Customer Reviews

Propaganda and Persuasion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The overwealming impression that I got from the Propaganda and Persuasion was that it was muddled and poorly put together. I would probably rate it at three stars but there are enough gems in this to justify a four. Even though the flow of the book is clunky you will end up taking away a lot from it.

My first complaint is that the book spends a lot of time tripping over the definition of propaganda. There is obviously quite a bit of rigorous academic debate on exactly what propaganda is but the book has trouble deciding how, when and in what format it wants to present the debate. Rather than coming up with a coherent, consistently used definition of propaganda (or even multiple definitions that are used in parallel) it haphazardly loops back on itself covering the same information two and three times.

I think this accounts for roughly 75-100 extra pages that would have been more useful as examples of propaganda throughout the ages, more rigorous analysis using the constructs presented, or even just pictures. The book has a few very cool pictures of propagandistic architecture, art, and old posters from wars. I would have been much happier with more pictures of actual propaganda that were deconstructed using the theories presented.

Coverage of the propaganda leading up to and through the first gulf war was better than nothing but certainly not what I would expect from academic material. The authors managed to strip down a fairly interesting subject into kind of blah coverage. It should also be noted that this book covers a reasonably basic view of history, something that might be suitable for first or second year undergraduates. That's not a complaint per se, just something you should know.

The book also takes on a lot of info regarding abstract theories of communication. In this respect I think this book would work quite well as a reference for a communications class but even there it is a little weak on explanations in some places.

Although my review may seem overly negative there is a lot of good content in this book that will REALLY make you think. Very quickly I could see that most people use the term propaganda incorrectly. The perfect example of this is the other reviewer who thought the book itself was propaganda because of a "liberal" slant.

Even if you accept the (dubious) argument that the book has a liberal bias that does not meet even the lightest qualifications for propaganda. Does the book contain intentional lies that are psychologically designed to subvert the readers own best interest? Do Jowett and O'Donnell hide or misrepresent their own identities in order to perpetuate this deception? Do they use creative artisanship to promote poorly reasoned support for government programs? NO, NO, NO and if anonymous reader has gotten past the third chapter they would know this book is not propaganda!

Since reading the book it appears that when most people say "x is propaganda" what they really mean is "x is an opinion/fact that I don't really like and want to suppress by labeling it propaganda." In this sense the word propaganda is frequently a "white" form of propaganda itself. Whoa....meta! Admittedly the book does dig on Rush Limbaugh in passing but justly so, he's said some insanely stupid stuff. If you're a fan of his parts of the book will make your ego a bit sore.

The book also impacted to a very large degree the way I conceive of political maneuvering by all governments. It appears that most leaders are not in fact agents of a populace but instead working out what they can get the populace to put up with. That is of course something that I took away not anything the book proclaims. Prop and Persuasion wins stars because it is awash in compelling anecdotes that I ended up sharing with friends and family. Despite what I said above there is some crucial explorations of propaganda taxonomy. Perhaps the book is even worth a read for these alone.

However, this book failed to pass the ultimate textbook test, at the end of the semester almost all of the students I took the class with trashed or resold the book. Even more telling is that most people decided not to read it at all. My complaint was that the book was poorly ordered everyone else in my class thought it was dry and uninspiring. I can see where they are coming from and accept that maybe my personal interest in the subject influences my opinion. I even showed the book to 2 other friends and they both found the writing unengaging. I certainly don't think that was the case but I since this is a review I want to encompass as many opinions as possible. Personally, I was actually looking forward to the class and read 80% of the book before the semester even started.

My final say is that this is a decent book for a classroom setting. I would have enjoyed reading it for it's own sake but among my peers (whom I consider to be highly educated, intelligent and witty) it was a dud. If you liked this or are generally interested in the subject matter I would also recommend Toxic Sludge is Good For You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton. It manages to tell many of the same stories in a more interesting way while using less space. Another winner is Noam Chomsky's short and sweet Media Control:Spectacular Achievements in Propaganda. You won't agree with ALL of his views but it's concentrated, hard hitting and rigorous.

Cheers and Happy Reading!

-TitaniumDreads

This book functions as an excellent outline for reflecting on rhetoric and propaganda through the ages. The authors review the history and literature of propaganda pretty thoroughly. Not much scholarship on the subject seems to have escaped their attention. You can use the references at the back of the text as a good guide to all the major academic books and articles on propaganda (at least those that have been written over the past fifty years).

After attempting to define propaganda, the authors devote the first half of the book to a historical survey of the subject, from ancient times to the present. The second half of the book is devoted to an analysis of the techniques of propaganda. My only negative critique of this book is that the authors are not fluid writers. But this did not put me off from reading the book in its entirety. I'm often impatient with awkward wording, or choppiness of phrase in a book, but the authors' thoroughness of documentation, and their commitment to survey and summarize the academic literature thoroughly, makes the text worthy of close (if sometimes painful) reading.

Terrific book for anyone interested in not only propaganda and its history, but public relations, marketing, advertising, etc

What campaigns have effectively changed public opinions over the years and how were they propagated? This book provides some answers as it traces such movements.

The book opens with a discussion on the differences between propaganda and persuasion. It takes up from there in the second chapter with a look at propaganda's early use in the Church. It was positive, as in propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Later propaganda became institutionalized, as explained in chapter three. In the fourth chatper, the authors begin to examine modern propaganda campaigns. Toward the end some case studies are given. And the concluding chapter talks about how propaganda works in modern society.

this book was required for an upper-division communication class. Both the professor and this book were reason enough to drop this class. This book has no focus, which corresponded closely to the state of mind of the professor. If you have to read this book for a required college class, good luck, if you are considering reading it for fun, think again

I had used this book years ago in my university studies and had a friend borrow it and never return it. It was one of my most valuable textbooks and I'm glad that I could still find it on Amazon. It was in mint condition and arrived much sooner than I had expected. I am extremely satisfied with the product and the service.

Excellent condition. The book arrived quickly and efficently. The book was posted as used, however, the book arrived brand new. Great service and above expectation.

Thank you for the great service!

I was looking forward to a fair and unbiased book about propaganda, so was saddened to see this hope dashed by chapter 3. At this point, several books by conservative authors like Limbaugh, Bennett, and Bloom are referenced, and the authors start using a lot of "quotes" when referring to these authors--of the sort you use when you want to indicate that a thought is silly or wrongheaded. The authors even comment on individuals who make time to "read" these polemical books (their use of quotes indicating that the works aren't readworthy--presumably because they're conservative). I noticed that the discussion only treated conservative icons and books as sources of propaganda in this discussion. Might I take the time to remind authors Jowett & O'Donnell that many liberal authors, such as Franken, Moore, Dubose, Hightower, Conason, and a host of others, exist on the far left--shouldn't these be included in a balanced list of polemical authors? In the next edition of this book, I hope the authors attept more balance in examining a topic that demands fairness. Jowett and O'Donnell might want to include "books" by liberal "authors" as examples of propganda, too, so that readers don't get the wrongheaded impression this book is not just ABOUT propaganda, it is also a SOURCE of propaganda. One shouldn't get the impression that the authors have liberal political biases that are leaking through the page. It's hard to take the authors of this topic seriously if they can't camouflage their own desire to influence opinion.

Propaganda (doctrines, ideas, arguments, facts, or allegations spread by deliberate effort through any medium of communication in order to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause) is something that may or may not actually be true. Sadly Jowett focuses on conservatives and ignores leftists who control the media in many countries in the West such as the BBC, NPR, NBC, CBS, ABC, the NY Times, etc.

Yes, both ends of the political spectrum disseminate "propaganda" but in Jowett's view, only conservatives engage in it, and they are always "wrong."

The truth is far more complex, and Jowett does a very poor job of having any semblance of balance in a complex subject.

The only reason I gave this piece of leftist garbage one star is that is the lowest rating you can give. The sad part of this is that this book is used as a teaching tool by many leftists in academia today to indoctrinate, and not educate, their students by using propaganda tools like this loathsome book.