PROPAGANDA ­ the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person; ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing causea public action having such an effect. (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary) 

Excerpted from "Conflict in Context: Understanding Local to Global Security 
by Gayle Mertz and Carol Miller Lieber
Educators for Social Responsibility, 2001


HOW TO SPOT PROPAGANDA 
TESTIMONIALS - Famous or influential people tell you why they use a certain product, are voting for a certain candidate, or are supporting a certain project or concept. For example, a person who is respected by teens is seen in an ad that tells about the dangers of smoking cigarettes or the value of joining a project to clean up the environment. Someone who is not known, but can easily be associated with a product or concept, tells an audience how a certain product made their hair thicker or helped them lose weight quickly. Or, a person easily recognized as a member of the clergy might be promoting a moral message. 
GET ON THE BANDWAGON - These messages tell you that "everybody is doing it" and you should join in. The technique is often used by organizations that are recruiting new members or participation in a specific activity. For example, you might be told that "everybody" is participating in a charity walk to raise money for a good cause, or to boycott a product to protest the abuse of workers. The message is often loud and repetitious. 
NAME CALLING - Sometimes this negative technique is used to label a specific person and other times to generalize about a certain type of person or member of a certain group. A political candidate might say that his/her opponent is careless with public money or that everyone in his/her opponent's political party is careless with public money. The tactic is commonly used to gain support for controversial foreign policy initiatives. This technique is often used to insult all people of a certain race, religion, ethnicity, or age. For example, "teen-agers today are irresponsible and weird." The technique is often used to suggest that people from a certain nation are all terrorists or all pacifists. 
GLITTERING GENERALITIES - This technique uses slogans or simple phrases that sound good but provide little or no information. A politician might say, "A vote for me is a vote for peace," without explaining how peace would be achieved. The technique might be used to sell a new "miracle" product using a slogan like, "You will feel ten years younger," but without explaining how it could make you feel younger. Catch phrases like "family values" or "communists" might be used to promote home, freedom, or patriotism without any information that tells you what the connection is between the catch phrase and the outcome that is promoted. 
PLAIN FOLKS APPEAL - This technique is used to build trust. People are expected to assume that someone in a simple setting can be trusted and should be listened to. For example, a simply dressed senior citizen might tell you to vote for a certain candidate because she is one of "us plain folks," or the "little guy." Or they may tell you that a product that comes in a (professionally designed) "simple" wrapper is best for you. Educators might use this technique to promote good old fashioned "hard work" to succeed as a student. 
CARD STACKING - This technique is used to show favoritism. Larger print, bigger or more attractive pictures, or a more attractive presentation of certain people or ideas are used to influence you. A newspaper might use a large picture of a smiling spokesperson for an organization that they favor, or a less attractive and smaller picture of a person speaking on behalf of a position they do not endorse. 
LOADED LANGUAGE - Depending on the agenda of the person providing the report, the same person, group, or event can be made to sound better or worse. An understanding of this technique enables us to see that some phrases that appear to be neutral descriptions can actually imply a value judgement. For example, if you favor a group and their agenda, you might call them a "public interest advocacy group." If you don't like them they can be called "lobbyists." Or in international affairs, the same group could be described as "fighting for independence" or "freedom fighters" if you agree with their cause, or as a "separatist movement" if you don't. 




"to see the people signing their interim consitution" LTG sanchez speaking for an AFRTS broadcast to military soliders.


OSI - designed to promote the US war effort in IRAQ and the war against terror.





"We're fighting to prevent this." A large, black boot with a red swatiska then crushes the mid-American suburbian church house. The pretty American girl is WANTED FOR MURDER because her "careless talk cost lives." Mr. Uncle Sam shakes hands with the men of industry reminding them to keep up production for the war. These were the fears and concerns from a period of United States history cought up in the largest war effort of modern times. These images, in the form of posters, news reels, and radio plugs, gave us a picture of the governments emphasis not only on the flow of bullets, but ideas. 

Enter the American propaganda machine. Organizations like the United States Information Agency and most recently the Office of Strategic Influence were created with the specific intent to spread pro-war/pro-American information throughout the world, including it's own borders. These organizations were (and are) headed by military generals, the pentagon and the state department. With the resources of the United States Defense budget behind these organizations it can be said that America

To seperate the information these organizations provide as propaganda specifically you must look at what propaganda consists of and the identifing techniques that is generally found in propaganda. The main identifier