Slogans and political propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a certain type of message that is directly aimed at manipulating the opinions or behaviour of people. Propaganda shares techniques with advertising and public relations. Slogans are one form of propaganda.

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Purpose of propaganda

The aim of propaganda is to influence people's opinions or behaviours, rather than merely to communicate the facts about something. Propaganda for example, might be used to gain support or to convince others not to do something. Propaganda is often presented in a way that attempts to deliberately stir up a strong emotion.

People who use propaganda (propagandists) seek to change the way people understand an issue or situation. The aim is to change the actions or expectations of people who assist the political party or other group.

Political propaganda

The word 'propaganda' is usually linked to politics. Governments and other organisations use propaganda to convince citizens to vote for their party, or convince citizens not to vote for another party. Propaganda only presents one side of an issue. It is not a balanced view of the issues that exist.

The power of suggestion is one of the most important tools in political propaganda. Propaganda can take the form of slogans, leaflets, posters, TV and radio broadcasts and can also extend to any other medium.

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Political slogans

Political slogans have a long history of being used as tools of political propaganda. Slogans condense longer messages into short, easily remembered phrases. Slogans are not necessarily a source of factual information. They are a tool of propaganda. They try to convince people to do something they may not necessarily already do.

A political slogan is a memorable phrase which is often used in political speeches, marketing, or advertising. It expresses a key idea in a political campaign. A slogan packs meaning into short sentences. The purpose is to have something noticed and put into the minds of people. When a person is voting, it is hoped that the slogan will come easily to the surface of someone's mind.

Political slogans are distributed in various ways: as advertisements; headlines; mottos; catchphrases; buttons and bumper stickers. Political slogans can be written, spoken, sung, recited, posted, emailed and sent by text message.

Slogans can be very powerful. In Australia two pejorative (negative) slogans could be credited with contributing to the 2004 election loss for the Labor Party. These were 'L Plates for Latham', and 'If Mark Latham can't manage a local council, how can he handle Australia's $800 billion economy?' (Mark Latham was the leader of the Labor Party at the time of the campaign.)

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Political slogans and democracy

Slogans reflect the culture and values of the time in which they were constructed. Many important events that have occurred in the evolution of Australian democracy have had a slogan. One 1967 slogan, for example, was 'Right wrongs, write yes for Aborigines on May 27'. This slogan appealed to voters to vote for amendments to the Australian Constitution with regard to Indigenous Australians.

Democracies give people the freedom to vote. Slogans and political propaganda provide political parties and other organisations with the means to convince people to vote for them. The slogans that are used in any political campaign reflect the values of society at the time.