stated that "Belgrade expels Albanians from their lands". On August 2, 1999, B. Kushner (head of the UN mission in Kosovo) makes a loud statement that 11,000 corpses have been found — victims of ethnic cleansing. The next day, he casually reports that " the facts have not been confirmed." Constant reports of "terrible crimes" fueled Western public opinion in favor of NATO aggression. Some of them received a wide response, others went unnoticed. If the Western media, under the pressure of facts, were later forced to give refutations of false reports, they did so in the form of a few words printed in small print on the last pages.

Psychological shock
Psychological shock is one of the types of use of Emotional resonance, brought to a peak level. Today, the media is introducing the spectacle of death into every home and in huge numbers. We constantly see close-up images of murdered people-so that their loved ones can't help but recognize them. We look at the half-burned corpses of victims of disasters and terrorist attacks. We see pictures of skulls standing on shelves... We will not touch on the moral aspects of turning corpses into television props. Let's just say that this is often done in order to inspire purely political ideas under the guise of shock. Psychological shock usually removes all psychological defenses and propaganda gibberish freely penetrates our brain.

Thus, studies have shown that a video sequence showing, for example, the consequences of a war has a strong impact on the subconscious and restores public opinion against the party who committed the act of destruction (regardless of whether the goals of the war itself are just). Therefore, when covering "peacekeeping operations", the Western media always strictly dose the display of destruction and loss of life.

The Russian media widely used psychological shock when covering the events in Chechnya. In 1996, many TV channels (especially NTV) showed a lot of video footage with explosions, destruction and loss of life — in order to inspire the idea of the uselessness of war. In contrast, in 1999-2000, the goals became diametrically opposed. The houses blown up by terrorists, the severed heads of Russian soldiers and Western journalists were supposed to prove that the Chechen militants are degenerates of the human race, so "cleaning up the territories" is necessary Rating
Psychologists have long established that the publication of the results of sociological research affects public opinion. From 10 to 25% of voters are guided by sociological ratings when choosing the candidates for whom they will vote. Many people want to vote for the strong, but few want to vote for the weak. Here the psychological phenomenon peculiar to the average layman is triggered — the desire to be "like everyone else". Therefore, by announcing a higher rating of a candidate on the eve of the election, you can actually increase the number of votes cast for him.

In this regard, many sociological firms during the election campaign are likened to representatives of the oldest profession and begin to work on the principle of "Any whim for your money". By "appointing" the leader of the rating, they thereby create this leader in part.

In the media, pseudo-ratings are usually served with a scientific sauce: "The survey was conducted in all regions of our country. The statistical sample size was 3,562 people. All social categories and age groups are taken into account. The limit value of the average statistical error does not exceed 1.5% , etc. " Smart words and scientific terms are designed to have a hypnotizing effect on the average person.

Sensationalism or urgency
A general action technique that provides the necessary level of nervousness and undermines psychological protection. This nervousness, a sense of continuous crisis, dramatically increases the suggestibility of people and reduces the ability to critical perception. The fact is that any manipulation succeeds when it is ahead of the process of mobilizing the psychological protection of the audience, when it manages to impose its own pace on our consciousness. That is why today, almost all news blocks in the media begin with the so-called. "sensational messages»: serial murders, plane crashes, terrorist attacks, scandals from the lives of politicians or show stars.

In fact, the urgency of messages is almost always false, artificially created. Sometimes sensationalism serves as a distraction. Usually, such a "sensation" is not worth a single egg-an elephant gave birth in a zoo, a bus collided with a truck in a tunnel, or a teenager raped and killed his grandmother. The next day, everyone forgets about it.

G. Schiller writes: "Just as advertising interferes with concentration and deprives the weight of interrupted information, a new information processing technique allows you to fill the air with streams of useless messages, which further complicates the already hopeless search for meaning for the individual."

Under the cover of sensationalism, you can either keep silent about an important event that the public should not know about, or stop the scandal, which is already time to stop — but so that no one else remembers about it. Therefore, sensationalism is closely related to the "Distraction"technique. Shifting the emphasis
Used, for example, when reporting the latest news. The essence of the reception is well explained by an American joke from the Cold War: the American president and the Soviet Secretary General took part in a long-distance race. The General Secretary won. American commentators report the following: "Our president came second, and the Secretary General-the penultimate." Formally, everything is said correctly, but in fact the listeners are deceived.

Another anecdote. Sad. A report in the newspaper: "Well-armed with fists, Palestinians attacked Israeli soldiers sitting peacefully in tanks. The soldiers suffered severe moral injuries. The Palestinians escaped with light deaths."

This technique is very often used by the world's leading news agencies.

Creating associations.
The object in the eyes of the public is artificially attached to something that is perceived by the mass consciousness as very bad (or vice versa-good). Metaphors are widely used for this purpose.

"Stalin is Lenin today" - Soviet propaganda;
"S. Hussein-the Arabic-speaking Hitler" - American propaganda;
"NATO-fascism" - Yugoslav propaganda.

Metaphors, including associative thinking, provide huge savings in intellectual effort. It is here that the next propaganda trap is hidden. The temptation to save intellectual effort forces a person to resort to associations and False analogies instead of studying and understanding the essence of problems: to call these things some kind of metaphor that refers him to other, already studied states. Most often, the very belief that those other states through which he explains the present to himself are known or understood is also illusory. For example, a Russian patriot says to himself: the current Putin regime is like in the time of Peter the Great. He is sure that he knows what the times of Peter the Great were like, and this may be his first mistake — and the first condition for the success of this manipulation.

A poetic metaphor creates a colorful image in the imagination. It has a miraculous effect and permanently knocks off common sense. It can be very difficult to convince people who have a simple and attractive false metaphor hammered into their heads. To achieve anything with the help of logic is impossible here, you need to run a counter-metaphor.

Sometimes verbal metaphors are replaced by the corresponding video sequence. There is, for example, manipulation of images of political opponents — in TV reports about them, a video series with images of Nazis, Hitler, skulls, etc. is created.

You don't have to use metaphors to create the right associations. There are other factors of associative binding to an object. For example, in the history of the former USSR during the period of "perestroika", such a factor was economic: political demands in propaganda messages were linked to the standard of living. In an exaggerated form, we can say that such a factor as the absence of many goods in stores has become one of the main justifications for the need to"establish democracy".

Today, in the vast expanses of the CIS, it is widely practiced to link the name of a political opponent with the plight of the people. Shortly before the election, numerous examples can be found in the media all the time. It is interesting that "attacks" on a particular figure occur in different media, but with the same phrases: "As the head of the government, Vasily Pupkin initiated the increase in prices for utilities (bread, medicines, transportation, etc.). He is the culprit of the bankruptcy of the country's largest bank, as a result of which millions of depositors lost their savings. In addition, he recently met with a well — known terrorist NN, publicly hugged him and shook his hand....". In general, the scoundrel tramples on freedom, drinks people's blood, fleeces the poor, encourages injustice, lies, etc.The sameness of the text published in different sources is sometimes simply amazing. The negative association with which it is possible to connect the enemy in the mass consciousness (fascist, Stalinist, bribe-taker, mafioso, etc.) makes all those who hesitate to turn away from him.

Usually, campaigns to create negative associations are started simultaneously by several media outlets and just as quickly stopped. This synchronicity clearly shows the" freedom " of the press and television and serves as a reliable sign of a propaganda operation.

Many advertising and propaganda messages are based on the use of associations today. The most important of these techniques were identified by William James: the association for combination (the image on the same advertisement of a banana and a child), the association for surprise, characteristic of surrealism (the cut of the liver of the Venus de Milo, immersed in the mineral water of Vichy), the association for contiguity (the text consisting of notes connected only by the fact that they are printed side by side on the same page), the association for sound similarity, which are used by the authors of advertising slogans and trademarks, and many others.

Creating an information wave
One of the most effective techniques of propaganda influence on large groups of people is the creation (initiation) of the so-called information wave. The propaganda campaign is conducted in such a way that it forces a large number of mass media to comment on the initial reports. The main purpose of using this technique is to create a so-called "secondary information wave" at the level of interpersonal communication - to initiate appropriate discussions, assessments, and the appearance of appropriate rumors. (See The use of mediators). All this makes it possible to multiply the power of information and psychological influence on the target audience.

The trigger mechanism ("incident") of the information wave can be a variety of events. In modern practice, we are witnessing numerous forms of its creation, including with the help of all sorts of scandals. For representatives of show business, these are loud statements about leaving the stage, about who has broken up with whom or is converging, rumors about non-traditional sexual orientation, etc. Politicians often try to provoke a conflict with their opponent through actions, statements or other means that will become more or less noticeable. A classic example of the active use of such methods is the creation of the image of the leader of the LDPR V. Zhirinovsky (public brawls, pouring juice on an opponent, etc.). Another way to initiate the information wave is a banal "leak of compromising material", when some "sensational materials" are published in the media that discredit a particular high — ranking person (video recordings of sex orgies with his participation, audio recordings of "bad" conversations, etc.). Events that have a shocking impact on the mass audience have an exceptionally strong influence in the process of initiating an information wave: acts of sacrilege, terrorist acts, political assassinations, etc.

But much more often, it is not the content of the campaign itself, but the corresponding technology of its implementation that initiates the emergence of an information wave. After all, no matter how sensational the information is, in 6-7 days it completely "burns out", becomes boring and disappears from the mass consciousness. You can "continue the life" of the information wave with the help of a specially designed system for distributing media messages. The corresponding technology was developed quite a long time ago and is actively used, for example, in the practice of the special services.

How does this system work? The secret services of many states have a so-called "fifth column" in foreign countries: paid journalists, public or political figures with a certain influence and authority. Establishing such contacts is a constant task of any residency. The contact system has a dual purpose. On the one hand, journalists work in an environment where information is disseminated, so they can be excellent informants. On the other hand, such agents can easily fabricate propaganda materials and place them in the local media. In addition, it is not uncommon for the security services to prepare the necessary materials themselves, but to pay journalists for publishing them as if they were their own work. Journalists (or public figures) transmit propaganda information as genuine " hot " news to agencies, influential newspapers, or TV programs. As soon as the information has appeared anywhere, other intelligence agents pick it up, referring to the media that published the material as a source, and try to spread it throughout the country or the world.

The whole operation is designed to create a "snowball" effect — information messages will be generated by the media in an avalanche, without the participation of propagandists. Remember how snow avalanches or, even better, rockfalls occur in the mountains. You stand on the top of a mountain and throw down a small stone. It begins to roll down, dragging slightly larger stones with it, which, in turn, push even larger stones and a pile of huge blocks of stone begins to roll down, which cannot be stopped. In creating an information wave, the same principle is used — some "exclusive information" is thrown to sensationalist journalists, and they begin to spread it throughout the country, borrowing from each other, complementing and developing this topic without your participation. This is one of the key methods of special information operations practiced by the special services. Artificially, a certain critical mass of information materials (a"pebble") is created, which, after reaching a certain volume, begins to spread independently, without additional efforts to implement it, reproducing itself in more and more new messages. There is an avalanche-like distribution of materials in other media, that is, a so-called "primary" information wave is created, which then generates a "secondary"one.

Information waves are designed to solve the following tasks. First of all, the ultimate goal can be destabilization — misalignment, paralysis or disruption of the activities of broad segments of the population, specific social groups, organizations or entire state institutions. Both external opponents (governments or special services of other states) and financial and political clans fighting for power inside the country may be interested in destabilizing the situation. Further, it can be activation, i.e., the motivation of individual individuals or groups to act in a given direction. For example, a political scandal that causes dissatisfaction with the current government is brought to a "boiling point" and then switches to various manifestations of" popular indignation " (anti-government protests, mass riots, etc.). Finally, it can be an interdiction, i.e., on the contrary, preventing certain actions, blocking undesirable activities. A typical example of massive information waves can be considered actions aimed at forming a negative image of specific states. Philip Agee, a former CIA officer, notes that during the tenure of S. Allende's government in Chile (the early 1970s), thousands of slanderous and distorted materials were published in this way by the American special services, both inside and outside the country. Currently, on the eve of each military-political action of the United States against other states, a corresponding propaganda campaign is initiated in the American and world press. Today, it is also not a big secret that Western intelligence agencies actively use the world's leading news agencies (Reuters, the Associated Press, etc.) to push propaganda materials into influential newspapers, magazines and TV shows. Their Russian colleagues also eat their bread for a reason-remember the "Georgian problem" that periodically appeared in the Russian media in 2001-2002 (Chechen militants, terrorists from Al-Qaeda, and even U. Bin Laden himself, allegedly hiding in the Pankisi Gorge on the territory of Georgia; accusations of connivance by the Georgian authorities, the bombing of Georgian territory by Russian aircraft in the summer of 2002, etc.). This is a typical example of initiating an information wave in order to put pressure on political regimes that are" inconvenient " for the Russian authorities.
Often, the role of the "fifth column" in a particular country is performed by so-called international public organizations. These are mainly Western structures that have the image of "human rights": "Reporters without Borders", "Human Rights Watch", "Freedom House" and many others. When certain circles in the United States or Western Europe need to solve political problems on foreign territory, these organizations receive a specific order and launch an information attack on the specified object. In fact, they play the role of sabotage groups on foreign territory, which are supported from the outside and excite public opinion both at home and abroad. This is done, for example, by fanning scandals about violations of freedom of speech in a particular country, infringement of the rights of journalists, human rights, sexual minorities, animals, and so on. Creating a problem
This is not to say that propaganda can convince most people of anything. Often, it can't dictate how people should think. However, massive propaganda campaigns in the media are quite capable of dictating what we should think about, to impose on the audience the "right" agenda for discussion. Creating a problem is a purposeful selection of information and giving high significance to certain events. After all, the event and its media coverage are not the same thing. The media may "not notice" an event or, on the contrary, give it exceptional importance, regardless of its actual significance for society.

In the 1980s, political psychologists Donald Kinder and Shanto Iyengar (Kinder, D, & lyengar, S.) conducted a brilliant experiment. They changed the content of the evening news program that the study participants watched. In the course of their research, Kinder and Iyengar edited the evening news so that the subjects received a constant dose of news on a specific problem facing the United States. For example, an experiment was conducted in which some subjects learned about the weaknesses of the American defense; the second group watched a program that focused on environmental pollution; the third group regularly listened to reports on inflation and economic issues. After a week of viewing specially edited programs, most of the subjects came out of the experiment convinced that the target problem, which received extensive coverage in the programs they viewed, was very important for the country to solve first. Moreover, when evaluating the activities of the current US president, the participants of the experiments proceeded from how he copes with the target problem. The new perception also influenced political preferences — those candidates who held strong positions on this particular issue were evaluated more positively.

Another conclusion was made: information activity in relation to an object allows it to occupy a position that is not equivalent to its real status. Metered delivery of information can either overestimate or underestimate its status. As a result, a " pug "in real life can become an" elephant "in the information space, and vice versa, an" elephant "in reality can become a" pug " in the information space. In the latter case, silence or minimal production of information will help to strengthen the idea of this object as something insignificant, not worth the attention of a wide audience. An example is the coverage in the Russian media of the activities of the Communist Party. Being a strong component of the political field in comparison with other parties, it does not receive an adequate reflection in the media. Another variant of non-equivalent reflection is the deliberate distortion of the event when reporting it in the media. For example, as a rule, communist rallies are always shown on TV screens with an emphasis on very elderly participants, with a portrait of Stalin or Lenin. When a goat was brought to a rally, all the attention of the operators was focused on it. Such a display makes some random characteristics of the event systemic, so that it gets an inadequate image.

Researchers of mass communication problems constantly find a connection between the issues covered in the media and what viewers consider to be the most important social problems. People consider the most relevant issues to be those that are most closely covered in the mass media. By creating a thematic dominance in the information space, we are thereby imposed a certain picture of the world, directing our opinions on such issues as the actions of the authorities, crime, terrorism, social inequality, unemployment, etc. Sergey Kara-Murza writes: "In any case, the risk of becoming a victim of terrorism is three orders of magnitude (a thousand times) less than the probability of becoming a victim of a car accident. Of the 15 million drivers in Russia, about 1 per thousand die every year. (We will modestly keep silent about the number of deaths from AIDS or from banal drunkenness. As well as about how many women and children are victims of domestic violence in families every year-ed.). About 1 in a million people die from terrorist attacks in Russia. But we're not afraid to drive. Why are we not afraid to drive a car, but we are afraid of terrorists? First of all, because the powerful are not interested in us being afraid of the car. That's why television doesn't show us the mutilated corpses of car crash victims from morning to night. If it showed with the same intensity as the work of terrorists-then we would be afraid of the car in a panic!".

Although in reality this phenomenon has no more political weight today than in the 1970s or 1980s, the biased information policy has led to the fact that in recent years almost the majority of Russians consider the inflated illusion of "the threat of international terrorism" to be the greatest danger for the country, rather than real social problems: falling birth rates, unemployment, general drunkenness of entire regions, drug addiction and AIDS pandemics, increasing social inequality and the growth of radical attitudes in society. (Information for reflection: demographers have found that at the current rate of spread of drug addiction and AIDS, the gross national product of Russia in the next 5-7 years may decrease by 20% compared to the current one — due to the loss of the working-age population. The only thing that can hit the country harder is a nuclear war. And now calculate how much time the Russian media devote to these problems, and how much they tell us about Saddam Hussein and "international terrorist centers".)

Jeffrey Pfeiffer believes that one of the most important sources of power today is the ability to set the agenda, determining which issues will be discussed, which information will be widely disseminated, and which will be hushed up. For example, the policy of "tightening the screws"is easy to impose on society, linking it with daily reports of murders and robberies transmitted in prime time. After regular and detailed coverage of terrorist acts, we can say that a "terrorist war" has been declared for all of us, for all of Russia. They say that the nation should unite around the "savior of the fatherland"...

Information has now become an instrument of power, and recent advances in propaganda technology make it a key element of social domination. That is why the information today comes to the consumer in a prepared form. Artificially creating "actual problems", the mass media impose certain rules for reading social relations that are beneficial to those in power. The lack of awareness of citizens allows them to exert a hidden regulatory influence on intelligence and emotions through the media,
the will of the people. Creating a threat
Another technique of a "strategic" nature that affects the emotions of a mass audience. His main task is to make us afraid in any way. Demoralized and intimidated people do or at least approve of actions that do not benefit these people at all. Most often, the technology is as follows. The illusory or real danger of any phenomenon (for example, terrorism) is repeatedly amplified and brought to the point of absurdity. The media create hysteria about the next "global threat", causing mass fear among people in order to create a favorable environment for manipulating the mass consciousness-primarily for political purposes. For example, to bring to power a "cool" colonel who promises to soak all the scum in the toilet...

This technology has long been successfully used by Western propaganda. If earlier the "Soviet threat" was used as a scarecrow for the prosperous Western man in the street — the local propaganda and mass culture colorfully depicted terrible bearded Russians with red stars on their earflaps, slurping vodka straight from the throat-now this role is assigned to bearded "Islamic terrorists" in turbans. Times and people change, but the propaganda technology of "creating a global threat" remains unchanged. It is an important means of rallying the inhabitants around the government. Intimidated to death by another "enemy of the entire civilized world", the people begin, like a small dog, to cling to the boots of their rulers — have mercy on us, sinners, and save us... Therefore, under the cover of another terrible threat (be it a bearded Osama Bin Laden, anti-globalists or an asteroid flying in space that threatens to collide with the Earth), it is very convenient for those in power to do their business and distract the public's attention from current political problems. The virtual world (for example, the war in Chechnya or Afghanistan) created by the media becomes much closer and more important to the average person than the unemployment or corruption of the ruling elite in their own country. In this, this technology is in tune with the propaganda technique of Distraction. Creating a threat is one of the most powerful means of manipulating consciousness and diverting public attention from the machinations of the top.

"Reorienting aggression is the easiest and most reliable way to neutralize it. It is satisfied with ersatz objects more easily than most other instincts, and finds complete satisfaction in them" (Konrad Lorenz, " Aggression»)

It is also an effective means of accumulating the negative energy of public discontent and switching it to "safe" or profitable goals. In social psychology, this kind of metamorphosis is often referred to as"scapegoating."

"Today, the scarecrow of the enemy is still a very powerful tool for demagogues to create unity and an inspiring sense of belonging," we read all in the same place, in Konrad Lorenz.

"Patriotism versus terrorism" (Patriotism against terrorism) is the most popular propaganda slogan in the United States after the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. The fear of terrorism, the psychological shock after the terrorist attacks and the subsequent explosion of patriotic feelings of Americans (the psychological effect of compensation) were actively used to introduce the "image of the enemy"into the mass consciousness. At the same time, the objects of practical "application" of patriotism were not only the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attacks, but also all the political regimes that were inconvenient for the United States. Current "anti-terrorist operations" are often directed against regional movements that oppose the dominance of multinational corporations or reject the principle of global hegemony of the United States. So, if you, God forbid, reject the dictate of the "country of equal opportunities" on the world stage, you now have every chance to be "designated" as a terrorist...

At the same time, people are constantly driven into a narrowed perception. Simple labels and simple formulas are offered. For example, it is enough to cast a spell — "fight against terrorism" - and nothing needs to be analyzed, explained to the people. Everything becomes clear "by itself". The completely meaningless phrase "international terrorism" has now become a universal argument, a kind of indulgence, with which any political showdown is "blessed". Who establishes control over the oil fields, who calms the rebellious provinces, who quietly deals with their political opponents... Of course, all under the slogan of "fighting international terrorism".

Creating a threat is very often practiced during election campaigns. This is the cornerstone of modern political technologies. Sociological studies show that the largest part of the electorate does not consider any of the candidates suitable for a high state post. And since the choice is usually between the bad and the very bad, people tend to choose the lesser evil when they have to choose between the two less acceptable ones. Hence the conclusion: you need to choose an opponent who is obviously worse and "scarier" than yourself. The main thing here is to prove to the voters that if your opponent comes to power, life will necessarily deteriorate, and if you win, at least it will remain the same. Therefore, as one German politician wrote — the choice of the enemy, this is too responsible a procedure to trust it to the will of chance.... As always, the best opportunities for this are available to government agencies. Controlling the state apparatus and the media, the candidate "from power" has great opportunities to manipulate the electorate. They not only make him a favorite, but also allow him to choose the most convenient opponent.

So, in the post-Soviet expanses, it is customary to frighten the people with the threat of"communist revenge". Just before the elections, the motivation of the "bad communists" is thrown up by the pro-government media in materials showing the negative aspects of the communist past. On the eve of the vote, films about Stalin's repressions, etc., are shown on television. In general, a long-cold communist corpse is treated with electric shocks (like a decapitated frog in the school anatomy room), so that it starts to twitch and looks like it is alive. At the same time, every effort is made to neutralize the real opponents, and to put the blind scarecrow as the most real opponent. If the elections have several stages, this is achieved by bringing the candidate from the government and the obviously "impassable" representative of the pseudo-opposition to the decisive round.

At the same time, it is said that "our candidate" (usually the current head of state) is the most suitable alternative to "forever yesterday" and he has a positive presidential experience. Through news and publicistic programs, he is shown as an experienced business executive, a caring President who pays attention to many areas of public life. In general, "There is no alternative!»

In Western Europe, the population's fear of the far-right is effectively used for this purpose. The most recent example is the 2002 French presidential election, when this fear was deliberately instilled through the mass media. A grandiose campaign was launched by political circles close to President Chirac to undermine the influence of the Socialists (real rivals in the elections) and to bring J. M. Le Pen, a representative of the far-right, to the second round of voting. At the same time, mass intimidation of the French with the threat of advancing Nazism was carried out. At the same time, the fact that in the first round, 11% of the votes (only slightly less than the far-right and socialists) were received by Trotskyists, i.e., ultra-left extremists, was not covered in the media at all. As well as the fact that after the success of Le Pen, the ultra-left staged grandiose pogroms in the streets, which led to numerous victims. That is, the problem of really existing extremism did not receive proper analysis at all. This indicates the purposeful nature of the operation. Result: in the second round, Jacques Chirac won a convincing victory. As the Socialist leader aptly put it, the French were forced "with a clothespin on their nose" to vote for Chirac. As a result, a man whom four out of five Frenchmen did not want to see as their president became at the helm of France. The propaganda technology of "creating a threat" is extremely effective.

The threat creation technique is also widely used by commercial advertising. Today's advertising very successfully exploits our fears and psychological complexes, which it creates itself: "Be sure to use super-effective toothpaste ***, otherwise your teeth will eat caries..." Social approval
"And now — the commercial break!» This sacramental phrase is well known to all of us. The hosts of entertainment shows usually precede it with another ad block that interrupts the TV program. You may have noticed that the recitation of the above-mentioned spell is invariably accompanied by a" reaction of the audience": prolonged applause and cheers from the audience sitting in the studio. Why is this done? It's just that TV bosses are well aware of the results of socio-psychological research. Deafening applause and cheers serve as a social endorsement. This is a signal that tells us: "Everyone agrees with this message, and you should do the same!". This is one of the ways to" disable " the psychological protection of a person who perceives an advertising message. Thus, they try to minimize our irritation from the fact that an interesting TV program is interrupted by stupid (sometimes) and primitive (most often) commercials.

Social approval is one of the psychological autopilots that Mother Nature has provided us with in abundance. According to this principle, we determine what is good and right by observing what other people think is good and right. The actions of those around us largely determine our opinions and behavior. When a lot of people do the same thing, we are willing to assume that maybe they know something that we don't.

This means that you should quickly join the majority, so as not to be made a fool of. The main role in our thinking begins to play a herd mentality. This is where the psychological trap lies. This technique has been used since ancient times by sellers of miraculous medicines and various healers, who put touts in the audience, pretending that they were cured of the disease, and singing the praises of the "saviors". Politicians hold public speeches, attracting so-called "support groups"to participate in election rallies. Such groups are always located near the podium and greet their patron with loud applause and cheers. Television producers insert taped laughter and applause into their commercial shows (soundtracks of laughter make the TV audience laugh longer and more often, even if the humor offered is of the lowest quality). Advertisers hire actors to play the roles of ordinary people who promote a particular product; they portray the promoted products as being in high demand (a commercial where housewives in a supermarket violently fight for the possession of the last package of "exclusive" washing powder, etc.). By the way, during the filming of humorous TV shows and New Year's "blue lights", the guests of the studio also laugh and applaud not really, but make-believe, that is, on camera. And then their close-ups are mounted as a reaction to the speeches of colleagues.

Such situations are designed to give the impression that most people act in the way they want you to act. In all of the above cases, the open nature of the fraud is striking. The organizers usually do not even consider it necessary to hide it. The psychological automatism of social approval is very strong, it is so deeply embedded in us that it works even when we are well aware of the very fact of propaganda manipulation. Psychologist Roger Fuller (r. Fuller) found that the soundtrack of laughter makes most people laugh even when they know that the laughter is artificial, simulated on a computer.

A variant of social approval is the so-called Rating-the publication of pseudo-sociological ratings in order to convince us that a certain politician or electoral bloc "likes" the majority of the country's population and is going to vote for him.

The opposite of social approval is the propaganda technique of social disapproval.It is used to create the illusion of public opinion condemning the actions of certain subjects. It is carried out, for example, by selecting negative statements of "opinion leaders", representatives of various segments of the population, "ordinary people from the street", relevant data from sociological surveys, etc.

Fused sentences
The method of "fused sentences" is designed to circumvent the critical perception of the propaganda message. It creates a single semantic series of several unrelated information. All of these information separately are true, but their combination as a result gives a distorted view of the event. That is, this is another example of the use of pseudological cause-and-effect relationships, supplemented by "factographic propaganda".

CNN report during the War in Yugoslavia (early 1990s): "The second day there is a shootout between the Serbs and Albanians. According to some reports, the Serbs are armed with heavy mortars. One of the mines fired hit the building of the children's hospital. Two small children were killed." All this information is served together as a single message. As a result, every normal person comes to the conclusion that the Serbs fired mortars at the children's hospital and as a result, children were killed. The outraged international community condemns the atrocities of the Serbian military. A few days later, it turns out that there really was a shootout, but the Serbs do not have mortars, the mine was fired from Muslim positions, and children were killed by sniper shots from Croatian territory. But it's too late — the propaganda "duck" has been successfully launched.

Many advertising and election slogans are based on the technique of fused proposals. They often include an additional directive component. "Now you are looking into our eyes, so you will be able to vote for us," - election TV video. "You can become a winner in life. Your skin should be well cared for" (advertising men's cologne). Two unrelated events are combined into one whole and are perceived by the recipient of the information as a causal sequence.

Preemptive strike
Most often, it is a proactive release of negative information. His task is to cause the enemy to react in advance and in a more favorable context for himself. This technique is often used by government structures to neutralize criticism of upcoming unpopular decisions. In this case, the authorities themselves organize the "accidental" leakage of negative information to stimulate public outrage. This is done in order to "let off steam" in advance for all the dissatisfied. By the time "X-Day" arrives, the bonfire of popular anger will have already been extinguished. By the time the relevant decision is made, people will be tired of protesting and will take the actions of the authorities indifferently.

During elections, an example of this kind is the preemptive publication of compromising material that is relatively safe for a particular candidate. Thus, the electorate's need for a "strawberry" is met. The goal is to reduce the existing interest of voters in this kind of information. Subsequent publications of much more acute materials, which may be initiated by political opponents, will no longer attract much attention — the voter has already had enough of the "black stuff" and no longer reacts to it...

Poison sandwich
This propaganda technique actively uses the possibilities of psychological influence by structuring the text. It is always preferable not to lie, but to ensure that the person does not notice the "unnecessary" truth

The communicator gives a positive message between a negative preface and a negative conclusion. If you have certain abilities and experience of the communicator, the positive message disappears from the audience's attention.

A very good technique, actively used by those media outlets that claim to "objective coverage of events" and seek to create an image in the style of "only the facts, nothing but the facts". With this structuring of events, objectivity is formally observed, but the effect of" unnecessary " messages is devalued.

The reverse of the previous one is the so-called "Sugar Sandwich". A negative message is masked by a positive introduction and a positive conclusion.

© Viktor Sorochenko, 2002
[DLMURL="https://anonym.to?https://psyfactor.org/propaganda1.htm"]Source [/DLMURL]

 

[НСК-СБ]

Yes, an interesting article, there is something to think about ...
And in general, history is pseudoscience, it is done as it is "necessary", and now few people know the real story. Very sorry!

 

[Детективное агентство Израиль.]

Да, интересная статья, есть о чём подумать ...
И вообще, история это лженаука, её делают так как "нужно", а настоящую историю теперь и мало кто знает. Очень жаль!

К сожалению, да.