Lecture 11: Propaganda and Public Support Flashcards
Two ways that Authoritarian Gov can seek to control the flow of information
- censorship
- propoganda
2 models for Propaganda as Indoctiration
- Mainstream Model
- exposure to political communication tend to promote support for the ‘mainstream’ political norms - ‘Exposure-Acceptance Model’
Exposure to political communication is positively associated with levels of political awareness
uncritical acceptance of such messages in neg associated w awareness
Def of Propaganda
the attempt to transmit social and political values in the hope of
affecting people’s thinking, emotions, and behavior
Propaganda
Pr(Support) = Pr(Exposure) x Pr(Acceptance | Exposure)
Pr(Support)
probability an individual will support a policy or regime
Pr(Exposure)
probability an individual is exposed to messages favoring a policy or regime
Pr(Acceptance | Exposure)
probability an individual will accept the message, given exposure
What is the Signaling Theory of Propaganda
demonstrate their strength.
Such indirect provision of information works because propaganda is costly and the willingness and/or ability
to undertake such costly actions constitute a credible signal of the government’s capacity and resources.
This implicitly intimidates the masses who may otherwise contemplate regime chang
Pr(Exposure) increases with
political awareness.
Pr(Acceptance | Exposure) decreases with
political awareness and predisposition against the message.
What is the puzzle with propaganda?
Why do authoritarian governments engage in propaganda when citizens often know that their
governments are propagandizing and therefore resist, ignore, or deride the messages?
What is the model with two players
Authoritarian Government: Capacity for maintaining social control and political order can be strong or
weak. The government knows its capacity.
Citizens: Will rebel against the government if they know it is weak but will not rebel if
they know it is strong. Citizens do not know the capacity, but they
Citizens are deterred from rebellion when they observe a sufficiently high level of propaganda because
they now know that the government has a
strong capacity for defeating a rebellion and maintaining political control.
what is ‘soft propaganda’
influencing citizens - aware but uncritical- opinions and support using subtle and persuasive ‘soft propoganda’
