George Bronson Rea, Propagandist

George Bronson Rea, Propagandist
Author: Leslie Eaton Clark
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2017-11-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1683930924

George Bronson Rea, Propagandist brings to life the extraordinary story of a journalist, publisher, engineer, spy, lobbyist, blackmailer and fortune hunter, who represents twentieth century journalism gone awry. Rea’s career as a foreign correspondent and then magazine publisher illuminates essential issues of journalistic ethics that still resonate in today’s world, and provides a fascinating look at international relations and U.S. history from the Spanish-American War to the Great Depression. This is also a who’s who biography including Rea’s connection to: U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, historic icons William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, J.P Morgan, writer Stephen Crane, China’s revolutionary hero Sun Yat-sen and many others. The biography reveals what made Rea switch from being a trusted “old China hand” to betraying his allies to become a propagandist for Japan’s invasion and take-over of Manchuria.

The Propagandists' Playbook

The Propagandists' Playbook
Author: Francesca Bolla Tripodi
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2022-08-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300269102

An examination of what algorithmic polarization means for society and how conservative elites use media literacy tactics to spread propaganda The Propagandists’ Playbook peels back the layers of the right-wing media manipulation machine to reveal why its strategies are so effective and pervasive, while also humanizing the people whose worldviews and media practices conservatism embodies. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations of two Republican groups over the course of the 2018 Virginia gubernatorial race—including the author’s firsthand experience of the 2017 Unite the Right rally—the book considers how Google algorithms, YouTube playlists, pundits, and politicians can manipulate audiences, reaffirm beliefs, and expose audiences to more extremist ideas, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Francesca Tripodi argues that conservatives who embody the Christian worldview give authoritative weight to original texts and interrogate the media using the same tools taught to them in Bible study—for example, using Google to “fact check” the news. The result of this practice, tied to conservative marketing tactics, is more than a reaffirmation of existing beliefs: it is a radicalization of content and a changing of narratives adopted by the media. Tripodi also demonstrates the pervasiveness of white supremacy in the conservative media ecosystem, as well as its mainstream appeal, scope, and spread.

Death to Bourgeois Society

Death to Bourgeois Society
Author:
Publisher: PM Press
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2016-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1629632171

Perhaps no period has so marked, so deformed, or so defined the anarchist movement as the three years in France from 1892 to 1894, the years known as the Age of Attentats, the years dominated by the Propagandists of the Deed. Death to Bourgeois Society tells the story of four young anarchists who were guillotined in France in the 1890s. Their courage was motivated by noble ideals whose realization they saw their bombs and assassinations as hastening. In a time of cynicism and political decay for many, they represented a purity lacking in society, and their actions when they were captured, their forthrightness, their defiance up to the guillotine only added to their luster. The texts collected in Death to Bourgeois Society focus on the main avatars of this movement: the grave robber/murderer/terrorist Ravachol; Auguste Vaillant, who bombed the Chamber of Deputies; Emile Henry, who attacked both the bourgeois in their class function and their very existence; and the Italian immigrant Santo Caserio, who brought down the curtain on the age when he assassinated the French president Sadi Carnot. The volume contains key first person narratives of the events, from Ravachol’s forbidden speech and his account of his life, to Henry’s questioning at his trial and his programmatic letter to the director of the prison in which he was held, to Vaillant’s confrontation with the investigators immediately after tossing his bomb, and Caserio’s description of the assassination and his defense at his trial.

Propaganda & Persuasion

Propaganda & Persuasion
Author: Garth S. Jowett
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2018-08-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1506371353

Reflecting the remarkable changes in the world of propaganda due to the increasing use of social media, this updated Seventh Edition provides a systematic introduction to the increasingly complex world of propaganda. Viewing propaganda as a form of communication, the authors help you understand information and persuasion so you can understand the characteristics of propaganda and how it works as a communication process. Providing provocative case studies and fascinating examples of the use of propaganda from ancient times up through the present day, Propaganda and Persuasion provides an original model that helps you analyze the instances of propaganda and persuasion you encounter in everyday life. New to the Seventh Edition: New coverage of social media as a disseminator of propaganda offers you an up-to-date perspective. The book’s four case studies have been updated and strengthened to demonstrate their relevance not only to past and contemporary culture, but also to the study of propaganda campaigns. New coverage of how a propaganda case study can be structured to reveal the components of a campaign allows you to compare strengths and weaknesses across different types of campaigns and evaluate the relative success of various propaganda strategies. Updated research on persuasion and expanded coverage of collective memory as it appears in new memorials and monuments enhances the presentation. Current examples of propaganda, especially the ways it is disseminated via the Internet, deepen your understanding. New illustrations and photos add a unique visual dimension that helps you conceptualize methods of persuasion and propaganda.

This Is Not Propaganda

This Is Not Propaganda
Author: Peter Pomerantsev
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1541762134

Learn how the perception of truth has been weaponized in modern politics with this "insightful" account of propaganda in Russia and beyond during the age of disinformation (New York Times). When information is a weapon, every opinion is an act of war. We live in a world of influence operations run amok, where dark ads, psyops, hacks, bots, soft facts, ISIS, Putin, trolls, and Trump seek to shape our very reality. In this surreal atmosphere created to disorient us and undermine our sense of truth, we've lost not only our grip on peace and democracy -- but our very notion of what those words even mean. Peter Pomerantsev takes us to the front lines of the disinformation age, where he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, "behavioral change" salesmen, Jihadi fanboys, Identitarians, truth cops, and many others. Forty years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, Pomerantsev finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia -- but the answers he finds there are not what he expected. Blending reportage, family history, and intellectual adventure, This Is Not Propaganda explores how we can reimagine our politics and ourselves when reality seems to be coming apart.

How to Win an Information War

How to Win an Information War
Author: Peter Pomerantsev
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2024-03-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 154177471X

From one of our leading experts on disinformation, this inventive biography of the rogue WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer confronts hard questions about the nature of information war: what if you can't fight lies with truth? Can a propaganda war ever be won? In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat his powerful propaganda machine, crowing victory and smearing his enemies as liars and manipulators over his frequent radio speeches, blasted out on loudspeakers and into homes. British claims that Hitler was dangerous had little impact against this wave of disinformation. Except for the broadcasts of someone called Der Chef, a German who questioned Nazi doctrine. He had access to high-ranking German military secrets and spoke of internal rebellion. His listeners included German soldiers and citizens, as well as politicians in Washington DC who were debating getting into the war. And--most importantly--Der Chef was a fiction. He was a character created by the British propagandist Thomas Sefton Delmer, a unique weapon in the war. Then, as author Peter Pomerantsev seeks to tell Delmer's story, he is called into a wartime propaganda effort of his own: the US response to the invasion of Ukraine. In flashes forward to the present day, Pomerantsev weaves in what he's learning from Delmer as he seeks to fight against Vladimir Putin's tyranny and lies. This book is the story of Delmer and his modern investigator, as they each embark on their own quest to manipulate the passions of supporters and enemies, and to turn the tide of an information war, an extraordinary history that is informing the present before our eyes.