I. Age of Propaganda
A.
The Essential Modern Dilemma: We value persuasion as
argumentation and the free exchange of ideas and debate, but political
persuasion and debate today is driven by mindless propaganda designed to
prevent us from thinking in an intelligent way about the content of political
messages. (Pratkanis and Aranson, The Age of
Propaganda)
B.
Why
mindless propaganda?
C.
Propaganda
examples.
D.
Propaganda
defined
1.
Propaganda
is…
2.
All
persuasion not propaganda
E.
Page
and Shapiro: Educating, Misleading and
Manipulating Public Opinion
1.
Educating:
Individuals or institutions (schools, elected officials, media, experts), that
influence public opinion by providing correct, helpful information, can be said
to educate the public
2.
Misleading:
Individuals or institutions that influence public opinion by providing
incorrect, biased, or selective information, or erroneous interpretations can
be said to mislead the public.
3.
Manipulating: If government officials or others mislead the
public consciously and deliberately, by means of lies, falsehoods, deception,
or concealment, they manipulate public opinion
II. Theories
of Attitude Change
A.
Intro:
Successful and unsuccessful propaganda
B.
Carl
Hovland's Message-Learning
Approach to Attitude Change: Who says What to Whom
and How and with What Effect? Persuasion is complex and conditional. Depends on
source, message, and audience characteristics, and these only have an effect if
the following learning conditions are met: exposure, attention, interest,
comprehension, and acquisition.
1.
Characteristics
of the source of communication
a)
Credibility,
trust, attractiveness.
2.
Characteristics
of the message
a)
Visual
images
b)
1-sided
vs 2-sided messages or arguments
c)
Fear
arousal
3.
Characteristics
of the audience
a)
What
the audience is thinking: forewarning
b)
Prior
Predispositions (e.g., ideology, partisanship)
c)
Political
Awareness and Opinion Leadership: the impact of awareness (reception or
resistance) depends on prior predispositions and whether the message is
one-sided or two-sided (i.e., elite consensus or elite conflict).
"Mainstream" and "polarization" effects models. (From John
Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass
Opinion)
4.
Implications
of Message-Learning Approach to Persuasion
5.
Problems
with the Message-Learning Approach to Persuasion
C.
Cognitive Response Approach (e.g., Greenwald): The impact of a
message depends how individuals think about the information presented (e.g., do
they think favorable or unfavorable thoughts about the message?) because people
are active participants in the persuasion process.
D.
Elaboration-Likelihood Model of Persuasion (Petty and Cacciopo):
1.
Persuasion
can occur when thinking is high or low but the consequences of persuasion are
different in each situation.
2.
Central
and peripheral routes to persuasion.
3.
The
type of persuasion (and the likelihood of elaboration or thinking) depends on
people’s motivation and ability to process (i.e., elaborate or think about) the
message.
4.
Evidence
for the ELM: Andrews & Shimp (1990) experiment
had ss read beer ads
5.
Example
of how persuasion might differ in response to the 1988 Willie Horton ad