Propaganda (Bernays)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Propaganda (first published in 1928) is Edward L. Bernays' best-known publication, which, after Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), is regarded as his second fundamental work on modern propaganda and public relations.

Emergence

After Robert Ezra Park's preliminary work on the subject of “crowd and audience” (1903), Bernays and Ivy Lee were among the founders of modern propaganda theory and public relations research. After the dissolution of the Committee on Public Information (CPI), in which he had worked during the First World War, he did not join the humanistically oriented criticism of war propaganda like John Dewey , but extended the experience to the field of commercial advertising and the political public relations.

He mainly resorted to the mass psychological work of Le Bon , William Monroe Trotters and Everett Dean Martin. In addition, he revolutionized the theory of propaganda by applying the psychoanalysis of his uncle Sigmund Freud . In doing so, he captured the possibilities of influencing and controlling people's behavior via the unconscious part of the psyche . At the same time he was inspired by reading the works of Walter Lippmann to transfer his more theoretical concepts "into the practice of persuasive communication ".

Michael Kunczik sees Bernays' work as the first attempt to combine the two schools of thought in sociology , which viewed society either as a quasi-biological stable order or as an instinct-driven mass of individuals gifted with reason.

content

In 11 chapters, Bernays examines the task of propaganda to organize the "chaos of information", he describes the mode of action of the new propaganda and propagandists and analyzes the psychology of public relations. Other focal points are the relationship between propaganda and political leadership, the role of women, and propaganda in the fields of education, social services, art and science. The last chapter is devoted to the "Mechanics of Propaganda".

Bernays assumes the need to direct a modern democratic state through public relations, if it is to be functional at all, and defines modern propaganda as

"The constant, consistent endeavor to shape or create events with the purpose of influencing the public's attitude towards a company, an idea or a group."

meaning

Propaganda is free from the usual PR jargon and explains in clear language how public relations differs from advertising. It explains why and how the opinion of the masses is controlled. It explains how unconscious consumer wishes can be aroused or political measures implemented. Propaganda is thus a valid standard work of corporate and government communication to this day and of similar importance to the strategy classics by Machiavelli and Clausewitz .

For the author, the work forms the basis of his “Big Think” PR campaigns, which were characterized by the fact that they included a large number of actors in the PR campaigns. The new propaganda according to Bernays does not capture the public in their thoughts and actions as mere individual individuals, but as closely connected structures made up of interdependent cells:

“They [the new propaganda techniques] are no longer just concerned with the individual or society as a whole. Rather, they are also and above all dedicated to the anatomy of society with its countless, ramified and interwoven groupings. They see the individual not only as a cell within society, but as a cell that is organized in social units. If the nerve of the organism 'Society' is stimulated at a sensitive point, certain other elements of this organism will automatically react. ” (P. 34)

Bernays saw not only the technical possibilities for a nationwide control of public opinion, but also the need to do so:

“The more complex our civilization becomes and the more it becomes clear how necessary the management bodies working in the background are, the more consistently the technical means for controlling public opinion are developed and used. With the help of the printing press, newspapers, trains , telephones , telegraphs , radios and airplanes , thoughts can be spread quickly, even simultaneously, across the country. ” (P. 21)

Reception and impact history

Bernays' book is interpreted as the counterpart to Walter Lippmann's work Public Opinion , published a year earlier : Bernays himself expressed approval of Lippmann's work and said that his own considerations were only the practical implementation of Lippmann's theoretical approaches. However, Lippmann interpreted the control and manipulation of public opinion as a danger to democracy, while Bernays rated the instruments of PR as useful and positive.

Propaganda was first translated into German in 2007. Ulrich Kienzle wrote the foreword .

Quote

"If the gap between the intellectual class and the practical class is too great," says historian Henry Thomas Buckle , "then the first has no influence and the second will not benefit from it."

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stanley B. Cunningham: The Idea of ​​Propaganda: A Reconstruction . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 978-0-275-97445-9 ( com.ph [accessed September 12, 2019]).
  2. ^ Thyme Bussemer: Propaganda: Concepts and Theories . Springer-Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-663-11182-5 ( com.ph [accessed September 12, 2019]).
  3. ↑ A fascinating founding document of the modern wish and opinion machine at orange-press.com, accessed on May 10, 2017.
  4. ^ Propaganda - Edward Bernay's PR classic in the review at Selbstaendig-im-netz.de, accessed on May 10, 2017.
  5. ^ Sue Curry Jansen: Walter Lippmann, Straw Man of Communication Research . in: David W. Park / Jefferson Pooley (eds.): The History of Media and Communication Research . Peter Lang, New York 2008 ISBN 978-0-8204-8829-5 pp. 71–112, here p. 85