Understanding Citizen Participation in Propaganda Meant to Keep Us Divided

Article posted with permission from the author, David Risselada

American society is beaten down with constant turmoil, conflict, and trauma. From the September, 11 terror attacks to COVID-19, and all the school shootings in between, we seem to move from one chaotic event to the other, with no breaks from the madness. In the past few months alone, we have witnessed two assassination attempts on President Trump, a school shooting in Georgia, increased tensions in the Middle East, stories about immigrants eating people’s pets in Ohio, and Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes. This is in the middle of an election cycle where once again, it is the most important vote of our lifetime where voters on both sides believe they must vote for their candidate to save us from the dangers of the other. To top it all off, we now have the Longshoreman’s strike threatening to shut down the entire economy, so they can have a raise. Aside from the stress these issues cause the American psyche, they also contribute to the growing conflict between average citizens, as embedded within each of these issues — and others unmentioned — is a political position that drives a person’s belief or perception of reality concerning the issue. The media sensationalizes these stories, framing the argument in a manner that traps the mind in a this or that paradigm, and the masses contribute by going online, sharing and giving their opinions of the stories that represent their views. The more they do this, the more that particular worldview becomes solidified as reality. This is called participatory propaganda, and it is used to shape and control the thoughts of the masses through contrived and deliberately constructed conflicts.

Sensory overload

People who consider themselves active participants in the political sphere of American life often follow the issues reported by the news very closely. What many people don’t understand, however, is that the media is used to give certain stories a higher level of importance in the minds of Americans. The media, according to the authors of Media Effects: Advance in Theory and Research, has been successful in controlling what the public thinks about. They are creating conflict over the issues by keeping certain stories at the forefront of American attention while framing them within the accepted liberal or conservative worldview. Fox vs. CNN, for example. It is important to understand that propaganda is most effective when it reflects the attitudes and beliefs of the intended audience. For instance, an article entitled  Psychological Targeting as an Effective Approach to Digital Mass Persuasion states that mass persuasion is more effective when tailored toward an individual or a group’s psychological traits, beliefs, and behaviors. To understand these beliefs and behaviors, it would be necessary to study them. One thing that is understood very well among researchers is that exposure to constant trauma, or sensory overload, makes the public more susceptible to persuasive messaging. This was understood as early as the 1950s when the television was first invented. This revelation alone should force the American people to reevaluate what it is they believe, and how much of that belief is coming from the media.

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According to the book Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, it is necessary to separate the public into those who may have a genuine interest in the message, and those who do not, when it comes to crafting the information meant to shift attitudes and change opinions.  

Participatory Propaganda

What is Participatory Propaganda? According to an article entitled The Effects of Participatory Propaganda: From Socialization to Internalization of Conflicts, it is “an attempt to influence a person’s, or groups, perceptions of the environment, as well as a way to change the behavior of the targeted group so that they contribute their actions to either the changing of the environment or the changing of perceptions.” In other words, participatory propaganda is used to control the perceptions of the targeted audience through the manipulation of the environment while encouraging, or persuading the audience to participate in the propagation of this manipulation. As noted above, the American public’s involvement in online discussions of current events, the sharing of articles and videos, and the writing of opinions that fall within the framed purview of the narrative, all contribute to the solidification of that narrative as reflecting reality. It aids the media in their objective of defining what the public should consider important. People who spend a lot of time on social media already know how this works. The more you share an article on Facebook, for example, the more it gets picked up by the algorithm and it is seen by a higher number of people. When a particular message permeates social media it tends to be viewed as reality when in truth, it is most likely a refined message reflecting what the intended audience already believes, meant simply, to get them to follow along and participate in online sharing.

“Today, the digital public sphere offers a new set of tools for the manipulation and control of citizen engagement in conflicts. The socialization of conflict is now driven by the content proliferated through social networks, as well as through the digital affordances of online platforms that offer a wide range of responses to conflict.” (Asmolov, 2019) 

Socialization to internalization of conflicts 

What does the term Socialization to internalization of conflicts mean? When an individual shares a post that reflects his or her views, they are contributing to the socialization of the conflict by thrusting it further into the public consciousness. Also, considering the probability that the message being shared is propaganda to begin with, sharing the message informs the propagandist that the efforts to manipulate public perceptions are working. Internalization, of course, means internalizing the message or taking it personally on some level. When messages are framed to align with our political worldviews, which we are emotionally invested in, there is a tendency to allow those messages to manipulate our perceptions of reality without our realizing it. In other words, because we are emotionally invested in the way the message is being framed to us, we tend to believe it represents reality. Everything being presented to us in media is framed from the perspective, one way or another, of the internal conflict dominating American politics — the difference between right and left-wing worldviews. These views are being shaped and defined by the media, and reinforced by the way we participate in propagating their stories online. The best way to explain this is through the presidential election, which has everyone sitting on the edge of their seats. How many online media sources, for example, deviate from the accepted views of either the right or left-wing narratives? How many websites are there that are not framing this election from the perspective of voting for one to save us from the other? Very few, and if you take some of the information provided in this article into consideration, this is likely what they want you to think about because it makes it easier for them to control and guide which direction the public consciousness goes. If you think that is crazy, consider this final quote from the article, The Effects of Participatory Propaganda: From Socialization to Internalization of Conflicts.

“Participatory propaganda restores state sovereignty from within. It aims to build walls in the inner spaces of the subject (you) by shaping categories of perception of the environment. First, it constructs the object of a conflict that can potentially divide people. Second, relying on the design of social networks that combine information proliferation with personal interaction, as well as the mediated mobility of devices, it makes this conflict an omnipresent and integral part of everyday life.” (Asmolov, 2019) 

Read that again.

If you enjoyed this article consider reading my books as well.

A Critical Look at CRT in Education, Research and Social Policy,  available in paperback.  

And Without a Shot Indeed: Inducing Compliance to Tyranny Through Conditioning and Persuasion.

Article posted with permission from David Risselada