‘Media and Propaganda in an Age of Disinformation’

As a researcher of journalism, particularly journalism produced in times of crisis, Annenberg School for Communication professor Barbie Zelizer has noticed that the term “propaganda” seems to have fallen out of favor in public discourse. Instead, members of the public, as well as reporters and researchers, focus on terms like disinformation, misinformation, and fake news.

But propaganda is alive and well, she says, and its alternative contemporary terms do not fully capture all it encompasses.

A newly published book co-edited by Zelizer, “Media and Propaganda in an Age of Disinformation,” explores propaganda across borders, topics, and timelines.

The book emerges from the Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication, a weeklong workshop that allows early-career researchers from around the world to explore pressing topics in media and communication with senior scholars.

Designed to provide advanced doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers the chance to think together with global experts on topics like propaganda that are shifting in meaning and significance, the Lisbon Winter School has explored how media intersect with fear, uncertainty, ambivalence, and populism.

“History shows us that the distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ regimes that we in part associate with propaganda’s ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ doesn’t hold much water. There’s much more similarity than we recognize,” says Zelizer. “Not only is the distinction much less clear and stable than we would like to believe, but it is a cautionary sign for how we are able to understand and assess the information disorder around us. For if we don’t link current information disorder to its historical antecedents more fully, we face the risk of being unable to mitigate its spread.”

Read more at Annenberg School for Communication.