How is propaganda undertaken?

A successful propaganda campaign, like a military campaign, has its strategy or goals and its tactics and techniques.

Strategy:

Strategy is concerned with the overall campaign and its objectives or goals. In politics, it means two things. Firstly, it refers to the aims and policies of a political party, which are generally embodied in the party manifesto or party platform. Secondly, it refers to particular groups of people in the society to which the party appeals to gain support or the people in a foreign country to which the propagandist targets his propaganda.

In the internal propaganda, the target group are the uncommitted voters, called “floating voters”, whose votes would decide the election in the favour of the party which wins their votes by its propaganda campaign. In the external propaganda the aim is to so influence the other people as to incite them against their own government or leaders.

Tactics:

Tactics consist of the various methods and procedures which the party or the propagandist uses to accomplish the aims of the propaganda, It is the art of utilising all available forces to the best maximum advantage within the limits set by strategy. For this reason the political campaigner, or the propaganda, has to so devise his propaganda techniques as to win support for his party or to influence the target-people according to his purpose. As a tactician he has to decide which of a number of courses will best help him succeed in his task.

In more concrete terms, it means that he has to decide beforehand upon the timing of the campaign, the extent of polemics in the campaign, the choice of the medium of communication and Ihe method of presenting information. The political campaigner and the foreign propagandist have to dccide in advance which forms of propaganda they would employ and what techniques they would adopt in their propaganda campaign.

Us Techniques:

Like its forms and means, propaganda is conducted by various methods and techniques. The most common of them are: (i) publicityor the publication of a point of view by an official body or person, or by official Statements, (ii) Censorship. It is the opposite of publicity, because it seeks Id withhold news or information from the public. If publicity is an act of imnmunication, censorship is that of omission. But one supplements the other. It is, indeed, impossible to make propaganda successful without censorship. In every propaganda campaign, therefore, not only much is told to the people but much is also not communicated or revealed to them.

They are shown only one side of the picture-the bright side, if the aim is to elicit their support for a cause or interest, or the dark side, if the aim is to make j them dislike and oppose something. Propaganda is always one-sided presentation of facts, news or information, (iii) Indoctrination. It means to present facts or impart knowledge about something, whether policy, or philosophy or belief, in a persistent and systematic manner before such persons who are incapable of critical resistance due to immature age, inexperience or lack of education.

Indoctrination is most successful in the case of children and youth, for they are incapable of critical resistance or rejection due to their mental immaturity and inexperience. But they are at the same time very receptive of it because of their impressionable age, their i credulity, imitation and suggestibility. Much can be poured into an empty head as it is an empty pot. (iv) Education is also a method of propaganda. Only it is more rational, unbiased, and less one-sided.

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