1 Number 1 Winter 1987/88 EdItoriaI 1 The Propaganda Environment by Marcy Darnovsky Introducing PROPAGANDA REVIEW ... a new magazine that explores techniques of manipulation, our vulnerability to them, anda society obsessed with the “engineering of consent.” Departments 5 Ad Watch by Marina Hirsch Notes from an advertising addict. 7 Propaganda Watch The PROPAGANDA REVIEW Believe-It-or-Not. 32 Resources We are not alone: groups and publications you’ll want to know about. Features 9 Marketing Reagan by Johan Carlisle (Research assistance by Sheila O’Donnellj What makes Reagan popular? Sophisticated computers, strategic polling, and “Populus Speedpulse” are part of the answer. Meet the man who manufactures the teflon, Richard Wirthlin. 14 The Propaganda System: Orwell’s and Ours by Noam Chomsky In totalitarian states, everyone recognizes propaganda. In our country, it’s a different story. 19 Photography and Propaganda by David Levi Strauss Richard Cross and John Hoagland were award-winning photojournalists who worked and were killed in Central America. They had hoped to change the world by “photographing the truth.” 24 Vox Populi by Nina Eliasoph Olliemania has come and gone. On-the-street interviews tell us why-in more depth than a hundred high-tech polls. 27 That’s Entertainment by Jay Rosen The techniques of the consciousness industries-TV, advertising, entertainment-grow ever flashier. Will audiences burn out? Reviews 30 What Reagan Reads by Philip Paull Terrorism: How the West Can Win by Benjamin Netanyahu. The manufacture of Reagan’s campaign against “international terrorism.” PROPAGANDA REVIEW Winter 87/88 2 Editorial Editor Political Discourse Marcy Darnovsky in the Propaganda Environment Executive Editor Frederic Stout The problem with calling a magazine Propaganda USA Promotion Director Propaganda Review is that “propaganda” In the American political arena, the Rea- Philip Paull is a slippery concept, difficult to define. gan Administration has put propaganda Worse, its several meanings are mutu- at center stage. While manipulation has Contributing Editors Johan Carlisle ally conflicting. In many countries and in always been a tool of governance, Rea- Nina Eliasoph many dictionaries, propaganda is a neutral gan and Company have pioneered and Barbara Haber term, akin to persuasion. To most Ameri- refined a variety of new techniques. They Marina Hirsch Michael Miley cans, it’s an insult. are masters of what Edward Bernays, the Sheila O’Donnell The advantage of our name, on the father of public relations, called the “engi- Philip Paull other hand, is that it so often hits a nerve- neering of consent”-connoisseurs, in their Claude Steiner the nerve that produces a sneer when own words, of “perception management,” confronted with advertising claims, P.R. “spin control,” and “plausible deniabil- Typesetting Johan Carlisle hacks, campaign promises, and the state- ity.” Michael Miley ments of government officials. But even if such skepticism and Illustration Dan Hubig cynicism were universal, they would not Propaganda is a be adequate responses to the attempts at PROPAGANDA REVIEW is a publishing and orga- manipulating opinions and belief that per- nizing project of Media Alliance, a San Francisco- based non-proflt organization of 2500 writers, vade modem society. Propaganda is more subtle yet frighteningly journalists, and other media professionals. For than an inflated claim, more than a set of more information about PROPAGANDA REVIEW or Media Alliance, contact Media Alliance execu- ideas that some cabal is trying to shove tive director Frederic Stout at 415/441-2557. down the throats of an innocent popula- powerful means of social Submissions of letters, manuscripts, drawings, tion-though such ideas and such cabals and photographs are invited. All submissions will exist. As we understand propaganda, it coercion. be acknowledged; they can be returned only if pervades culture and consciousness. It’s accompanied by a self-addressed stamped en- velope. a subtle yet frighteningly powerful means of social coercion. Subscriptions 10 PROPAGANDA REVIEW are $20 for four issues or $100 for a sustaining sub- For this reason, we tend to accept scription. Please help us continue this important the negative connotations that American work, Donations are tax-deductible. parlance has assigned to the word. Persua- Though they are master propagan- Mail to: sion, on the other hand, we consider to be dists, the Reagan crew can’t take credit for PROPAGANDA REVIEW a different species entirely. We disapprove the most important factor in their success: Media Alliance Fort Mason,Building D not of systematic attempts to win people’s what we call “the propaganda environ- San Francisco, CA 94123 hearts and minds, but of manipulation that ment.” This pervasive cultural condition Special ThankS warps the heart and cripples the mind. cannot be explained as the work of clever PROPAGANDA REVIEW wishes to thank the Our goal in launching Propaganda conspirators or public relations experts. It foflowlng for their generous financial support: Jackson Browne, Capp Street Foundation, W.H. Review is to bring those kinds of manipu- is the outcome of large-scale social and and Carol Bernstein Ferry, Limantour Fund, Na- lation out of the closet and to explore them historical trends-mass society, mass me- tional Community Fun (a project of the Funding under the rubric “propaganda.” We want dia, mass production depending on com- Exchange), Pohaku Fund, Cheyney Ryan. and all the individuals and organizations who have be- to develop the skeptical sneer elicited by pulsive consumerism. The propaganda come sustaining subscribers. For consultation isolated instances of propaganda into a environment is nurtured in every state- and other assistance, expecially on promotion, thanks to Bill Berkowitz of the DataCenter. deeper and more critical understanding. people’S republic or capitalist democracy- In short, we want to name propaganda as that draws its legitimacy from the consent Copyright (0) 1987 by Media Alliance. All rights re- served under the international Copyright Conven- a political issue, to make it visible and rec- of the governed while it devotes vast re- tion. Unauthorised republication is prohibited. ognizable so that it can be resisted. sources to manufacturing that consent. PROPAGANDA REVIEW Winter 87/88 3 electing a presi- try-the education system, public relations, dent to selecting a public opinion polling, market research- wardrobe, we are play significant supporting roles. bombarded with The managers of our society take messages and im- seriously their jobs as captains of con- ages that are care- sciousness. They appreciate the central- fully crafted in spe- ity of propaganda to social control; they cialized agencies study it and talk to each other about it in and disseminated journals, institutes, and think tanks. Pro- everywhere by so- paganda should be at least as pressing an phisticated delivery issue for those of us who see communica- systems. These mas- tion as inquisitive dialogue and as a means terpieces of manipu- of developing the self and enriching oth- lation help to mold ers; for those who consider democracy a not just an opinion broadly participatory process rather than here and a brand an intermittent rubber-stamping ritual. loyalty there, but the Toward this end, Propaganda Re- framework through view will cover both government disin- which we see the world and our ex- Television puts pectations about the way we live. One aspect deodorant and death of the propaganda environment is commodity society. on equal footing With instant and direct access to ev- In other eras and other societies, eryone, it “cultures” and turns both into social consensus was achieved by differ- the obsessiveness of consumerism--to the ent means, often as coercive as those of point where culture itself is nearly con- today. Some of these earlier constraints on sumed. It trains people from birth to be entertainment. belief and understanding have been loos- manipulable, channeling their fears and ened just during the past hundred years- desires to its needs. Consciousness and religious dogma, for example, or rigid subconsciousness, attitude and emotion, value systems imposed by family, ethnic become ever more vulnerable to fashion, group, and social class. trend, stereotype, and slogan. formation campaigns and commercial Today, what a person thinks and The propaganda environment has advertising campaigns, both intelligence the way he or she lives are determined also largely subverted political discourse. agencies and public relations agencies. much less by neighborhood, ethnicity, Government by propaganda has become Our range will include the Cold War and or family ties. Suffocating though these an institution, and to a frightening degree, soap operas, the techniques of the propa- communities of belief often were, they the population has been rendered incapa- gandists and the character structures of at least served as buffers against coer- ble of the sustained critical thinking that the propagandized. cion by larger social forces. As they have is a prerequisite to democracy. Part symp- Though we won’t ignore tradition- crumbled, the individual has been left to tom of this malaise and part cause, televi- al concerns about information and com- the whims and requirements of state and sion has become chief arbiter of reality. It munication freedom of the press, media marketplace. puts deodorant and death on equal footing, monopolization, censorship, government Social consensus