Propaganda – What PR is not

As a student from China, I cannot tell the true difference between Public Relations and Propaganda. Because sometimes, Public Relations ‘is seen as an instrument of persuasion ‘, as Shirley Harrison points out in “Public Relations An introduction”.

But the BBC Correspondent War Spin: the Truth about Jessica really told me something about Propaganda and gave me a very clear understanding about the difference between Propaganda and PR.

This is a story of Jessica Lynch, an icon of the Iraq war in 2003. On the US side, she was captured by the Iraqis and rescued by US Special Forces, and the whole Hollywood style story boosted American morale during the Iraq War.

But on the other side, a reporter from the BBC exposed that the whole story was just like a made up movie. The fact was that the US Special Forces rescued Lynch from the treatment in an ordinary Iraqi hospital.

In addition to this, almost all journalists from around the world gathered in a warehouse to listen to this story fed to them by the US military.

The question is ‘is this propaganda or public relations’? Almost our classmates including myself agree that this is typical propaganda.

Propaganda, which is often confused with PR, has an equally long history as PR and can be best described as a means of gaining support for an opinion or belief.

Propaganda is defined by the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), quoted by Philip Taylor, as

‘any information, ideas, doctrines or special appeals disseminated to influence the opinion, emotions, attitudes of behaviour of any specified group in order to benefit the sponsor either directly or in directly’.

Another useful thing I found is Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model (1988), quoted by Johanna Fawkes in Exploring Public Relations.

They suggested 5 “filters” including the size and concentration of media ownership, the role of advertising in providing income for media organizations, the “official” sources, the ‘flak’ as a means of controlling media content, the ‘anti-communism’ as a ‘national religion’ and control mechanism.

I personally think that in this model, Jessica’s story is absolute propaganda.

The question that our course leader asked us to think about is “What do you feel after watching this video? Do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable?”

To be honest, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, because things like this happen every day. Everyone knows that propaganda and governments work hand in hand. In addition, I am quite familiar with this type of stories in the mass media.

My main concern from War Spin is that the journalists and media just pick up the official story and create and twist it to generate publicity and money.

During a US Army news conference in the Iraqi desert, a reporter from the New York magazine asked General Vincent Brooks, “Why should we stay?” he answered with “that is your choice”. In the end, it is the American media’s choice to accept propaganda instead of gathering their own information in the middle of a war.

Reference: Shirley Harrison Public Relations An introduction