Saturday, December 06, 2008

The pecusa plan

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the
opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially
providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents
information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents
facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular
synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather
than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a
change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to
further a political agenda.

Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions,
manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that
furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

—Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion

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