Ika Karlina Idris

MDIA 7700
Book Critique Assignment: Lasswell, Harold. 1972. Propaganda Technique in the
World War, New York & London: Garland Publishing. 222 pages.
Democracy (and, indeed, all society) is run by an unseen engineer. Anatole
France
Harold Lasswell s Propaganda Technique in the World War is one of the
classic books about government propaganda and its early uses in war. He divided
the book into nine chaptersthe matter in hand, propaganda organization, war guilt
and war aims, Satanism, the illusion of victory, preserving friendship, demoralizing
the enemy, conditions and methods of propaganda: a summary, and the result of
propagandawith emphasized four chapters which he argued as the major
objectives of propaganda: 1.) to mobilize hatred of the people against the enemy,
2.) to preserve the friendship of allies, 3.) to win the friendship of a neutral, and 4.)
to demoralize the enemy. First published in 1927, nine years after the war ended,
this book provided propaganda strategies and tactics from two sides: the entente
power (allied) and central powers (belligerent). According to Lasswell, belligerent
sides, led by German, lose in World War I is related to German capabilities in
coordinate and run their propaganda.

Even though he tried to provide critical

analyzes from both sides proportionately, but as American scholar, Lasswell seems
to favor the allied strategy of propaganda. This book is primarily emphasized the
potent power of propaganda as one of the tools in the war beside military pressure
and economic pressure. As the scholar in his era, Laswell glorified propaganda as
the most powerful instrument in the modern world and to win the war means to
seize the power over opinion. He believed propaganda as the powerful bullet in a
war that can go through peoples thought (p.214).
Reading this book almost a decade after the war ended is really challenging
because Lasswell provided so many cases related to the war. Its better to have
sufficient knowledge about the World War I to get the context of propaganda cases
in this book. Since world war involves several countries and each country has its
own ideology, motives, and political conditions that make every propaganda

message, strategy, and tactic unique yet difficult to understand. The flow of
Lasswell argument and the structure of his writing is more like speech structure
rather than scientific writing. Sometimes, its difficult to underline whats the theory
that the author wanted to develop because of the flow of his writing. Fortunately, at
the last two chapters of this book, Lasswell presented his analyzes as the summary
and evaluation of cases that he mentioned previously that help readers to have a
better understanding about his ideas.
Propaganda Technique in the World War can be seen as a guidebook of
propaganda or (a guidebook to start a war) if we look at how specific the example of
war strategy and tactics. In chapter IV Satanism the book specifically discusses the
message topic that can be used in propaganda (p.85-86) and surprisingly was the
same message that had been used in other wars. Another theory this book
developed is the organizational issues of propaganda. It is a significant contribution
considering the main topic of propaganda is mostly focused on the messages and/or
the communication channel, and not to pay more attention to the organization.
Lasswell drew three models of propaganda organizationGreat Britain, Germany,
and United Statesand describe the advantages and disadvantages of each model.
Great Britain model, according to Laswell, put foreign and domestic propaganda in
the hands of coordinate officials. US model had a committee of executives with each
member responsible of some branch of propaganda work. German, he wrote, had a
minimum coordinated of propaganda effort which each department went ahead with
its own way and only have one formal coordinated event, which is a press release
that held two or three times in a week. The organization coordination model is
important and still relevant for todays government propaganda, especially whose
governing system is decentralized.
At the introduction part Lasswell criticized the propaganda topic that mostly
written by non-academics person and promised to write an analysis in a systematic
writing. Even though he provided analysis and example about propaganda steps,
messages, strategies, effects, and political context of each country, he failed in
analyzing the phenomena from theoretical approach that he promised. He
mentioned psychological process related to propaganda motives and affects (p.47
and p.190-191) that represent the behaviorist perspective, but still not suffice as
theoretical analyses. A systematical writing that he also promised can be seen in

the last two chapters, but not at the four main chapters when he bombarded the
readers with cases.
In todays propaganda, the variety of communication channels and the
dynamic of modern politics and communication flow sometimes bring disharmony
between diplomatic institution, propaganda institution, legislative, and authorities.
The disunity threat of government coordination had been warned by Lasswell
almost a hundred years ago and still be forgotten by propaganda institution
nowadays.
Nevertheless, Lasswell propaganda strategies and tactics still exist today,
specifically in the modern public relations campaign. The first strategy is tailoring
the message to a variety of targeted audiences. Second, is the basic strategies that
Laswell described in the bookjournalist tour (p.115), special events (p.117), and
publicity and audience participation (p.118-119)are also used in public relation
context, even though have been modified as proactive and reactive strategies
(Smith, Ronald D,

2002). Third is selecting and communicating messages that

endorse organization or government success strategy, even though it categorized

as

small

victory.

For

example,

communicating

every

small

progress

of

government action like producing new weapon.

Other ideas that also survived today are the psychological approach to steer
human mind and the justification of war. The idea of we are the good side and the
enemy is the bad side is still occurred in todays propaganda even though the
world has become more complex. The idea that demoralizing the enemy (as
quarrelsome, crude, and destructive) and fighting them as the obligation to save
humanity and triumph of the god are essentially the main ideas in almost every
presidential campaign, the Iraq War, and even social campaign such as probreastfeeding, anti-corruption, and non-smoking issues. One of the Iraq Wars
architects Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, stated that they only need to
settled one issue, weapons of mass destructive and bring people to agree on it
(Baran & Davis, 2009, p.77). In the pro-breastfeeding campaign, a mother who do
not breastfeed her child will be labeled as bad, cruel, and denied gods will. Thinking
about a particular example in todays propaganda, raise a question about common

sense in todays society: Are we still the same society in 100 years ago that can be
easily steered by hate?
Reading this book is not only beneficial for students, but also for everyone in
todays modern societies. This book will guide us to understand about the unseen
powers that steer us as a society, the work of government or unseen people that
control citizen opinion and action. Propaganda, according to Lasswell, is a
concession to the rationality of the modern world (p.221), which is not only
happened in war but also in peace time. Actual propaganda, wherever studied, has
a large element of the fake in it and raises ethical issues that remain a question
today: How far can a government work on propaganda for good deeds?
Reference:
Baran, Stanley J. & Davis, Dennis K. (2009). Mass Communication Theory:
Foundations, Ferment, and Future (5 th Ed.) United States: Wadsworth Cengage
Learning.
Lasswell, Harold D. (1972). Propaganda Technique in the World War. New York:
Garland Publishing
Smith, Ronald D. (2002). Strategic Planning for Public Relations. New Yersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates