Hailong Liu. Propaganda: Ideas, Discourses and Its Legitimization

New York: Routledge, 2020. — 363 p.Propaganda is subjective information primarily used to influence an audience and further a political agenda. In China, it has a long history but has been most effective in modern society. What exactly is propaganda? Why does it exist and why does the public tolerate it? The book answers these questions by tracing back to the emergence and development of integrated propaganda and scientific propaganda. Based on that, it focuses on the emergence of the propaganda concept in China, the establishment of Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China's propaganda concept, intellectuals, and propaganda, the debate on the propaganda concept in China after 1949 as well as the emergence of Propaganda 3.0 that coordinates integrated propaganda and scientific propaganda.Setting propaganda under the framework of modernity, the book explains how different groups have legitimatized propaganda since the 20th century. From a reasonable and neutral standpoint, the author describes the confrontation among various propaganda concepts and discourses, displaying a panorama of the mutual conflicts between nation and individuals, control and freedom, ideas and bodies. Not only will scholars and students studying journalism and communication find this book interesting, but professionals working in journalism, advertisement, public relations, and publicity will also find it readable and enlightening.Series Information.Figures.
Tables.Changes in the idea of propaganda.
Concept, idea, and discourse of propaganda.
Who is speaking: The construction of propaganda discourse.
Legitimization of propaganda.
Traditions of propaganda research.
Will propaganda research become propaganda?
Content and structure.Propaganda: A concept ambiguous but important.
Development of “propaganda”.
Traveling of the propaganda concept.
Elements of propaganda.
The disappearing propagandists?
Propaganda is mass persuasion with deliberate purposes.
Through manipulative symbols.
Groups rather than individuals as audiences.
The effect of propaganda is to shape cognitive schemata or cognition of reality.
Role of attitude and behavior in propaganda.
Layers of propaganda.Discovery of irrational man: Rise of the scientific propaganda concept.
Total war and the emergence of modern propaganda.
“I released the truth, he propagated lies”.
Panic about and reflection on propaganda.
The discovery of irrational people.
Manufacturing consensus.
“Nervous liberals” and propaganda.
From propaganda to the creation of reality.
Public’s real problems.
Protection and education of the public.
Coexistence of propaganda and democracy.
Ellul and total propaganda.
Propaganda model.
From public diplomacy to soft power.
From old to new propaganda.
From lying to nonsense: Evolution of propaganda.Revolution and governance: Vicissitude of the propaganda concept.
The propaganda concept of the Soviet Union and China’s revolutions.
Propaganda and professional revolutionary organizations.
“Overall exposure”.
Theoretical research, propaganda, and agitation.
The newspaperiss is the organizer of collectivity.
Establishment of the integrated propaganda system.
Instilment and education.
“Gears and screws”.
The establishment of socialist realism theory of literature and art.
Establishment of the rural oral communication network.
Education and academia.
Army and diplomacy.
Transformation of the propaganda concept and disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Disinformation.
Glasnost and disintegration of the Soviet propaganda system.
Reflection on propaganda ideas and systems of the Soviet Union.
Propaganda as total war.
Propaganda: Means, not ends.
The target of propaganda: The masses.
Propaganda and organization.
Integrated propaganda concepts and propaganda discourse.
Propaganda and “Gleichschaltung”.
Students of Le Bon and Hitler.
“Not only inform but also instruct”.
“Every listener becomes a direct participant in major events”.
Goebbels’s propaganda skills.
The inventor of the “Magic Bullet Theory”?
Effect of “integrated” propaganda.Awaken the people: The emergence of China’s propaganda concept.
Christianity and the emergence of the modern Chinese propaganda concept.
The reform movement and ambiguous propaganda concept.
Constitutional reform and modernization and propaganda.
The ambiguous propaganda concept.
“New citizen” and literature propaganda.
Confusion between propaganda and news reports.
National revolution and introduction of the Soviet Union’s propaganda concept.
Party-governed state and propaganda system.
Propaganda, organization, and audience.Intellectuals and propaganda: Differentiation of China’s modern propaganda concept.
Dewey and input of the idea of progressive publicity.
The inherent connection between the unification of thoughts and the theory of “Knowing is difficult while understanding is easier”.
Wrong path of literature and propaganda.
Propaganda and acting.
Conflicting propaganda concept.
The War of Resistance and proliferation and differentiation of the propaganda discourse.
The essence of literature is propaganda: The propaganda discourse of nationalism.
Propaganda promotes social progress: Propaganda discourse of professionalism.
National unity stems from freedom of speech: Propaganda discourse of journalism.
Propaganda is not education: The liberal discourse of propaganda.
Two kinds of propaganda concepts in modern China.Formation and development of the contemporary idea of Chinese propaganda.
Mao Zedong’s idea of propaganda.
Communication as propaganda.
The principle of unity and Party spirit.
Propaganda and mass line.
Formation of the CPC’s journalism theory.
Thought reform.
Thought reform in the Rectification Movement.
Panic of brainwashing.
Thought reformiss a new type of management technique.Conflicts and institutionalization of the propaganda concept of the Communist Party of China.
“Turn our country into a great school as a whole”.
Propaganda network: Organization of propaganda.
Newspaper reading groups, illiteracy elimination, and politics classes: Socialization of politics.
Making symbols.
Rise and fall of newspaper criticism.
Criticism “in all public places”.
“Criticism under the leadership of the Party committee”.
From “Party’s newspaper” to “People’s newspapers”.
The conflict between journalistic professionalism and the integrated propaganda idea.
“Flies” or “Bees”?
Press symposium.From Propaganda 1.0 to Propaganda 3.0: Transformation of China’s contemporary idea of propaganda.
Discussion on “Party spirit” and the “people’s character” and propaganda discourse after the “Cultural Revolution”.
Anti-spiritual pollution and strengthening of the orthodox idea of propaganda.
News = Propaganda?
Introduction of communications study and transformation of the propaganda discourse.
Market economy and transformation of the propaganda concept.
From crisis events to crisis management.
From directing to managing yuqing.
Privatization of public space: Online water army’s ideas of propaganda and its legitimization.
From “demonization of China” to the national image project.
Transformation of journalistic professionalism and the idea of propaganda.
Information technology and changes in the propaganda concept.
The idea of Propaganda 3.0.Conclusion: Shepherd’s predicament.
Propaganda and modernity.
Two kinds of propaganda techniques.
Efficiency and freedom.
Communication ethics of propaganda.
The deceived, the tempted, and the actors.Chinese works cited.