Introduction
Propaganda has been used since ancient days as people strive to gain an advantage over others. In the contemporary era, propaganda has been diversified in political ideologies and business, technology, education, and healthcare sectors. Propaganda can be defined as relaying facts, lies, or arguments that influence society’s opinion. Such information is spread through posters, newspapers, television, radio, books, and other media outlets to ensure the optimal effect. Over the years, political entities have used propaganda to lure the public in supporting such entities and governments luring the public to join groups like during the world war. However, the concept of propaganda has grown to another perspective known as positive propaganda. With the growing media and globalization, propaganda has become inseparable from mass culture. Following positive propaganda, society has embraced positive changes through promotions of healthy diets, effects of drug abuse, violence against women, child abuse, vaccine programs, and educational programs. Therefore, this paper presents an analysis of positive propaganda ranging from techniques to concrete examples to show its effects and diversity.
Types of Propaganda
Propaganda traces its origin from ancient days since civilization where people, parties, cults, religious leaders, and governments have used propaganda to drive ideologies to society. Many people associate propaganda with selfish illegitimate acts and ideologies which take advantage of the ignorant society. However, there have been cases of positive propaganda. Such propaganda takes different forms of society, including religious, political, advertising, and wartime propaganda.
Religious Propaganda
Religious propaganda highlights religious beliefs and opinions, leading to many denominations and religious groups. For instance, in the 20th century, with the spread of Islam in Africa, literate Muslims spread their doctrines to many (Segell, Kostelyanets, and Solomon, 2021). As a consequence, based on Islam doctrines, issues of alcoholism and drug abuse have reduced as new members have to conform to the beliefs in Islam.
Political propaganda
With regard to politics, political entities have created political groups with different ideologies. Among the ideologies is democracy. Democracy promotes anti-discrimination towards a just society. Besides, some political entities have promoted the green peace program, which aims at eliminating ecosystem damage and harmful foods such as the Chinese engineered rice (Buşu, Teodorescu and Gîfu, 2014). Such propaganda in this globalization era has seen a positive influence on society.
Advertising propaganda
In advertising, positive propaganda has been featured in promoting products that take into account the welfare of many. For instance, the propaganda that one cooking oil is better than the other. The idea behind such propaganda is backed up by stating lower levels of cholesterol and ingredients used in the manufacture of such oil. Since society is struggling with diet-related health issues, the better cooking oil is positive propaganda that puts society’s health first. There are many such advertisements made of better products, and although some are harmful, many are aimed at a better society. The idea of positive propaganda in advertising is to affirm positive behaviour (Ezhova and Zamozhnykh, 2018). Therefore, the degree of positive influence should be more than negative effects.
Wartime Propaganda
Wartime propaganda was aimed at demoralizing the enemy. However, during the Second World War, Rosie the Riveter was a piece of propaganda that encouraged women to take up commercial positions as men fought in the war. Following the labour shortage, the government used the Rosie the Riveter character to gain a female workforce (Tietjen, 2017). Since then, women have taken positions in the business world, promoting gender equality and financial stability in society. Therefore, such types of propaganda have had a positive influence on many.
Propaganda Techniques
Bandwagon
Propaganda is designed to make people feel obligated to take on the ideas presented and act in a particular way that resonates with others. There are different techniques used in propaganda. They include the bandwagon technique where propagandists convince target groups to accept their ideas or otherwise miss out on important things. For instance, in the modern days of the pandemic, governments have employed positive propaganda in the vaccine programs. Globally, nations have implored the public to take vaccines as a preventive measure against the raging Covid-19 pandemic (Vergara, Sarmiento and Lagman, 2021). Some facts and data support the government’s claims of the safety of vaccines and even impose restrictions on those not vaccinated. Posters have circulated the social media, calling society to get vaccinated for the sake of self, family, friends, colleagues, and the country (Hong and Hashimoto, 2021). In this context, the bandwagon technique aims to benefit society in promoting a healthy society. However, such a technique may promote negative propaganda alongside positive propaganda by people who hold contrary ideologies. Nevertheless, society sees the good in propaganda. It acts upon it, and since others are doing it, so will many follow suit towards a healthy society, and data of vaccine rollouts has confirmed the positivity of the vaccine propaganda.
Glittering Generality
In propaganda, many propagandists are careful enough to use catchy phrases and words that the society resonates with without much proof. Such technique is known as glittering generality, where the target group is duped into approving and accepting ideas they have no basic knowledge of. A perfect example is the “Because you’re worth it” signature slogan of L’Oréal Paris (Pike, 2021). Such a phrase is catchy, especially to modern women. Many women have taken the phrase literally, and even without the makeup and do-overs, they have realized their worth and gained access to the ‘man’s world’, taking positions and control. However, as much as the slogan is brand promotion, women, including Viola Davis and Beyonce, have conveyed their worth to society, and men have revised their perspective towards women (Pike, 2021). Besides, such a glittering phrase has also influenced many women to do makeup. As it has been engraved in women’s minds, makeup presents a confident, beautiful and attractive figure that contemporary society is demanding. The initial idea of the phrase was to make women more attractive to men. The idea was to impress men, but on another side of it, women are now more empowered than ever. Besides looking pretty, their confidence has seen nations have female presidents, women CEOs, and major business figures at the global level (Janjuha-Jivraj, 2020). In this regard, society is positively influenced even without full knowledge of what’s behind the slogan other than its literal meaning.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is another propaganda technique where entities are given labels imprinted in the minds of nations and the public. They immediately picture the subject entity when they see or hear such labels. For instance, there are labels such as democrats, republicans, feminists, Nazis, environmentalists, among others. Such labels demand unique perceptions and treatments, and condemnation without a concrete understanding of their ideologies. An example is a picture the world has of Russia from World War II. Over the years, nations, especially the United States, have painted Russia as a manipulator of nations through the misrepresentations of war happenings (GEC, 2020). Therefore, General Mahmut Gareev became invested in shaping the victory story of Russia to inspire younger generations and drive a positive image abroad (Kirillova, 2020). Many people have painted Russia as a superpower regarding war through stereotyping, and the huge military budget has made the picture clearer. In positive stereotyping, entities possess desirable, admirable, and beneficial features that many believe. Over the years, the Russian government has taken such labelling to an advantage that benefits its citizens and its associates. The victory story aimed to recognize Russia as the defender against Nazism, thereby making citizens feel more secure and confident towards the government and ensuring good relations with other countries seeking security (Kurilla, 2020). In addition, Russia gained a different look from fascist to victors, and the benefits are being reaped.
Testimonials
In the civilized world where social media has connected the world and celebrities gained popularity, propagandists have embraced testimonials to promote positive ideologies. Testimonials build credibility and trust from clients willing to use one’s commodities or ideologies. In many cases, celebrities promote products or services they do not use, but their popularity sways the mass culture, and target groups are reached. Over the years, people struggled with obesity, health issues, and fitness issues globally. In the U.S., many cases of obesity have been reported (Seidell and Halberstadt, 2016.). In this regard, Oprah Winfrey, a very famous person, joined Weight Watchers as she herself had been struggling with her weight (LaVito, 2019). In a society where fast foods and busy schedules have contributed to health issues, there is a need to exercise and ensure proper diet if may will live through decades. With the help of wellness experts and celebrity guests in her talk show, such as Dwayne Johnson, Ciara, and many more, Oprah has popularised the wellness entity, and many embraced it, leading to Oprah’s massive gains (Johnson, 2021). Besides Oprah’s profit gains, society’s investment in fitness has positively increased healthspan and reduced health issues such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, among others. Therefore, testimonials, primarily through celebrities who consume the subject product, are an effective technique in promoting positive propaganda. It is evident that consumers tend to use products or services famous people promote, but a balance has to be struck between celebrity and the product. The synergy between the two has to be real to create trust and allow consumers to identify with celebrities towards optimal benefits to society.
Transfer Technique
Propagandists have embraced a technique where they invoke political icons and success stories into their ideas, products, or services offered. In this technique, propagandists identify with a more significant cause that the public appreciates. For instance, in political issues, the Indian Congress invokes Gandhi’s name to fortify their ideologies and make them accept them. In India, Mahatma Gandhi is among the most recognized figures of the 20th century (Habib, 2019). He is well known for his fight for Indian independence, compassion for the poor, and electoral democracy. Therefore, propaganda which the congress deliberates on, they invoke the name of Gandhi, and people accept with ease. In transfer propaganda, propagandists don’t start from scratch in creating positive associations. They capitalize on people’s feelings, and the public ignores aspects of ideas or products that do not resonate with the ideas or products they sell. Such propaganda technique has helped support gender equality laws, compassion for the poor, and independence in personal lives as well in India.
Reflexive Control of Propaganda
Many persuaders and activists have created propaganda that the government has shut down in recent years. The freedom of expression has been limited following fears of what the public will say or react. Cases of propaganda in politics have led to oppositions detained, jailed, or even killed by governments. An example is a neo-Nazi leader in Britain who was jailed for a race war (P.A. Media, 2021). Following such cases, nations now require propagandists to register with public authorities to authenticate involved entities. Such actions follow the fake news that the world has suffered, especially in this era of social media. The pejorative path that propaganda has taken has to be tamed through reflexive control. Reflexive control is an approach through which the public performs background checks on propagandists before deciding to follow their ideologies or accept products (Till, 2021). However, propagandists also employ reflexive control by profiling target groups to distort their perception of reality. Nevertheless, society is learning not to trust every propaganda but rather reason before taking on any product or accepting ideas through such control.
Conclusion
Propaganda is overly a negative phenomenon where propagandists gain from deceiving the target groups. However, positive propaganda has cropped up over the years through campaigns such as anti-discrimination, anti-drugs, and movements promoting democracy and equality in society. Propagandists invent more techniques that the public has not mastered to ensure a maximum audience. Among such techniques are plain folks to enable people to identify with groups in the same situation and fear where propagandists instill fear of attacks or exposure to accepting their ideas. In addition, there is the misuse of statistics where propagandists can exaggerate data to scare people straight. Such techniques, as described above in specific ways, promote positive propaganda. It is evident that antidrug campaigns, anti-discrimination, and equality movements have effectively changed society’s perception and forced governments to implement policies that illegalize certain acts.
References
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