motive of the issuer. In a large, free country like the United States, this
is a very difficult and complicated task. In a nation which has a dictato-
rial or one-party government controlling all media of communication, or
in a small nation, it is possible to work out an analysis of the major propa-
ganda pressures operating within the country.
When a whole nation is too large an area, the area of analysis can
be cut down by procurement of materials from a single city, province, or
zone. The important point about area analysis consists of getting a repre-
sentative sampling (such as all the newspapers published in Rome or
Munich or Shanghai on a given day).
¶41.
TIME OR DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS. In order to find
out what a single propaganda source is doing, the source should be covered
day by day, week by week, or month by month. The content of the source
can be broken down into percentages (of time, for radio; of columns or
square inches, for printed material). The emphasis will become plain as
soon as the different percentages are noted on ordinary graph paper.
Further study will show what the source is trying to accomplish with each
emphasis.
142. STRATEGIC PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS. For generaliza-
tions about the over-all opinion of a given national group, it is necessary
to count as propaganda everything to which the persons concerned have
access. For these purposes, it does not matter whether movies have a
propaganda slant or not; the fact that 69 percent may have no propaganda
slant will itself be a propaganda factor of prime importance. The propa-
ganda presentation consists of all public information to which the persons
concerned have access. The propaganda operator must consider the propa-
ganda presentation--that is, his own materials and all other public communi-
cations, whatever the kind--before he can even guess the success of a given
technique. National morale (before, during, and after war) cannot be gauged
by a single propaganda :source, but must include a scheduled appraisal of
all the contributing factors to the public opinion of the nation concerned.
143.
PROPAGANDA IDENTIFICATION.
The propaganda analyst
will find that there is no magic formula by means of which he can un-
failingly identify propaganda. Human beings are highly communicative and
almost all two billion of them talk a great deal of their waking time. Propa-
ganda is distinguished from conversation, education, private quarrels,
recreation, romance, ordinary monologues, etc., by the fact that it is
communicated intentionally. It is not the content of the communication,
but the motive which impels it, which distinguishes propaganda from non-
propaganda. This is like saying that propaganda is propaganda when it is
propaganda; to a certain extent this unsatisfactory definition is correct.
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