News propaganda is a type of
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
covert
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.
Secrecy is often controvers ...
ly packaged as credible
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
, but without sufficient
transparency concerning the news item's source and the motivation behind its release. Transparency of the source is one parameter critical to distinguish between news propaganda and traditional news
press releases and
video news release
A video news release (VNR) is a video segment made to look like a news report, but is instead created by a PR firm, advertising agency, marketing firm, corporation, government agency, or non-profit organization. They are provided to television ne ...
s. The accuracy of this type of information, or lack thereof, puts the propaganda into the Black Propaganda or Gray Propaganda categories.
As with any propaganda, news propaganda may be spread for widely different reasons including
governance,
political or
ideological motivations,
partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
agendas,
religious or
ethnic reasons, and
commercial or
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
motivations; their purposes are not always clear. News propaganda also can be motivated by
national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
reasons, especially in times of war or domestic upheaval.
Jason Stanley
Jason Stanley (born 1969) is an American philosopher who is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is best known for his contributions to philosophy of language and epistemology, which often draw upon and influence other ...
, who is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Yale University, he defines the characteristics of propaganda as the service of either supporting or eroding ideals. The first distinction between kinds of propaganda has to do with whether or not it erodes or supports the ideals it appears to embody. This is the distinction between supporting and undermining propaganda.
Use
Print media
Historically, print outlets have been a less common source of news propaganda than other forms of media. It can be more difficult for some heavily influential information that leans one way or another to get through all individuals involved in sending an article to print in a new paper or magazine, although it is more likely for propaganda to be spread through print publications in
developing countries.
Broadcasting
Going back as early as
World War II, the radio has been used for news propaganda; the government of
Nazi Germany used radio to spread its ideals throughout Europe, as well as the United Kingdom, to drum up sympathy from countries like the US when the Germans had the upper hand.
Television dominated as the main avenue for propaganda from its creation, especially in the United States. News channels reportedly have a tremendous amount of control over content and with the 24-hour news cycle more and more networks are looking to just put information out, regardless of whether or not the information is true.
New media
The phenomenon of
new media has made the spread of particular ideas more accessible to larger groups of people. In today's environment of social media, anyone can get their thoughts and ideas out to the entire world instantaneously. Those ideas are put out there for all to see and what becomes popular is also what becomes fact, the more people that see something the more likely it is to be accepted as fact. This type of environment is used as a common target for propaganda, as well as
information warfare.
See also
*
Advocacy journalism
*
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...
*
Infoganda
*
Journalism ethics and standards
*
Journalism scandals
*
Propaganda model
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:News Propaganda
Journalism ethics
Propaganda techniques
Public relations techniques
Fake news