Saturday, January 9, 2016

Exploring the Fine Line Between Propaganda and Public Relations

Good Day World!

Public relations and propaganda are not that far apart. Sometimes the two are so intertwined it's impossible to know where one starts and the other leaves off.


Definitions

Propaganda: information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

Public Relationsis the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public.
(source Wikipedia)


Examples:

After the Nazi Seizure of Power in 1933, Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts, and information in Germany.

What resulted was pure propaganda.

Today America is the home of more lobbying firms than any other country on the earth. Even more troubling;

U.S. lobbying, PR firms give human rights abusers a friendly face

Center for Public Integrity review of records disclosed to the Justice Department reveals that the 50 countries with the worst human rights violation records have spent $168 million on American lobbyists and public relations specialists since 2010.

The result? Propaganda, or Public Relations? It seems pretty clear cut to me, but apparently these companies get away with mixing the two for big money.

What’s more, the number of active contracts for representing countries with poor human rights records has climbed by 40 percent from 2013 to 2015.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

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