[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Propaganda, like economics and sociology,can never be an exact science for the reason that itssubject-matter, like theirs, deals with human beings.If you can influence the leaders, either with orwithout their conscious cooperation, you automaticallyinfluence the group which they sway.But mendo not need to be actually gathered together in apublic meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to theinfluences of mass psychology.Because man is bynature gregarious he feels himself to be member ofa herd, even when he is alone in his room with thecurtains drawn.His mind retains the patterns whichhave been stamped on it by the group influences.A man sits in his office deciding what stocks to buy.He imagines, no doubt, that he is planning his pur-chases according to his own judgment.In actualfact his judgment is a melange of impressionsstamped on his mind by outside influences which un-consciously control his thought.He buys a certainrailroad stock because it was in the headlines yester-day and hence is the one which comes most promi-49 Propagandanently to his mind; because he has a pleasantrecollection of a good dinner on one of its fasttrains; because it has a liberal labor policy, a reputa-tion for honesty; because he has been told thatJ.P.Morgan owns some of its shares.Trotter and Le Bon concluded that the groupmind does not think in the strict sense of the word.In place of thoughts it has impulses, habits and emo-tions.In making up its mind its first impulse isusually to follow the example of a trusted leader.This is one of the most firmly established principlesof mass psychology.It operates in establishing therising or diminishing prestige of a summer resort, incausing a run on a bank, or a panic on the stock ex-change, in creating a best seller, or a box-officesuccess.But when the example of the leader is not at handand the herd must think for itself, it does so bymeans of cliches, pat words or images which standfor a whole group of ideas or experiences.Notmany years ago, it was only necessary to tag a politicalcandidate with the word interests to stampedemillions of people into voting against him, becauseanything associated with "the interests" seemed nec-essarily corrupt.Recently the word Bolshevikhas performed a similar service for persons whowished to frighten the public away from a line ofaction.By playing upon an old cliche, or manipulating a50 The Psychology of Public Relationsnew one, the propagandist can sometimes swing awhole mass of group emotions.In Great Britain,during the war, the evacuation hospitals came in fora considerable amount of criticism because of thesummary way in which they handled their wounded.It was assumed by the public that a hospital givesprolonged and conscientious attention to its patients.When the name was changed to evacuation poststhe critical reaction vanished.No one expected morethan an adequate emergency treatment from an insti-tution so named.The cliche hospital was indeliblyassociated in the public mind with a certain picture.To persuade the public to discriminate between onetype of hospital and another, to dissociate the clichefrom the picture it evoked, would have been an im-possible task.Instead, a new cliche automaticallyconditioned the public emotion toward these hospi-tals.Men are rarely aware of the real reasons whichmotivate their actions.A man may believe that hebuys a motor car because, after careful study of thetechnical features of all makes on the market, hehas concluded that this is the best.He is almostcertainly fooling himself.He bought it, perhaps,because a friend whose financial acumen he respectsbought one last week; or because his neighbors be-lieved he was not able to afford a car of that class;or because its colors are those of his college fra-ternity.51 PropagandaIt is chiefly the psychologists of the school ofFreud who have pointed out that many of man'sthoughts and actions are compensatory substitutesfor desires which he has been obliged to suppress.A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worthor usefulness, but because he has unconsciously cometo see in it a symbol of something else, the desire forwhich he is ashamed to admit to himself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl przylepto3.keep.pl
.Propaganda, like economics and sociology,can never be an exact science for the reason that itssubject-matter, like theirs, deals with human beings.If you can influence the leaders, either with orwithout their conscious cooperation, you automaticallyinfluence the group which they sway.But mendo not need to be actually gathered together in apublic meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to theinfluences of mass psychology.Because man is bynature gregarious he feels himself to be member ofa herd, even when he is alone in his room with thecurtains drawn.His mind retains the patterns whichhave been stamped on it by the group influences.A man sits in his office deciding what stocks to buy.He imagines, no doubt, that he is planning his pur-chases according to his own judgment.In actualfact his judgment is a melange of impressionsstamped on his mind by outside influences which un-consciously control his thought.He buys a certainrailroad stock because it was in the headlines yester-day and hence is the one which comes most promi-49 Propagandanently to his mind; because he has a pleasantrecollection of a good dinner on one of its fasttrains; because it has a liberal labor policy, a reputa-tion for honesty; because he has been told thatJ.P.Morgan owns some of its shares.Trotter and Le Bon concluded that the groupmind does not think in the strict sense of the word.In place of thoughts it has impulses, habits and emo-tions.In making up its mind its first impulse isusually to follow the example of a trusted leader.This is one of the most firmly established principlesof mass psychology.It operates in establishing therising or diminishing prestige of a summer resort, incausing a run on a bank, or a panic on the stock ex-change, in creating a best seller, or a box-officesuccess.But when the example of the leader is not at handand the herd must think for itself, it does so bymeans of cliches, pat words or images which standfor a whole group of ideas or experiences.Notmany years ago, it was only necessary to tag a politicalcandidate with the word interests to stampedemillions of people into voting against him, becauseanything associated with "the interests" seemed nec-essarily corrupt.Recently the word Bolshevikhas performed a similar service for persons whowished to frighten the public away from a line ofaction.By playing upon an old cliche, or manipulating a50 The Psychology of Public Relationsnew one, the propagandist can sometimes swing awhole mass of group emotions.In Great Britain,during the war, the evacuation hospitals came in fora considerable amount of criticism because of thesummary way in which they handled their wounded.It was assumed by the public that a hospital givesprolonged and conscientious attention to its patients.When the name was changed to evacuation poststhe critical reaction vanished.No one expected morethan an adequate emergency treatment from an insti-tution so named.The cliche hospital was indeliblyassociated in the public mind with a certain picture.To persuade the public to discriminate between onetype of hospital and another, to dissociate the clichefrom the picture it evoked, would have been an im-possible task.Instead, a new cliche automaticallyconditioned the public emotion toward these hospi-tals.Men are rarely aware of the real reasons whichmotivate their actions.A man may believe that hebuys a motor car because, after careful study of thetechnical features of all makes on the market, hehas concluded that this is the best.He is almostcertainly fooling himself.He bought it, perhaps,because a friend whose financial acumen he respectsbought one last week; or because his neighbors be-lieved he was not able to afford a car of that class;or because its colors are those of his college fra-ternity.51 PropagandaIt is chiefly the psychologists of the school ofFreud who have pointed out that many of man'sthoughts and actions are compensatory substitutesfor desires which he has been obliged to suppress.A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worthor usefulness, but because he has unconsciously cometo see in it a symbol of something else, the desire forwhich he is ashamed to admit to himself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]