propaganda strategy essay

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Acquisition
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Religion
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business Strategy
• Business History
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Systems
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• Ethnic Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Politics of Development
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies

Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland

Russ Castronovo is Dorothy Draheim Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is author of three books: Fathering the Nation: American Genealogies of Slavery and Freedom; Necro Citizenship: Death, Eroticism, and the Public Sphere in the Nineteenth-Century United States; and Beautiful Democracy: Aesthetics and Anarchy in a Global Era. He is also editor of Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized Cultural Politics (with Dana Nelson) and States of Emergency: The Object of American Studies (with Susan Gillman).

• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

This handbook includes 23 essays by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines, divided into three sections: (1) Histories and Nationalities, (2) Institutions and Practices, and (3) Theories and Methodologies. In addition to dealing with the thorny question of definition, the handbook takes up an expansive set of assumptions and a full range of approaches that move propaganda beyond political campaigns and warfare to examine a wide array of cultural contexts and practices.

Signed in as

Institutional accounts.

• Google Scholar Indexing
• GoogleCrawler [DO NOT DELETE]

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Definition and Examples of Propaganda

Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Propaganda is a form of psychological warfare that involves the spreading of information and ideas to advance a cause or discredit an opposing cause. 

In their book Propaganda and Persuasion (2011), Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell define propaganda as "the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist."

Pronunciation: prop-eh-GAN-da

Etymology: from the Latin, "to propagate"

Examples and Observations

• "Every day we are bombarded with one persuasive communication after another. These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and debate but through the manipulation of symbols and of our most basic human emotions. For better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda." (Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion , rev. ed. Owl Books, 2002)

Rhetoric and Propaganda

• "Rhetoric and propaganda, both in popular and academic commentary, are widely viewed as interchangeable forms of communication; and historical treatments of propaganda often include classical rhetoric (and sophistry ) as early forms or antecedents of modern propaganda (e.g., Jowett and O'Donnell, 1992. pp. 27-31)." (Stanley B. Cunningham, The Idea of Propaganda: A Reconstruction . Praeger, 2002)
• "Throughout the history of rhetoric, . . . critics have deliberately drawn distinctions between rhetoric and propaganda. On the other hand, evidence of the conflation of rhetoric and propaganda, under the general notion of persuasion, has become increasingly obvious, especially in the classroom, where students seem incapable of differentiating among the suasory forms of communication pervasive now in our heavily mediated society. . . .
• "In a society where the system of government is based, at least in part, on the full, robust, give-and-take of persuasion in the context of debate, this conflation is deeply troubling. To the extent that all persuasive activity was lumped together with 'propaganda' and given the 'evil connotation ' (Hummel & Huntress 1949, p. 1) the label carried, persuasive speech (i.e. rhetoric) would never hold the central place in education or democratic civic life it was designed to." (Beth S. Bennett and Sean Patrick O'Rourke, "A Prolegomenon to the Future Study of Rhetoric and Propaganda." Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion: New and Classic Essays , ed by Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell. Sage, 2006)

Examples of Propaganda

• "A massive propaganda campaign by the South Korean military drew an ominous warning from North Korea on Sunday, with Pyongyang saying that it would fire across the border at anyone sending helium balloons carrying anti-North Korean messages into the country. "A statement carried by the North’s official news agency said the balloon-and-leaflet campaign 'by the puppet military in the frontline area is a treacherous deed and a wanton challenge' to peace on the Korean Peninsula." (Mark McDonald, "N. Korea Threatens South on Balloon Propaganda." The New York Times , Feb. 27, 2011)
• "The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
• "A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an 'online persona management service' that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world." (Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain, "Revealed: US Spy Operation That Manipulates Social Media." The Guardian , March 17, 2011)

ISIS Propaganda

• "Former US public diplomacy officials fear the sophisticated, social media-borne propaganda of the Islamic State militant group (Isis) is outmatching American efforts at countering it.
• "Isis propaganda runs the gamut from the gruesome video-recorded beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff to Instagram photographs of cats with AK-47s, indicating a comfort Isis has with internet culture. A common theme, shown in euphoric images uploaded to YouTube of jihadi fighters parading in armored US-made vehicles captured from the Iraqi military, is Isis’s potency and success. . . .
• "Online, the most visible US attempt to counter to Isis comes from a social media campaign called Think Again Turn Away, run by a State Department office called the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications." (Spencer Ackerman, "Isis's Online Propaganda Outpacing US Counter-Efforts." The Guardian , September 22, 2014)

The Aims of Propaganda

• "The characteristic that propaganda is a form of mass media argumentation should not, in itself, be regarded as sufficient for drawing the conclusion that all propaganda is irrational or illogical or that any argument used in propaganda is for that reason alone fallacious. . . .
• "[T]he aim of propaganda is not just to secure a respondent's assent to a proposition by persuading him that it is true or that it is supported by propositions he is already committed to. The aim of propaganda is to get the respondent to act, to adopt a certain course of action, or to go along with and assist in a particular policy. Merely securing assent or commitment to a proposition is not enough to make propaganda successful in securing its aim." (Douglas N. Walton, Media Argumentation: Dialectic, Persuasion, and Rhetoric . Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Recognizing Propaganda

• "The only truly serious attitude . . . is to show people the extreme effectiveness of the weapon used against them, to rouse them to defend themselves by making them aware of their frailty and their vulnerability instead of soothing them with the worst illusion, that of a security that neither man's nature nor the techniques of propaganda permit him to possess. It is merely convenient to realize that the side of freedom and truth for man has not yet lost, but that it may well lose--and that in this game, propaganda is undoubtedly the most formidable power, acting in only one direction (toward the destruction of truth and freedom), no matter what the good intentions or the goodwill may be of those who manipulate it." (Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes . Vintage Books, 1973)
• Definition of Spin in Propaganda
• Definition and Examples of Dialectic in Rhetoric
• What Is Astroturfing in Politics? Definition and Examples
• Propositions in Debate Definition and Examples
• Definition and Examples of the New Rhetorics
• Persuasion and Rhetorical Definition
• What Is a Sermon?
• Definition and Examples of Anti-Rhetoric
• Rhetoric: Definitions and Observations
• What Is Rhetoric?
• Definition and Examples of Ethos in Classical Rhetoric
• An Introduction to Psychological Warfare
• Proof in Rhetoric
• Logos (Rhetoric)
• What Is Newspeak?
• Definition and Examples of Epideictic Rhetoric

Propaganda During World War II Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The Second World War was a complicated time for both the general public and the authorities since while the former worried for their safety, family, and homeland, the latter needed to maintain the national spirit and support the soldiers at the front. For such purposes, posters were implemented involving colorful images with strong words. However, while some might think that posters from the 20th century served as inspiration or plea, they were aimed to influence people psychologically.

The first propaganda poster Every minute counts! represents the influence of lost time on the battlefield failures of their soldiers. The technique used in this poster involves fear, through which the authorities strive to scare individuals working at manufacturing factories, urging them to work harder. In this sense, the poster incorporates statistics and figures, implying that every ten minutes that are lost will lead to less ammunition and weaponry, which will, in turn, postpone the victory.

Another poster, Air defense is home defense uses the technique of connecting with the audience. In their attempt to recruit as many individuals into air defense, the authorities aim to incorporate a heart-warming illustration of a family that looks in the sky and admires the national military plane. In a way, stereotypes in posters were common during wartime (Brewer 26). Here, the objective is to emphasize the pride in national defense and show the general public endorsement of the air forces.

The last poster, England expects, incorporates the technique of calling to action via bright colors, illustration of the national flag, and words. The phrase national service is written in bold red color that is contrasted by the dark blue background, which is used to catch the attention of the audience. Moreover, the number of people illustrated in the poster serves to show the national spirit, urging others to join the forces.

Hence, while some individuals might mistakenly believe that 20th-century posters acted as calls to action or acts of inspiration, their true purpose was to affect the audience psychologically. Every minute counts! is a propaganda poster that employs the technique of fear to illustrate the impact of wasted time on their soldiers’ failures on the battlefield. Another poster, Air defense is home defense , employs the audience-connection strategy. The final poster, England expects , employs the strategy of urging action via the use of bold colors, an image of the national flag, and text.

Brewer, Susan A. To Win the Peace: British Propaganda in the United States During World War II . Cornell University Press, 2019.

• American Homefront During World War II
• Media Propaganda: Poster Advertisement
• War on Terror: Propaganda and Freedom of the Press in the US
• The Office of Strategic Services Operational Groups in World War II
• Warfare: Ethical and Moral Issues
• The Role of Propaganda During World War II
• The Effectiveness of WWII Bombing Campaigns
• Wartime Conferences of World War II
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, September 21). Propaganda During World War II. https://ivypanda.com/essays/propaganda-during-world-war-ii/

"Propaganda During World War II." IvyPanda , 21 Sept. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/propaganda-during-world-war-ii/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Propaganda During World War II'. 21 September.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Propaganda During World War II." September 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/propaganda-during-world-war-ii/.

1. IvyPanda . "Propaganda During World War II." September 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/propaganda-during-world-war-ii/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Propaganda During World War II." September 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/propaganda-during-world-war-ii/.

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

How Does Propaganda Work?

Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

Daniel B. Block, MD, is an award-winning, board-certified psychiatrist who operates a private practice in Pennsylvania.

PhotoTalk / Getty Images

• How to Avoid Being Manipulated

Propaganda is a type of communication that often involves sharing biased or misleading information to promote a particular agenda or point of view. Propaganda is used to influence people's opinions or control their behavior through various tactics such as name-calling, bandwagoning, or inciting fear.

Here we explore the goals of a propagandist and in what types of situations it is typically used. We also discuss the potential effects of propaganda, along with some steps we can take to keep from being influenced by skewed or false information.

Propaganda can be very effective in influencing people's opinions. For this reason, it is important to be aware of the techniques that are used to avoid being manipulated.

What Are the Goals of a Propagandist?

People use propaganda to promote a particular agenda or point of view. The goals of propaganda can vary, but commonly include:

• Shaping people's opinions so they think a particular way
• Convincing people to support a specific cause or political candidate
• Encouraging people to behave in a certain way

How Propaganda Is Used

Propaganda can be used in a variety of ways. Among the settings it is typically seen include the media, advertising, war, and politics.

Propaganda In Media

Mass media is often used by propagandists to sway societies or large groups of people to think a certain way. One example of propaganda in media is the film "Triumph of the Will."

This 1935 film was made to promote the Nazi regime and to encourage people to support Adolf Hitler using fragments of truth combined with certain images chosen to influence social memory. It is considered to be one of the most effective propaganda films ever made.

Propaganda In Advertising

Advertisers use persuasive techniques to try to convince people to buy their products. One example of propaganda in advertising is the use of fear tactics. Advertisers may try to convince people that they need a certain product to avoid a negative outcome.

Another common technique is the use of bandwagoning. The bandwagon effect involves advertisers trying to convince consumers that everyone is using a certain product and that they should too.

Propaganda In War

Propaganda is often used in war. It can be used to make people support the war effort or to discourage them from supporting the enemy.

War propaganda often relies on misinformation and name-calling or the use of derogatory terms to achieve its goals. For example, in World War II, the Nazis referred to the Jews as "rats" and, during the Islamic Revolution, Ayatolla Hlomeini referred to the United States as the "Great Satan."

Propaganda In Politics

Propaganda is often used in politics to influence people's opinions about a particular political candidate or issue. Political propaganda can take many forms, but it often relies on emotional appeals, name-calling, and scare tactics.

One example of political propaganda was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads used to attack John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. Another occurred in the 2008 presidential campaign when propaganda was used to claim that then-candidate Barack Obama was Muslim.

Effects of Propaganda

Propaganda can be dangerous because it often uses partial truths or biased misinformation to shape people's opinions and control their behaviors. Presenting only some of the information or skewing it in one direction fails to provide a complete and accurate picture for people to consider when deciding their opinions and behaviors.

Other negative effects of propaganda include:

• Spreading hatred and bigotry
• Inciting violence
• Undermining democracy

In addition to affecting a person's beliefs and attitudes, propaganda also has the ability to impact their emotions and mood.

Propaganda Techniques

People can use a variety of techniques to spread propaganda. Here are some of the most common:

• Name-calling: Name-calling involves using derogatory terms to describe an opponent or enemy.
• Appealing to emotions: Propaganda often relies on emotional appeals to influence people's opinions. For example, propaganda might incite fear or create anger to get people to support a particular cause.
• Bandwagoning: Bandwagoning is a technique that uses peer pressure to convince people to do something. For example, a political candidate might say, "Everyone is voting for me, so you should too."
• Scare tactics: Scare tactics are used to frighten people into supporting a particular cause. For example, a campaign might warn people that if they don't vote, a dangerous criminal will be elected.
• Manipulating Information: Manipulating information involves distorting or misrepresenting the facts to influence people's opinions. For example, a political campaign might make false claims about an opponent to make them look bad.
• Using false statistics: Using false or misleading statistics is a common propaganda technique. For example, a campaign might claim that most people support their candidate, even if this is not true.
• Making unrealistic promises: Making unrealistic promises is another common technique used in propaganda. For example, a candidate might promise to end poverty, even though this is not possible.
• Using symbols: Symbols are often used in propaganda to represent an idea or concept. For example, in 1920, the Nazi party used the swastika to represent its belief in racial purity.
• Slogans: Slogans are short catchphrases used to summarize an idea or concept. For example, in the 2016 presidential campaign, "Make America Great Again" was one of Donald Trump's slogans.
• Plain folks: The plain folks' appeal is a technique that uses average, everyday people to endorse a product or candidate. The idea is that if regular people like something, then it must be good. For example, a political campaign might use ordinary citizens in its commercials to try to appeal to voters.
• Testimonials: Testimonials are endorsements from famous or respected people. For example, a celebrity might endorse a candidate for office, or a doctor might endorse a new medication.
• Transfer: This technique uses positive associations to make an object or person seem more favorable. For example, a political campaign might use the American flag in its ads to make the candidate seem patriotic.
• Card stacking: Card stacking is a technique that only presents information that is favorable to the person or thing being promoted. For example, a company might only show the positive reviews of its product and not the negative ones.
• Glittering generalities: Glittering generalities are words or phrases that have a positive connotation but don't really mean anything. For example, a candidate might say they are "for change," even though they don't specify what kind of change they are for.
• Stereotyping: Stereotyping is a technique that uses oversimplified and often inaccurate ideas or beliefs to describe an opponent or enemy.
• Snob appeal: Snob appeal is a technique that uses the idea of exclusivity to make something seem more desirable. For example, a luxury car company might use the slogan, "Only the best for you."
• Loaded language: This technique uses language to evoke certain emotions or feelings. For example, the phrase "pro-life" is loaded with emotional and moral weight.
• Weasel words: Weasel words are words designed to mislead or deceive people. For example, the phrase, "I'm not saying that X is a bad person, but..." implies that the person is bad without actually saying it.

Tips to Avoid Being Manipulated by Propaganda

One of the best ways to not fall for propaganda is to educate ourselves about the techniques that are used. By being aware of the ways that information can be distorted, we can more easily see through the manipulation and make our own informed decisions.

It's also important to critically evaluate the information that we receive. Seek out multiple sources to verify facts before making any decisions, and don't blindly trust emotional appeals or information presented. Instead, we need to take the initiative to learn if the information provided is accurate before developing our beliefs or changing our behaviors.

Chen D. Political context and citizen information: Propaganda effects in China . Int J Public Opin Res . 2019;31(3):463-484. doi:10.1093/ijpor.edy019

Snow N. Propaganda . Int Encyloped Journal Studies . 2019:1-8. doi:10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0267

Raza Rizvi W. Politics, propaganda and film form: Battleship Potemkin and Triumph of the Will . In: The London Film and Media Reader 3: The Pleasures of the Spectacle, London: The London Symposium . 2015:588-598.

Rai TS, Valdesolo P, Graham J. Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence .  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A . 2017;114(32):8511-8516. doi:10.1073/pnas.1705238114

Rezaei F. Iran and the United States: The rise and fall of the brief detente . Iran's Foreign Policy After the Nuclear Agreement . 2018:21-50. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76789-5_2

Vaccari C, Morini M. The powers of smears in two American presidential campaigns . J Political Market . 2014;13(1-2):19-45. doi:10.1080/15377857.2014.866021

Quaranto A, Stanley J. Propaganda . In: The Routledge Handbook of Social and Political Philosophy of Language . 2021:125-146.

Holocaust Encyclopedia. The history of the swastika .

University of California, Berkeley. #MAGA .

By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

ISIS Propaganda and Social Media Strategies

In December 2014, while Western powers were contemplating the use of air strikes against ISIS, New York Times published comments by Major General Michael Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the U.S. in the Middle East, who admitted that he was still trying to understand ISIS. “We have not defeated the idea,” he said. “We do not even understand the idea.” This ‘idea’ partly resides in that fact that terrorism is launched, maneuvered, and magnified disproportionally in the virtual world. In other words, the main weapon is not the physical weapon itself but what is perceived and imagined by the public. Terror is in the eyes of the beholder (audience). As Ayman al-Zawahiri, then al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, wrote to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2005, “We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.” The international fight against terrorism is, ultimately beyond its military dimension, a battle of perception and ideas – a struggle for the attention and minds of global audiences. This essay seeks to ‘understand the idea’ by deconstructing and analyzing ISIS’ media strategies. It will first demonstrate that ISIS utilizes a decentralized model of propaganda through social media platforms effectively, thus producing an extensive, highly fluid stream of information all over the Internet. Second, ISIS’ target audience is global, not only Arabic speakers with Jihadist aspirations (the ‘traditional’ audience targeted by previous Islamic groups). This includes all Muslims and non-Muslims from all cultures, or basically anyone who has Internet access. Third, the essay will analyze the ‘grand-narrative’ of a romanticized Muslim utopia and an imminent apocalypse crafted by ISIS media strategies to recruit globally by making sense of its existence under this worldview. Fourth, the essay will examine ISIS’ desperation to establish historical and religious legitimacy by amplifying its own support base and strength through the media. Finally, this essay will assess the strengths and weaknesses of ISIS’ media strategies, and suggest possible measures to counter them.

Related Papers

orwa ajjoub

Orwa Ajjoub Abstract The Islamic State group (IS) has grabbed the world’s attention as one of the most dangerous and gruesome terrorist organizations in history. The group has been studied from different disciplines such as political science, history, and theology. Michael Krona and Rosemary Pennington’s edited volume, The Media World of ISIS, is an attempt by media studies scholars to explore different aspects and dimensions of the IS usage of media.

Arab Media & Society

Jamileh Kadivar

This paper, as a part of an on-going research project, examines Daesh's media (2014-2017) and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of how Daesh spreads its messages. It focuses on the importance of media as one of the main factors behind Daesh’s power. It also demonstrates that in order to export a powerful self-image to the outside world, Daesh considers media a significant part of Jihad, and consequently perceives the media war as equally, or even more important than the military war. In this process, Daesh relies on its own media to spread its content, while mainstream media enthusiastically release the news relevant to Daesh. Besides studying Daesh’s media, this paper highlights the importance of ‘message’ for Daesh: to present itself as a powerful and a victorious actor, while seeking to portray a weak and coward-like picture of its enemies to the outside world. This paper also examines the group’s communication strategy. https://www.arabmediasociety.com/daesh-and-the-power-of-media-and-message/

Daleen Al-Ibrahim

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a unique media phenomenon that benefited greatly from the tremendous technological developments in the world in recent years, the thing which called for Western and other countries to take many measures to reduce the risk of its widespread fame. This study discusses how ISIS uses the media to spread their propaganda, especially the exploitation of modern communication technology. It also examines an essential aspect of the way the mainstream media deal with ISIS media, showing how we could respond to the narrative of ISIS in the era of new media technology. The study concludes that ISIS relies on all media outlets from the mainstream media to social media platforms (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) to propagate their barbarous ideas. However, the mainstream media and social networks have taken norms against terrorist and extremist groups, besides defining rules of employment that prohibit the use of their services to promote terrorist activities.

Renee Perper

For the past twenty years, the United States has been at war. Yet, while invocations of war often evoke images of soldiers on the battlefield, the war the U.S. has been fighting looks far different. In the past two decades, the U.S. has attempted to curb the impact of terrorist organizations’ media usage. This paper explores the genealogy of that media battle through a case study of al-Qaeda and ISIS’ media apparatuses. It argues that, often overlooked, is the role that media plays as a foundational element in both groups’ organizational structures. Moreover, this paper will demonstrate how ISIS has expounded on the success of al-Qaeda’s media strategy, thereby creating an online caliphate. Ultimately, this paper will conclude that new strategies and ways of thinking about the war on terror will need to be developed in for the U.S. to effectively combat both al-Qaeda and ISIS’ media

MENA IN FOCUS - The Middle East and North Africa in Focus

Ecaterina MAȚOI

Māris Kūlis

Islamic state has successfully united two well-known but distinct subjects: one is information and communication technologies as well as social networks; another is military jihad. Military and ultra-aggressive jihad performed by Islamic state with unseen excellence creates quasi-syncretic union of religious bigotry and the use of contemporary information technologies. The theoretical foundations of this blend can be associated with military strategic Abu Musab al-Suri and imam, internet-activist Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Suri’s rejection of hierarchical structure of jihadi organizations and proposal of franchise-based autonomous groups in concordance with al-Awlaki’s emphasis on the usage of contemporary internet technologies (e.g., social networks) makes fertile ground for the emergence of “third-generation jihad” and mass propaganda performed by Islamic state in the internet. The union of jihad and contemporary technologies reflects the distinction of propaganda by Jacques Ellul, namely, vertical and horizontal propaganda, where former corresponds to old-fashioned and latter to contemporary execution of jihadi propaganda. Vertical propaganda functions as hierarchical transfer from top to bottom. Horizontal propaganda, just like al-Suri’s military strategy, is executed in a bottom-top style. Horizontal propaganda lets participators to choose the most appropriate technique in each case and to stay in safety. Thus the propaganda of Islamic state, which presumably has adopted such approach, simultaneously both is and is not chaotic, to wit, it is self-organizing constellation. The lack of centre seriously limits options to quickly and effectively counter the propaganda of Islamic state; however, even more dangerous and warning is the whole system as an example of success. The situation, where contemporary jihad transcends spatial borders, forces to acknowledge that understanding and derogation of Islamic state’s propaganda is as important as the armed struggle. The union of military jihad and contemporary technologies has become mark of an age, namely, it is an expression or a manifestation of the both theoretical ideas and present cultural and ideological situation.

Andrea Auteri

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has made great use of the Internet and online social media sites to spread its message and encourage others, particularly young people, to support the organization; to travel to the Middle East to engage in combat, fighting side-by-side with other jihadists; or to join the group by playing a supporting role, which is often the role carved out for young women who are persuaded to join ISIS. Today, in the field of fighting the ideology of extremism and terrorism, the main concern is that of the vast spreading of propaganda of the "Islamic State" primarily through the Internet. ISIS propaganda is now more frequently aimed at Westerners and more specifically at the “Millennial generation”, spreading i.e. the idea of what the real Salafi Islam is and how to fight and destroy the "unconventional Islam” which takes on board western principles. Clearly, social media has proven to be an extremely valuable tool for the terrorist organization and is perfectly suited for the very audience it intends to target. Increasingly, ISIS’ posts on websites include sophisticated, production-quality videos and images which incorporate visual effects. Which messages from jihadists induce young Westerners to become involved with the terrorist group? What convinces young people from Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States, many of whom run away from home still in their teens, to leave their homelands to join ISIS on the battlefield? Which risks does a home country face when its nationals communicate and establish relationships with members of ISIS? Could the jihadist social network propaganda machine be shut down? Weighing all factors, is stopping ISIS rhetoric on the Internet the best course of action? To understand the project, several propaganda documents coming from sources inside the Daesh were analysed to identify the online grooming to recruit Jihadists and the instructions to follow to win respect in the Arabian world.

Communication and the Public

Moran Yarchi

The media plays a crucial role in contemporary conflicts because an image war is occurring alongside the military confrontation. The Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) sets a prime example for the usage of image as part of its fighting strategy, using various platforms to communicate its narrative. This study evaluates ISIS’s image front by analyzing its messages promoted through various online communication platforms: audio statements made by ISIS leaders, official videos, Dabiq and Rumiyah magazines, Islamic chants ( nasheeds), and Amaq news reports. The findings indicate that ISIS uses messages strategically in an attempt to create and maintain its image as a powerful organization. The three main themes are power projection, violence, and Islamic religious messages (while different emphases are placed on various platforms). Most messages target Muslims, while others (usually threats) target the organization’s various enemies. It appears that ISIS invests considerable resour...

Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross , Bridget Moreng , Nathaniel Barr

Jodi Weston

ISIS’ use of cyberspace has become a noticeable problem in recent years, because of this it is fundamental to understand how they use and exploit social media so state and non-state actors can counter this activity. This dissertation focuses on how ISIS use and exploit social media platforms such as Twitter and Telegram. A secondary data analysis of relevant and recent information was gathered from multiple sources to form a literature review and to compile a list of the core uses of social media by ISIS. Propaganda/ publicity, Recruitment, radicalisation, and Networking/Information where all identified in this dissertation as the core uses of social media. ISIS use certain social media platforms and exploit these websites; however, cyberspace has evolved and ISIS are now using new encrypted messenger apps with which they can have private conversations on alongside Twitter and Facebook. Counter measures have been and are still being put in place to stop this happening. The government has also designed specific strategies such as Prevent and Channel to help social media counter terrorism on their websites. This dissertation increases the reader’s knowledge of terrorists’ use of the internet and exposes the reader to new uses and methods that ISIS have adopted. It also outlines social media and government strategies for countering terrorism online.

RELATED PAPERS

Nolimit City

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

Charles Lockwood

Computers in Physics

Oleg Vasilyev

Revista científica de enfermería

Sebastian Meneses

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Randolph Kirchain

Journal of Human Kinetics

Teresa Zwierko

Radiotherapy and Oncology

Santi Tofani

Archives of Anesthesiology and Critical Care (Spring 2024); 10(2): 131-137.

Professor Mridul M Panditrao

Jong Yoon Hyun

European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology

Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego

Marek Woźnicki

Ceramics International

Animesh Roy

Academia Mental Health and Well-Being

Gaurav R. Sinha

Suresh Ameta

Zita Ekeocha

Alzheimer's & Dementia

Laurice Karkaby

Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids

Wahyu Widanarto

Journal of Fish Biology

Thaís Bignotto

Acta Farmacéutica …

Jorge Molina Torres

Carmen Gracia

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Try searching for

• Misinformation
• Subscriptions
• Fact-checking

How China uses the news media as a weapon in its propaganda war against the West

A screen displays a CCTV state media news broadcast showing Xi Jinping addressing world leaders at the G20 meeting via video link. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

As China counters the dominance of the West, the news media are becoming a sharper weapon in the war to capture global narratives and the arena within which the war is fought. “It is an ideological and political struggle, with China determined to combat what it sees as decades of unchallenged western media imperialism,” wrote journalists Louisa Lim and Julia Bergin in 2018. 

Although only a decade old, China’s strategy to expand its presence in global news media has achieved a certain degree of success. A global survey conducted at the end of 2020 among the affiliate unions of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) indicates that China has managed to use the pandemic to boost its image in global media coverage. “We knew this was happening. But we were surprised by the number of countries impacted and the economic investment China was making in those countries,” said Jeremy Dear, Deputy General Secretary of IFJ. A total of 54 journalist unions from 50 different countries and territories participated in the survey. 

The Chinese are new to a game the West has played for so long, argued  Daya K. Thussu , Professor of International Communication at Hong Kong’s Baptist University. “Earlier the Chinese had no reason to spend resources to influence the international narrative. Today they have high stakes in the game,” he said.  

For decades, China has mostly focused on censoring its own citizens and on expelling foreign correspondents from mainland China. Now the regime is also attempting to shape the information narratives internationally, especially in countries directly linked to larger infrastructure projects like the Belt and Road Initiative .  

Beijing’s tactics 

The Chinese regime has built a sophisticated strategy to portray the country’s leadership in a good light. It has spent around USD 6.6 billion  since 2009 in strengthening its global media presence. According to Bloomberg News, between 2008 and 2018, its investment into media  alone amounted to $2.8 billion. China regularly conducts exchange programmes for foreign reporters from several countries, organises training for journalists in Chinese cities, and holds regular discussions with foreign journalists and Chinese media unions. But Beijing also uses unusual tactics such as providing state media content free of charge, paying for entire supplements in respected foreign newspapers, and launching bilateral cooperation agreements with local media outlets. 

In March 2019, when Italy officially became a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping signed a series of media agreements with Italian media entities. Italian state-run news agency ANSA signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s state news agency Xinhua to launch the Xinhua Italian Service together. “This has translated into ANSA running 50 Xinhua stories a day on its news wire, with Xinhua taking editorial responsibility for the content and ANSA serving as a distribution tool,” explains the IFJ report.  

RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, has also reached several agreements with China Media Group (CMG), the all-encompassing state organisation under which China National Television (CCTV) and China Radio International (CRI) function. The latest one , signed in 2019, stressed both organisations would collaborate “in important projects and initiatives, given the significant role public broadcasters play in the promotion of both countries and their relevant contributions to the development of creative, communications and innovation industries”. 

“An expanding presence in Italian media gives Beijing a platform to spread its official views, while potentially inhibiting more critical debates from emerging,” said a 2019 report by the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank. 

RAI and ANSA were reached for comment. The story will be updated if they respond.

Content offered by the Chinese official media to global journalists can often be found in several foreign languages. A stark example of this is China Radio International, a state-run radio station, planting content in local language radio stations from Australia to Turkey. As President Rodrigo Duterte rose to power in the Philippines, China developed close relations with PCOO, a state-run media organisation overseeing PTV4, the Philippine News Agency and the Philippine Information Agency.  

Similar relationships have been forged in Serbia and the Czech Republic as well. In 2015, the Chinese company CEFC acquired a stake in Czech Empresa Media and secured access to TV Barrandov and a number of magazines like Týden and Instinkt . A study by MapInfluenceEU , a think tank focusing on China's influence in Central Europe, found that negative mentions of China disappeared from these media channels. Interestingly, even neutral coverage on China disappeared, resulting in these outlets reporting on China only in a positive manner, the study said.  

“It was not only the tone of the reporting that changed, but the composition of the covered topics. The media in which CEFC held a stake covered the China-led Belt and Road Initiative with a frequency unparalleled by any of the other analyzed Czech media outlets,” wrote Ivana Karásková , China Research Fellow at the Association for International Affairs (AMO) in Prague, Czech Republic. 

These attempts go beyond simply “telling China’s story”, according to Sarah Cook , Research Director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House. “Their sharper edge often undermines democratic norms, erodes national sovereignty, weakens the financial sustainability of independent media, and violates local laws,” she wrote . 

China’s influence beyond Europe

The IFJ report explains that Beijing’s strategy shows clear signs of targeting journalists in developing countries with ineffective or repressive governments where disinformation reigns.  

An example is Africa, where China has very deep financial interests. “Three-quarters of African respondents said they viewed cooperation with Chinese entities as positive,” said the IFJ report. In countries where there is not enough media infrastructure, infusion of large sums of money into journalism is positive enough, said Jeremy Dear from IFJ. “A desk, a telephone and regular pay are all positives in countries where these are luxuries.” 

In some African countries journalism is not a profession that provides a living wage. So Chinese money allows some journalists to tell their stories without having to look to the West for perspective, training or funds.  

StarTimes, a Chinese-owned company based in Kenya that offers digital terrestrial and satellite TV services, has 25 million subscribers in more than 30 African countries, according to a previous IFJ report . It offers cheap packages including Chinese and African Channels and caters to rural areas in remote parts of the continent. Chinese media also hire African journalists. “The thing I like is we are telling the story from our perspective,” Kenyan journalist Beatrice Marshall told the Guardian in 2018 after joining Chinese outlet CCTV Africa from KTN, one of Kenya’s leading television stations. Her presence in the project strengthened the station’s credibility in the country. 

Disinformation in the pandemic 

States have spread disinformation many times before throughout history. But China has managed to take this playbook to the next level as the pandemic started to spread. According to a few episodes mentioned at the 2021 IFJ report, Beijing increased the spread of disinformation.

In March 2020 Zhao Lijian, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, tweeted that COVID-19 was brought to China by US soldiers attending the Army Games in Wuhan, the city in which the outbreak was first discovered. An army of Chinese ambassadors and trolls amplified this conspiracy theory in an episode that came to be known as ‘ Wolf Warrior ’ diplomacy’.   

Global Times , a newspaper controlled by the Chinese regime, blamed Italy for the coronavirus. “They tried to say that the virus had been born in Italy.  This was just outlandish, fake news,” said a journalist quoted at the report. 

In June 2020, Twitter removed 23,750 Chinese accounts which were tweeting false information favourable to the Chinese Communist Party and misinformation about Hong Kong. Research showed that 150,000 accounts had amplified their content.  

Double standards 

When China rejoined the world economy in early 1980s after decades of isolation, the regime realised it had to improve its media strategy. The West is not a novice in influence operations. However, “unlike the West, China’s Communist party does not accept a plurality of views. Instead, for China’s leaders the idea of journalism depends upon a narrative discipline that precludes all but the party-approved version of events,” write journalists Lim and Bergin.  

While social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook are banned in China, the state-run media agencies use the same networks to disseminate information abroad. Beijing and Moscow prevent freedom of expression within their own borders, while their state-controlled news organisations are more active than ever abroad, said Christopher Walker, Vice President, Studies & Analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy.   

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said in a statement that Beijing expelled at least 18 foreign journalists in 2020 and froze approvals for new journalist visas. “The reduction in the foreign correspondent corps has led to a vacuum in China coverage, as some countries are left without resident journalists inside China. In some cases, they have then fallen back upon state-run Chinese sources, leading to more positive coverage overall,” said the IFJ report.  

China’s success 

It is important to note that opinion on China has grown more hostile across several advanced economies, according to a 2020 report from the Pew Research Center . However, 56% of the unions surveyed by the IFJ reported that China’s coverage in their country had become more positive overall since the COVID-19 outbreak, with only 24% saying coverage of China had become more negative.

In 2018 Huang Yongyue, Chinese vice-consul general in Italy, visited ClassEditori, a prominent publishing house that broadcasts Chinese-language radio China FM. He thanked the publishing house “for the positive attitude that [it] had shown towards Chinese projects, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which are usually seen as [examples of] China’s expansionism, and not as opportunities for all the countries involved.” He added that “when it is Chinese media talking about BRI, the message comes across as propaganda, while when it is a Western media communicating [the message], perceptions change,” according to a recent Henry Jackson Society’s report.

The most successful propaganda is the one which does not pose as such. “Beijing’s tactics are incremental but steady, with journalists in each country believing their media systems strong enough to withstand developments,” said the IFJ report. And yet both this global survey and the examples in this piece suggest the Chinese regime is managing to reshape narratives and media landscapes across the world. 

Raksha Kumar  is a freelance journalist, with a specific focus on human rights. Since 2011, she has reported from 12 countries across the world for outlets such as 'The New York Times', BBC, the 'Guardian', 'TIME', 'South China Morning Post' and 'The Hindu'. Samples of her work can be found  here .

China’s latest weapons against dissidents in Hong Kong – its own newspapers

Latest News

11 Types of Propaganda Techniques in Advertising (With Examples)

What comes to your mind when you think of the word propaganda ? You might associate it with the Nazis and their misinformation campaigns.

Because of these wartime and political affiliations, propaganda is generally viewed as something inherently negative. But in the most neutral sense, it’s simply a method to disseminate or promote particular ideas .

Fast forward to today and you’ll find that marketing campaigns are laden with propaganda, too. The question of whether we can recognize them as such is a different matter.

So, how did marketing and advertising meet propaganda? Well, it all started in the 1920s…

The beginning of corporate propaganda

After World War II, Edward Bernays rebranded propaganda as public relations . He used Sigmund Freud’s work on psychological motivations and transformed how advertisers sold products and services to consumers.

His work earned him the title: father of modern mass propaganda or the father of public relations.

Present-day propaganda in advertising

It is also important to note that this method of persuasion is a deliberate act. In Endless Propaganda: The Advertising of Public Goods , Paul Rutherford says, “Propaganda is a conscious act—an accidental propaganda is an oxymoron.”

On top of that, the realization that we are subject to propaganda techniques from brands can seem alarming.

But before you start questioning whether every company is acting like Big Brother, take comfort in knowing that propaganda can also be used for good . It all comes down to intent.

Below, we’ve listed the most common types of propaganda in advertising with relevant examples so you can see the concept in action.

11 types of propaganda techniques in advertising

1. testimonial.

This form of propaganda uses well-known or credible figures to influence the target audience.

In the 1980s, the folks over at Texas Department of Transportation were spending about $20 million on cleaning up litter on highways .

Their pleas to the people for keeping the streets clean showed no improvement. They then hired Mike Blair and Tim McClure of GSD&M to create a campaign to turn things around.

And that’s how the Don’t mess with Texas legacy began.

The campaign, featuring state heroes, resonated so well with the target audience that littering went down approximately 72% between 1987 and 1990.

2. Stereotyping

This propaganda method highlights stereotypes and then either reinforces or shatters them with the message in the advertisement.

Always’ Like a Girl ad fits into this category of propaganda advertisement and carries positive connotations.

3. Fear appeals

The agenda behind these types of propaganda ads and messages is to scare people into taking the desired action.

PSAs often use this tactic and Embrace Life’s video is another example of propaganda backed with good intentions.

Read more: How to Use Video to Trigger Customer Emotions

4. Bandwagon

The bandwagon phenomenon creates a sense of isolation and triggers FOMO (fear of missing out) in people who long to be part of some desirable group.

Fyre Festival’s marketing campaign shows this technique in action. Billy McFarland, the festival’s founder, got celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Baldwin to promote the event.

Although marketed as an exclusive extravaganza, it ended up being a complete farce.

5. Plain folks

Sometimes, seeing seemingly regular people endorse a product or service primes prospects to try it out because they can see it fit into their everyday lives, too. This is the basic idea behind the plain folks propaganda method.

Nutella’s commercial falls into this category and eventually attracted criticism. The brand was sued for marketing itself as a “breakfast food” when it is, in all honesty, just a dessert in a jar.

6. Transfer propaganda technique

The agenda behind this tactic is to irrationally tie the audience’s positive associations to a completely unrelated concept.

Transfer propaganda relies on symbolism to push its target audience to make illogical connections.

Edward Bernays’ Torches of Freedom campaign is a prime example of this concept in action.

7. Name-calling

Name-calling propaganda is based on putting the other party down. Employing this technique in advertising normally starts brand wars. It can be light-hearted, but sometimes the animosity can get intense.

Here’s an old Burger King commercial taking a jab at McDonald’s.

8. Card stacking

Card stacking presents selective information to paint an incomplete and incorrect narrative to influence people. Companies that partake in greenwashing use this tactic and H&M is often criticized for it .

9. Glittering generalities

Glittering generalities employs loaded words and strong slogans to leave an impact on the audience receiving the message.

In marketing, this plays a big role in brand positioning. Prestigious car brands like Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz often use this tactic in their advertisements.

Read more: Top 5 Tips on How to Create Engaging Video Content

10. Ad nauseam propaganda

This type of propaganda relies on the power of repetition. Ad nauseam marketing campaigns target audiences at a very high frequency to remain top of mind.

Wix uses this tactic and reportedly has an annual ad budget of more than $100 million .

You’ve probably come across several of their commercials while watching videos on YouTube or browsing other social media platforms.

11. Appeal to prejudice propaganda

This tactic exploits prejudices for the propagandists’ benefit. Fairness cream ads fall under this umbrella.

That covers the most common propaganda techniques and how they’ve been used for both noble and nefarious purposes.

As a marketer, understanding these tactics can help you launch transformative campaigns. But we hope you’ll use your new insight with consideration and care.

If you’re in the market for an impactful promo video for your business and want to launch a video-backed campaign that’ll blow your stakeholder’s socks off, then be sure to hit us up. We’d love to talk strategy.

Want a video for your business?

GET A CUSTOM QUOTE

Read more: Understanding the Role of Pathos in Advertisements

Subscribe to the MotionCue Newsletter

For monthly video and marketing insights from company founder/CEO Osama Khabab

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

• Case Studies
• Reviews on Clutch!
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Explainer Videos
• Promotional Videos
• Motion Graphics
• Whiteboard Animation
• Training Videos
• 2D Animated Vodeos
• 3D Animated Videos
• Live Action Videos
• Mobile App Videos
• Social Media Videos
• Shipping and Logistics
• Medical Devices

Ready to win with video?

Set up a free 30-minute strategy session with our team.

Yt Vi Fb Tw In

Terms of Use Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2012-2026 MotionCue.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.

How Republicans are building off of Trump's election fraud playbook for 2024

W hen former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he triggered a desperate attempt to remain in office that falsely claimed Democrats had engineered widespread voter fraud. This time around, he’ll lack the powers an incumbent has to use his office as weapon. No longer having those internal levers of power to pull, though, has only meant a shift in tactics from his allies , not in their overall strategy. And as his Election Day rematch against President Joe Biden approaches, the infrastructure being built to delegitimize a Trump loss is becoming increasingly obvious.

While unable to lean on the Department of Justice this time around, Trump is not entirely without institutional power at his disposal. Several states have filed charges against organizers and participants in the “fake electors” plot. In those plots, Republican presidential electors signed off on fraudulent Electoral College certificates that declared Trump the winner in their state. The goal was to cause enough chaos that Vice President Mike Pence would either throw out their state’s electoral votes or kick the can to state legislatures to hand Trump a win. Despite their criminal liability, several members of the plot have already been appointed as Electoral College members again or expressed a willingness to serve.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has been laying the groundwork to discredit a potential Biden win. I’ve previously written about the RNC’s renewed focus on “election integrity” efforts , following Trump’s orders to place their energy there rather traditional field programs to get voters to the polls. Axios recently reported that the RNC now “plans to hire more people for the [election integrity] operation than for any other department” ahead of the election, as it also aims “to recruit and deploy 100,000 volunteers, law students and lawyers to serve as poll watchers and observers.”

We’re already beginning to see some of the legal maneuvering for advantage play out in Wisconsin, where the RNC has alleged that two predominantly Democratic counties discriminated against Republicans who applied to be poll watchers. In what is likely to become a pattern, the suit claims that, despite a glut of applicants to take part as observers, election officials in Dane and Milwaukee counties arbitrarily and unfairly rejected most of them. However, the election officials say that everything was above board, and in one case went so far as to provide Wisconsin Public Radio with “contact logs that showed the named complainant did not respond to five emails reminding him to complete his application.”

The most optimistic reading of these efforts could be found in a draft RNC internal report The Washington Post obtained last year that made the case for increasing the organization’s election integrity efforts. “If there is corruption in the election infrastructure, then having Republicans in the system will expose many issues,” the Post quoted from the draft. “Second, if Republicans see how the election process works up close, then they will be able to identify and fix problems, instead of boycotting elections entirely.” In giving skeptical Republicans a look beneath the hood, so to speak, the hope is that their concerns will be alleviated. It’s not impossible to change minds on this front, as when conservatives joined local school boards and learned that “critical race theory” isn’t being taught to students.

It only works though if the poll watchers being recruited are open to believing that the election isn’t rigged — and that is absolutely not the message coming from Trump’s orbit. The Daily Signal, a conservative media outlet, published an essay Monday called “America Is Under Attack.” The inflammatory piece is one of the site’s first after declaring itself independent from The Heritage Foundation , the right-wing think tank that had housed it. Among the lies pushed by the pseudonymous author is that there’s no way for the 2024 election to be legitimate:

The dark warnings from that essay were attention-grabbing, but a piece the site published Tuesday is even more concerning. Levi Fuller, an assistant attorney general with the Texas Office of the Attorney General and therefore someone in a real position of power, argues at length that the 2020 election was rife with irregularities and that “you should never be afraid to question the results of an election.” The insinuations he makes are flimsy at best, but continues the drumbeat of propaganda that the “experts” aren’t to be fully trusted. Fuller, who laments that the likes of Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell have faced consequences for their lies, spends paragraphs pointing to Fulton County, Georgia, as proof that something worth questioning happened.

Fulton County is also the site of a new legal effort to give election deniers more power to refuse to certify elections. Rolling Stone reported Tuesday that Julie Adams, a member of the county’s election board , filed a lawsuit requesting that a judge “clarify” that her “duties are, in fact, discretionary, not ministerial.” In other words, she wants the courts to say that her panel is empowered to act as an investigator rather than a clerk passing records up the chain. Notably, she was aided in filing this suit by the America First Policy Institute , a pro-Trump think tank.

It’s telling that Fuller, who was previously a prosecutor in the Texas attorney general’s Election Integrity Division, didn’t say how often in his career he came across voter fraud. That’s likely because, in contrast to Republican fearmongering, data shows that voter fraud is exceedingly rare . But if Biden beats Trump again, expect Republicans to once again say voter fraud is to blame. Even mythical voter fraud makes for a good scapegoat for a party that is low on funds, has a criminally convicted presumptive nominee, and would much rather keep certain people from voting than admit that it earned its losses fair and square.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7

A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel.

Gal Abdush’s parents, center, and her sisters. The photograph on the wall shows Gal and her husband, Nagi. The couple had been together since they were teenagers. Credit...

Supported by

• Share full article

By Jeffrey Gettleman ,  Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella

Photographs by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv

Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella reported from across Israel and interviewed more than 150 people.

• Published Dec. 28, 2023 Updated March 25, 2024

At first, she was known simply as “the woman in the black dress.”

In a grainy video, you can see her, lying on her back, dress torn, legs spread, vagina exposed. Her face is burned beyond recognition and her right hand covers her eyes.

The video was shot in the early hours of Oct. 8 by a woman searching for a missing friend at the site of the rave in southern Israel where, the day before, Hamas terrorists massacred hundreds of young Israelis .

The video went viral, with thousands of people responding, desperate to know if the woman in the black dress was their missing friend, sister or daughter.

One family knew exactly who she was — Gal Abdush, mother of two from a working-class town in central Israel, who disappeared from the rave that night with her husband.

As the terrorists closed in on her, trapped on a highway in a line of cars of people trying to flee the party, she sent one final WhatsApp message to her family: “You don’t understand.”

Based largely on the video evidence — which was verified by The New York Times — Israeli police officials said they believed that Ms. Abdush was raped, and she has become a symbol of the horrors visited upon Israeli women and girls during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Israeli officials say that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck — the rave, the military bases along the Gaza border and the kibbutzim — they brutalized women.

A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.

Relying on video footage, photographs, GPS data from mobile phones and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counselors, The Times identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.

Four witnesses described in graphic detail seeing women raped and killed at two different places along Route 232, the same highway where Ms. Abdush’s half-naked body was found sprawled on the road at a third location.

And The Times interviewed several soldiers and volunteer medics who together described finding more than 30 bodies of women and girls in and around the rave site and in two kibbutzim in a similar state as Ms. Abdush’s — legs spread, clothes torn off, signs of abuse in their genital areas.

Many of the accounts are difficult to bear, and the visual evidence is disturbing to see.

The Times viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse that emergency responders discovered in the rubble of a besieged kibbutz with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin.

The Times also viewed a video, provided by the Israeli military, showing two dead Israeli soldiers at a base near Gaza who appeared to have been shot directly in their vaginas.

Hamas has denied Israel’s accusations of sexual violence . Israeli activists have been outraged that the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, and the agency U.N. Women did not acknowledge the many accusations until weeks after the attacks.

Investigators with Israel’s top national police unit, Lahav 433, have been steadily gathering evidence but they have not put a number on how many women were raped, saying that most are dead — and buried — and that they will never know. No survivors have spoken publicly.

The Israeli police have acknowledged that, during the shock and confusion of Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israeli history, they were not focused on collecting semen samples from women’s bodies, requesting autopsies or closely examining crime scenes. At that moment, the authorities said, they were intent on repelling Hamas and identifying the dead.

A combination of chaos, enormous grief and Jewish religious duties meant that many bodies were buried as quickly as possible. Most were never examined, and in some cases, like at the rave scene, where more than 360 people were slaughtered in a few hours, the bodies were hauled away by the truckload.

That has left the Israeli authorities at a loss to fully explain to families what happened to their loved ones in their final moments. Ms. Abdush’s relatives, for instance, never received a death certificate. They are still searching for answers.

In cases of widespread sexual violence during a war, it is not unusual to have limited forensic evidence, experts said.

“Armed conflict is so chaotic,” said Adil Haque, a Rutgers law professor and war crimes expert. “People are more focused on their safety than on building a criminal case down the road.”

Very often, he said, sex crime cases will be prosecuted years later on the basis of testimony from victims and witnesses.

“The eyewitness might not even know the name of the victim,” he added. “But if they can testify as, ‘I saw a woman being raped by this armed group,’ that can be enough.”

‘Screams without words’

Sapir, a 26-year-old accountant, has become one of the Israeli police’s key witnesses. She does not want to be fully identified, saying she would be hounded for the rest of her life if her last name were revealed.

She attended the rave with several friends and provided investigators with graphic testimony. She also spoke to The Times. In a two-hour interview outside a cafe in southern Israel, she recounted seeing groups of heavily armed gunmen rape and kill at least five women.

She said that at 8 a.m. on Oct. 7, she was hiding under the low branches of a bushy tamarisk tree, just off Route 232, about four miles southwest of the party. She had been shot in the back. She felt faint. She covered herself in dry grass and lay as still as she could.

About 15 meters from her hiding place, she said, she saw motorcycles, cars and trucks pulling up. She said that she saw “about 100 men,” most of them dressed in military fatigues and combat boots, a few in dark sweatsuits, getting in and out of the vehicles. She said the men congregated along the road and passed between them assault rifles, grenades, small missiles — and badly wounded women.

“It was like an assembly point,” she said.

The first victim she said she saw was a young woman with copper-color hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back.

She said she then watched another woman “shredded into pieces.” While one terrorist raped her, she said, another pulled out a box cutter and sliced off her breast.

“One continues to rape her, and the other throws her breast to someone else, and they play with it, throw it, and it falls on the road,” Sapir said.

She said the men sliced her face and then the woman fell out of view. Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women.

Sapir provided photographs of her hiding place and her wounds, and police officials have stood by her testimony and released a video of her, with her face blurred, recounting some of what she saw.

Yura Karol, a 22-year-old security consultant, said he was hiding in the same spot, and he can be seen in one of Sapir’s photos. He and Sapir were part of a group of friends who had met up at the party. In an interview, Mr. Karol said he barely lifted his head to look at the road but he also described seeing a woman raped and killed.

Since that day, Sapir said, she has struggled with a painful rash that spread across her torso, and she can barely sleep, waking up at night, heart pounding, covered in sweat.

“That day, I became an animal,” she said. “I was emotionally detached, sharp, just the adrenaline of survival. I looked at all this as if I was photographing them with my eyes, not forgetting any detail. I told myself: I should remember everything.”

That same morning, along Route 232 but in a different location about a mile southwest of the party area, Raz Cohen — a young Israeli who had also attended the rave and had worked recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo training Congolese soldiers — said that he was hiding in a dried-up streambed. It provided some cover from the assailants combing the area and shooting anyone they found, he said in an hour-and-a-half interview in a Tel Aviv restaurant.

Maybe 40 yards in front of him, he recalled, a white van pulled up and its doors flew open.

He said he then saw five men, wearing civilian clothes, all carrying knives and one carrying a hammer, dragging a woman across the ground. She was young, naked and screaming.

“They all gather around her,” Mr. Cohen said. “She’s standing up. They start raping her. I saw the men standing in a half circle around her. One penetrates her. She screams. I still remember her voice, screams without words.”

“Then one of them raises a knife,” he said, “and they just slaughtered her.”

Shoam Gueta, one of Mr. Cohen’s friends and a fashion designer, said the two were hiding together in the streambed. He said he saw at least four men step out of the van and attack the woman, who ended up “between their legs.” He said that they were “talking, giggling and shouting,” and that one of them stabbed her with a knife repeatedly, “literally butchering her.”

Hours later, the first wave of volunteer emergency medical technicians arrived at the rave site. In interviews, four of them said that they discovered bodies of dead women with their legs spread and underwear missing — some with their hands tied by rope and zipties — in the party area, along the road, in the parking area and in the open fields around the rave site.

Jamal Waraki, a volunteer medic with the nonprofit ZAKA emergency response team , said he could not get out of his head a young woman in a rawhide vest found between the main stage and the bar.

“Her hands were tied behind her back,” he said. “She was bent over, half naked, her underwear rolled down below her knees.”

Yinon Rivlin, a member of the rave’s production team who lost two brothers in the attacks, said that after hiding from the killers, he emerged from a ditch and made his way to the parking area, east of the party, along Route 232, looking for survivors.

Near the highway, he said, he found the body of a young woman, on her stomach, no pants or underwear, legs spread apart. He said her vagina area appeared to have been sliced open, “as if someone tore her apart.”

Similar discoveries were made in two kibbutzim, Be’eri and Kfar Aza . Eight volunteer medics and two Israeli soldiers told The Times that in at least six different houses, they had come across a total of at least 24 bodies of women and girls naked or half naked, some mutilated, others tied up, and often alone.

A paramedic in an Israeli commando unit said that he had found the bodies of two teenage girls in a room in Be’eri.

One was lying on her side, he said, boxer shorts ripped, bruises by her groin. The other was sprawled on the floor face down, he said, pajama pants pulled to her knees, bottom exposed, semen smeared on her back.

Because his job was to look for survivors, he said, he kept moving and did not document the scene. Neighbors of the two girls killed — who were sisters, 13 and 16 — said their bodies had been found alone, separated from the rest of their family.

The Israeli military allowed the paramedic to speak with reporters on the condition that he not be identified because he serves in an elite unit. [Update: March 25, 2024: Newly released video viewed by The Times showed the bodies of two teenage girls in Kibbutz Be’eri fully clothed, undercutting this account from an Israeli military paramedic who recovered bodies in multiple locations after the Oct. 7 attack. It was unclear if the paramedic was describing bodies he discovered elsewhere.]

Many of the dead were brought to the Shura military base, in central Israel, for identification. Here, too, witnesses said they saw signs of sexual violence.

Shari Mendes, an architect called up as a reserve soldier to help prepare the bodies of female soldiers for burial, said she had seen four with signs of sexual violence, including some with “a lot of blood in their pelvic areas.”

A dentist, Captain Maayan, who worked at the same identification center, said that she had seen at least 10 bodies of female soldiers from Gaza observation posts with signs of sexual violence.

Captain Maayan asked to be identified only by her rank and surname because of the sensitivity of the subject. She said she had seen several bodies with cuts in their vaginas and underwear soaked in blood and one whose fingernails had been pulled out.

The investigation

The Israeli authorities have no shortage of video evidence from the Oct. 7 attacks. They have gathered hours of footage from Hamas body cameras, dashcams, security cameras and mobile phones showing Hamas terrorists killing civilians and many images of mutilated bodies.

But Moshe Fintzy, a deputy superintendent and senior spokesman of Israel’s national police, said, “We have zero autopsies, zero,” making an O with his right hand.

In the aftermath of the attack, police officials said, forensic examiners were dispatched to the Shura military base to help identify the hundreds of bodies — Israeli officials say around 1,200 people were killed that day.

The examiners worked quickly to give the agonized families of the missing a sense of closure and to determine, by a process of elimination, who was dead and who was being held hostage in Gaza.

According to Jewish tradition, funerals are held promptly. The result was that many bodies with signs of sexual abuse were put to rest without medical examinations, meaning that potential evidence now lies buried in the ground. International forensic experts said that it would be possible to recover some evidence from the corpses, but that it would be difficult.

Mr. Fintzy said Israeli security forces were still finding imagery that shows women were brutalized. Sitting at his desk at an imposing police building in Jerusalem, he swiped open his phone, tapped and produced the video of the two soldiers shot in the vagina, which he said was recorded by Hamas gunmen and recently recovered by Israeli soldiers.

A colleague sitting next to him, Mirit Ben Mayor, a police chief superintendent, said she believed that the brutality against women was a combination of two ferocious forces, “the hatred for Jews and the hatred for women.”

Some emergency medical workers now wish they had documented more of what they saw. In interviews, they said they had moved bodies, cut off zip ties and cleaned up scenes of carnage. Trying to be respectful to the dead, they inadvertently destroyed evidence.

Many volunteers working for ZAKA, the emergency response team, are religious Jews and operate under strict rules that command deep respect for the dead.

“I did not take pictures because we are not allowed to take pictures,” said Yossi Landau, a ZAKA volunteer. “In retrospect, I regret it.”

There are at least three women and one man who were sexually assaulted and survived, according to Gil Horev, a spokesman for Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. “None of them has been willing to come physically for treatment,” he said. Two therapists said they were working with a woman who was gang raped at the rave and was in no condition to talk to investigators or reporters.

The trauma from sexual assault can be so heavy that sometimes survivors do not speak about it for years, several rape counselors said.

“Many people are looking for the golden evidence, of a woman who will testify about what happened to her. But don’t look for that, don’t put this pressure on this woman,” said Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. “The corpses tell the story.”

The woman in the black dress

One of the last images of Ms. Abdush alive — captured by a security camera mounted on her front door — shows her leaving home with her husband, Nagi, at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 for the rave.

He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. She was dressed in a short black dress, a black shawl tied around her waist and combat boots. As she struts out, she takes a swig from a glass (her brother-in-law remembers it was Red Bull and vodka) and laughs.

You’ve got to live life like it’s your last moments. That was her motto, her sisters said.

At daybreak, hundreds of terrorists closed in on the party from several directions, blocking the highways leading out. The couple jumped into their Audi, dashing off a string of messages as they moved.

“We’re on the border,” Ms. Abdush wrote to her family. “We’re leaving.”

“Explosions.”

Her husband made his own calls to his family, leaving a final audio message for his brother, Nissim, at 7:44 a.m. “Take care of the kids,” he said. “I love you.”

Gunshots rang out, and the message stopped.

That night, Eden Wessely, a car mechanic, drove to the rave site with three friends and found Ms. Abdush sprawled half naked on the road next to her burned car, about nine miles north of the site. She did not see the body of Mr. Abdush.

She saw other burned cars and other bodies, and shot videos of several — hoping that they would help people to identify missing relatives. When she posted the video of the woman in the black dress on her Instagram story, she was deluged with messages.

“Hi, based on your description of the woman in the black dress, did she have blonde hair?” one message read.

“Eden, the woman you described with the black dress, do you remember the color of her eyes?” another said.

Some members of the Abdush family saw that video and another version of it filmed by one of Ms. Wessely’s friends. They immediately suspected that the body was Ms. Abdush, and based on the way her body was found, they feared that she might have been raped.

But they kept alive a flicker of hope that somehow, it wasn’t true.

The videos caught the eye of Israeli officials as well — very quickly after Oct. 7 they began gathering evidence of atrocities. They included footage of Ms. Abdush’s body in a presentation made to foreign governments and media organizations, using Ms. Abdush as a representation of violence committed against women that day.

A week after her body was found, three government social workers appeared at the gate of the family’s home in Kiryat Ekron, a small town in central Israel. They broke the news that Ms. Abdush, 34, had been found dead.

But the only document the family received was a one-page form letter from Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, expressing his condolences and sending a hug. The body of Mr. Abdush, 35, was identified two days after his wife’s. It was badly burned and investigators determined who he was based on a DNA sample and his wedding ring.

The couple had been together since they were teenagers. To the family, it seems only yesterday that Mr. Abdush was heading off to work to fix water heaters, a bag of tools slung over his shoulder, and Ms. Abdush was cooking up mashed potatoes and schnitzel for their two sons, Eliav, 10, and Refael, 7.

The boys are now orphans. They were sleeping over at an aunt’s the night their parents were killed. Ms. Abdush’s mother and father have applied for permanent custody, and everyone is chipping in to help.

Night after night, Ms. Abdush’s mother, Eti Bracha, lies in bed with the boys until they drift off. A few weeks ago, she said she tried to quietly leave their bedroom when the younger boy stopped her.

“Grandma,” he said, “I want to ask you a question.”

“Honey,” she said, “you can ask anything.”

“Grandma, how did mom die?”

An earlier version of this article misstated the age of Sapir, the woman who has become one of the Israeli police’s key witnesses to sexual violence in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7. She is 26, not 24.

How we handle corrections

Jeffrey Gettleman is an international correspondent and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of “Love, Africa,” a memoir. More about Jeffrey Gettleman

Advertisement

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Republicans join Trump’s attacks on justice system and campaign of vengeance after guilty verdict

For seven weeks, Donald Trump was on trial in his hometown of New York City as 12 Americans weighed the evidence against him in a hush money case before ultimately voting to convict him, making him the first former president to be convicted of a felony.

A day after a New York jury delivered a historic guilty verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee again railed against a “rigged trial” during remarks at Trump Tower.

President Joe Biden says Donald Trump was found guilty in his hush money trial and called it “reckless...dangerous” and “irresponsible” for anyone to claim the process was “rigged.”

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, center, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy listen as former President Donald Trump, left, talks with reporters as he arrives at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)

• Copy Link copied

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., joined at left by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, talk to reporters about their intention to require American citizenship to vote in national elections, as they introduce the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., talks after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks at a press conference across the street from the Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in New York.(AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan speaks to supporters during a primary night election party Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Annapolis, Md., after he won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat opened by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin’s retirement. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Embracing Donald Trump’s strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict , Republicans in Congress are fervently enlisting themselves in his campaign of vengeance and political retribution as the GOP runs to reclaim the White House.

Almost no Republican official has stood up to suggest Trump should not be the party’s presidential candidate for the November election — in fact, some have sought to hasten his nomination. Few others dared to defend the legitimacy of the New York state court that heard the hush money case or the 12 jurors who unanimously rendered their verdict.

And those Republicans who expressed doubts about Trump’s innocence or political viability, including his former hawkish national security adviser John Bolton or top-tier Senate candidate Larry Hogan of Maryland, were instantly bullied by the former president’s enforcers and told to “leave the party.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she’s voting for Trump “whether he is a free man or a prisoner of the Biden regime.”

She also posted the upside-down American flag that has come to symbolize the “Stop the Steal” movement Trump started with allies before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The swift, strident and deepening commitment to Trump despite his felony conviction shows how fully Republican leaders and lawmakers have been infused with his unfounded grievances of a “rigged” system and dangerous conspiracies of “weaponized” government, using them in their own attacks on President Joe Biden and the Democrats.

What to know about the 2024 Election

• Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
• AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
• Read the latest: Follow AP’s complete coverage of this year’s election.

Rather than shunning Trump’s escalating authoritarian language or ensuring they will provide checks and balances for a second Trump term, the Republican senators and representatives are upturning longstanding faith in U.S. governance, and setting the stage for what they plan to do if Trump regains power.

On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demanded the prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo appear for a June hearing on the “weaponization of the federal government” and “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump — despite the fact that Biden, as president, has no authority over the state courts in New York.

“What we’re gearing up for is if Trump wins, he’s going to use the apparatus of the state to target his political opponents,” said Jason Stanley, a professor at Yale and the author of “How Fascism Works.”

Stanley said history is full of examples of people not believing the rhetoric of authoritarians. “Believe what they say,” he said. “He’s literally telling you he’s going to use the apparatus of the state to target his political opponents.”

At his Trump Tower on Friday in New York, the former president returned to the kinds of attacks he has repeatedly lodged in campaign speeches, portraying Biden as the one who is “corrupt” and the U.S. as a “fascist” nation.

Trump called the members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “thugs” and said Biden was a “Manchurian candidate,” a phrase inspired by the 1960s movie portraying a puppet of a U.S. political enemy.

A Trump campaign memo contained talking points for Republican lawmakers, suggesting they call the case a “sham,” “hoax,” “witch hunt,” “election interference” and “lawfare” designed by Biden, whom it called “crooked.”

Biden faces no such charges, and the House GOP’s efforts to impeach the president over his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings have largely stalled out. Hunter Biden is due in court next week on an unrelated firearms charge in Wilmington, Delaware.

Joe Biden said Friday that “it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible, for anyone to say this is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

Asked later at the White House if this could happen to him, Biden said: “Not at all. I didn’t do anything wrong. The system still works.”

As for Trump’s claims the case is being orchestrated by the Democratic president to hurt him politically, Biden quipped: “I didn’t know I was that powerful.”

In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of trying to influence the 2016 election by falsifying payment to a porn actor to bury her story of an affair. He faces three other felony indictments , including the federal case over his effort to overturn the 2020 election. But they are not likely to be heard before November’s expected election rematch with Biden.

Thursday’s verdict came after a jury in 2023 found Trump to be liable for sexual abuse against advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and a judge in a 2024 business fraud case determined that Trump lied about his wealth for years, ordering him to pay a staggering $355 million in penalties.

Almost to a person, the Republicans in Congress who spoke out provided a singular voice for Trump.

Speaker Mike Johnson on “Fox & Friends” amplified the claim, without evidence, that Democrats are trying to hurt Trump. Johnson, R-La., said he thinks the Supreme Court should “step in” to resolve the case.

“The justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they’re deeply concerned about that as we are,” Johnson said.

The outgoing Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he expected Trump would win the hush money case on appeal, but the three senators seeking to replace McConnell as leader echoed Trump with stronger criticisms of the judicial system.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune said the case was “politically motivated.” Texas Sen. John Cornyn called the verdict “a disgrace.” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said that everyone who calls themselves a party leader “must stand up and condemn” what he called “lawless election interference.”

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who is known as a bipartisan leader, said the prosecutor “brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct.”

With sentencing in the hush money case expected in July before the Republican National Convention, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said the GOP should move up the convention to speed up Trump’s nomination as the party’s presidential pick.

Republican judicial advocate Mike Davis, a former top Senate aide mentioned for a future Trump administration position, circulated a letter outlining the next steps.

“Dear Republicans,” he said in a Friday post. If their response to the guilty verdict was “we must respect the process” or “we are too principled to retaliate,” he suggested they do two things: One was an expletive, the other: “Leave the party.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, circulated his own letter in which he suggested it was the White House that “made a mockery” of the rule of law and altered politics in “un-American” ways. He and other senators threatened to stall Senate business until Republicans take action.

“Those who turned our judicial system into a political cudgel must be held accountable,” Lee said.

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Ali Swenson and Chris Megerian contributed to this story.