Conversations with Gerhart Hauptmann

Ewen, David

doi:10.2307/40076734

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

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“…PR is frequently invoked and studied as part of contemporary and past disinformation processes, but is the invocation redundant? Since the beginning of the 20th century, PR has sold itself as expert disinformers-for-hire, first in war propaganda (domestic and foreign) and then in peacetime, trailblazed by PR godfather Edward Bernays’ pseudo-events: events strategically organized to appear spontaneous or “natural” (Boorstin, 1961; Ewen, 1996). Depending on how one defines disinformation, as, say, intentionally deceptive information, it could conceivably include most PR and advertising.…”

Section: Critique Ii: Disciplinary Unneighborliness 5psmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. (p. 9) This means of "manipulation" he originally called "propaganda," then PR (the former term having acquired unfavorable associations with attempted systematic brainwashing; Ewen, 1996). Bernays' assertion points to the need for a more historical DS, to understand what remains of an instrumentally deceptive kind of communication practice and form as it passed from different media, print to radio, film, television, and into social media (and their "intermediality"), where it seems to thrive as never before.…”

Section: Prmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 15. Of the many historical works on elite liberal anxiety about extending power to the “masses,” see Kahan (1992); Borch (2012); and on the 20th-century apparatus of political (including communication processes) professionalization that simplifies and supposedly makes mass liberal democracy more functional (though not necessarily informative), see Bernays (1928); Ewen (1996); Johnson (2017); Sheingate (2016); Lees-Marshment, Strömbäck, & Rudd (2010); and Serazio (2017). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Three Critiques of Disinformation (For-Hire) Scholarship: Definitional Vortexes, Disciplinary Unneighborliness, and Cryptonormativity

Harsin

2024

Social Media + Society

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This article presents three critiques of disinformation scholarship, with an emphasis on “for-hire.” The article argues that disinformation is defined in unpromising and contradictory ways. Concepts have ontological and epistemological repercussions, and thus far, disinformation scholarship has failed to engage them. Partly because scholars are studying disinformation even when they do not use that word to label their work, the article argues that explicit disinformation scholarship tends to neglect neighboring fields and scholars—the second critique. By most definitions of the term disinformation, neighbors are researching the same object domain, which could provide rich resources for scholars newly attracted to “disinformation”: propaganda, public relations, promotional culture, political consulting/marketing, and post-truth studies. It discusses the neighbors’ deep historical and contemporary research on for-hire deceptive communication, including that pertaining to social media. The third critique argues that disinformation scholarship has a cryptonormative tendency, evident in language of disorder, threats, dysfunctions, and pollution; it therefore needs more overt normative justification (or defense of anti-normativity). The cryptonormativity also entails a tendency toward ethnocentrism. The article ends by questioning whether disinformation is conceptually suitable for the theoretical work with which it tasks itself.

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Section: Critique Ii: Disciplinary Unneighborliness 5psmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prmentioning

confidence: 99%