3 Types Of Tactics On Political Propaganda

Despite the fact that the concept of political propaganda has fallen into disuse in the last decades of the 20th century, its use and its effects are still valid today. What happens is that it is described using other terms such as persuasion and publicity, due to the predominance of the image and the media of today’s society.

Political propaganda is a type of communication that is part of contemporary social and political systems. Its study has been treated from various disciplines and the term has had many definitions throughout history. Now, to understand the concept of political propaganda we have to resort to 3 fundamental criteria:

• Content:  The content of the propaganda must be political, either directly or indirectly. The message may appear not superficially politicized, but if we analyze in depth we will find its political association.

• Control of the message:  an important aspect is that the sender has 100% control of the message; both in the production phase and in the diffusion phase.
• Objective:  the purpose of the message is to promote the interests and ideas of the sender, in addition to the intention of producing responses in the receivers according to previously determined purposes.

In this article we are going to talk about some techniques that are used when conducting political propaganda. The categories that we show below are not exhaustive, nor mutually exclusive; which means that certain techniques can be in several categories at the same time.

Labeling techniques

These techniques use tagging as the primary resource. It is about using terms with a great emotional or conceptual charge in order to associate the message with positive or negative aspects, as appropriate. There are several ways to apply the labeling technique:

• Use of negative labels : condemnation of an idea by putting a negative label on it, even though there are no supporting arguments. For example, the use of the label “the axis of evil” to refer to another group of people who do not share the same ideas.
• Asymmetric definition: taking advantage of the ambiguity of certain words so that they evoke a message different from what actually happens in the receivers. For example, saying that the objective of war is “peace”; Peace is not the same for a ruler as for an ordinary citizen.

• Resonant generalization: use of impressive and vague sentences, with little message but with great emotional charge. For example, candidate X represents a “big change” for the country.

Association techniques

These strategies use the association as the main resource. Its way of making an effect is that the recipients associate the characteristics of a concept (positive or negative) with another, which is initially neutral for the audience. Among them we can find:

• Juxtaposition : association of independent ideas by placing them together side by side. Without the need to establish any explicit relationship between them. For example this message, “Leader X is authoritarian; Leader Y plays with Leader X at golf on Thursdays ”, here he tries to attribute the authoritarian qualities or simply the negativity of Leader X to Leader Y, due to the fact of sharing activities together.

• Virtuous words : use certain words in the message that produce positive feelings or emotions in the audience. In this way, the positivity of these words can be associated with the message or the speaker who recites them. An example of this is the use in a speech of the words “freedom”, “security”, “truth”, etc.
• Ordinary people : go to everyday images of people and their ways, customs and language. In this way, a feeling of belonging is achieved by a large part of the audience towards the idea or message. For example, the use of photographs of young middle-class couples in advertising for matches.

Techniques based on the authority of the source

The main method of these techniques is to go to the authority of the source. In this way the arguments of the message can be left aside and the idea will be validated thanks to the issuer or person who corroborates the idea.  Some examples of this type of technique are the following:

• Construct meaning through secret sources : go to sources whose identity or origin is not revealed and they are discussed in generic terms. In this way, by citing them as experts they can affirm the message, not being able to verify the veracity of it due to their “anonymity”. An example of this could be a message such as “close and well-informed sources affirm that party X is illegally financed …”
• Wise men cannot be wrong : go to people with great prestige to paraphrase an idea of ​​their own, which is in line with the propaganda message. For example, “as X said … and if X said so, no one can belittle him.” This is known as an argument from authority.

• Condemn the origin : discredit an idea without resorting to the arguments that support it, only disqualifying the source from which it comes. An example of this may be calling a leader a liar to break his message. In philosophical circles, it is known as an ad hominem argument.

In this article we have mentioned and explained three types of political propaganda tactics widely used today. But there are many more. Now, it would be an illusion to think that we cannot be influenced by them, for this reason, it is necessary to know their characteristics to confront them and act before the persuasion of political powers.