English subtitles for clip: File:How does propaganda change our beliefs.webm

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Are you scared to be brainwashed?

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Well, the good news is you cannot,
as brainwash is a legend.

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On the other hand, propaganda can have
a tremendous impact on you.

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[narrator] <i>How does propaganda
change your beliefs?</i>

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<i>This is the University of the Netherlands.</i>

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First, we must understand
there is a difference

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between propaganda and disinformation.

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Disinformation is when you lie on purpose.

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The architect of a campaign
of disinformation will use lies,

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and they will be spread intentionally
to deceive or create confusion.

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Propaganda is different, as it is
going to deal with a gray area in truth.

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It's a strategy of communication
to control people's beliefs.

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Beliefs and lies are
completely different concepts.

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When you lie on purpose,
you know that you lie to people.

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You're not telling the truth.

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When it comes to beliefs,
you don't lie, even if you can invent.

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We all have beliefs,

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whether they are religious,
political, ideological,

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and propaganda is there
to organize these beliefs.

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As such, propaganda is going to
make use of information that are true

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or cannot be proven wrong.

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And that's precisely
what a belief is all about.

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You cannot disprove a belief,

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as it is something
that we choose to believe in,

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even if the evidence
to support it is slim.

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Propaganda exists as soon as we need
to organize societies.

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Every society has certain stories
or beliefs that we rely upon

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in order to bind together
the rest of society.

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The term <i>propaganda</i> was actually
coined by the Catholic Church.

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In 1622, the Catholic Church created

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the Holy Congregation
for the Spreading of the Faith,

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<i>Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide</i>.

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The idea of this organization was
to develop its propaganda

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to get back people from Protestantism
into the Catholic Church.

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The Catholic Church
did not invent propaganda,

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but coined the term and modernized its use.

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There are six principles
that make effective propaganda.

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The first principle is essential.

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Propaganda has to be undetected.

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If you identify it as propaganda,
then it's not going to work.

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If you believe in a myth
or religion or concept,

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you will probably be offended
if it's qualified as propaganda.

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The second principle of propaganda
is that it's emotional.

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It's not supposed to address
the intellect.

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Propaganda has to speak
to hearts and guts.

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The more emotional it is,
the more effective propaganda will be.

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Be emotional,
create an emotional reaction.

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The third principle is that
propaganda is binary.

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It means that propaganda
is going to make the world black or white,

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almost nothing in between.

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It's either this or that.

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The right decision
against the wrong decision.

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Good versus evil.

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The fourth principle
and one of the most difficult to explain

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but very easy to spot
is that propaganda is supposed to be cool.

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It's supposed to be
something that we want,

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not something that is forced upon us.

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Effective propaganda will be cool.

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Difficulty here,
we can all understand <i>cool</i>,

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but it's hard to define
as it depends on trends and societies.

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Cool changes, propaganda remains.

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Propaganda is also supposed to be simple

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and propagandists year after year
say that propaganda has to be

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as simple so that
the stupidest person can understand it.

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Because of its binary nature,
propaganda must be as simple as can be.

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And once message of propaganda is simple,

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they have to be repeated.

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Propaganda is repetitive.
Propaganda is repetitive.

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Propaganda is repetitive.
Propaganda is repetitive.

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To the point that at a certain time,

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we repeat things
sometimes without understanding them.

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They almost become a natural reflex.

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Did I mention propaganda is repetitive?

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Propaganda has been developed
by many organizations throughout centuries

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and is using today
a very powerful toolbox.

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There are several techniques
in propaganda, in total more than 40.

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I'm just going to mention a few
to explain how propaganda is working.

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Those techniques are
not to be easily identified.

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Once again,
effective propaganda is undetected.

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The other difficulty to spot them is that

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those techniques never operate
on their own.

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All those techniques will be

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mixed together to create an effective
propaganda campaign.

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A skilled propagandist should be in charge

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and organize the propaganda
through various media,

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leaders of opinion,
or today's so-called social media.

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The first technique is
pinpointing the enemy.

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It means that the propagandist

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is going to explain
who the true enemy is to its audience.

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It's quite obvious in time of war
but also in time of peace.

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It's playing on the fact
that psychologically,

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we actually enjoy
not being responsible for actions.

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So if a propagandist,
somebody who is using populism,

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is explaining to its people that
if they don't feel good,

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if they feel miserable,

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it's not because of their own actions
but because of an enemy,

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its audience might feel ready
to believe sometimes horrible crimes.

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Finding the right scapegoat is also part
of the work of a skilled propagandist.

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The second technique is assertion.

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Assertion is when you present
your own opinion as a fact.

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Examples will be, "we all know,"

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or in academia when you start
a sentence with, "studies have shown."

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It's an assertion
meaning that you're going to build

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what seems like a logical reasoning
around something that hasn't been proven.

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You're going to present opinions as facts.

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If you hear a speech starting with,
"history has taught us,"

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you can be sure the rest will be
a fine work of propaganda.

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Number three is a shift of scene.

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A skilled propagandist
is going to use the shift of scene

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to divert the attention of its audience
from something that is unfavorable for him

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to a situation that is more favorable.

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For instance, an experienced propagandist
will not answer an embarrassing question.

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Instead, he will argue,

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"That's not a real issue.
This is what we should consider."

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A shift of scene is a trick
that we've seen done by many politicians.

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A huge mass celebration,
like the World Cup or the Olympic Games,

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can also be used as a shift of scene.

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When crowds are busy
supporting their favorite team,

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politicians can pass measures that will be
very unpopular in normal times.

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Sport in general and soccer in particular
are great tools in propaganda.

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Fourth is bandwagon.

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Instead of explaining why the audience
should follow a certain course of action,

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the propagandist is arguing
that everyone else is taking it.

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The bandwagon is basically

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the audience being at the station
and the train leaving.

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The only chance for the audience to join
the train is to jump in the bandwagon.

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Why? Because everybody else is doing it.
So why don't you?

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The bandwagon is playing on the idea that

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as social animal, we need to be
with other people, and that, in general,

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we prefer to be wrong with a hundred other
people than to be right by ourselves.

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Virtue word is also a technique
we can often identify.

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Again, it's always used
in conjunction with other techniques.

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Virtue words will be words used

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by a politician or propagandist
or somebody who wants to move people,

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like religious leader
or leader of a trade union.

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This person will use virtue words,

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such as <i>peace</i>,
<i>happiness</i>, <i>security</i>, <i>freedom</i>.

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They're virtue words
in a sense that defining them

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is extremely difficult
and depends on the concept,

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but everyone perceives them positively.

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All the leaders in the world
are in favor of peace, for instance.

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No one is going
to convince their people by saying,

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"If you elect me,
I will bring you war and misery."

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The propagandist will bring
positive emotion to its audience.

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Now, sometimes war will be required,

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but it's always against the desire
of the propagandist who favors peace,

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security, freedom,
independence, and happiness

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against war, chaos,
slavery, and sadness.

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Now, who is targeted by propaganda?

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Sometimes the target of the propaganda

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is something that is
not very well-understood.

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We tend to believe that
if we are well-educated

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and we read prestigious newspapers
on a daily basis,

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then propaganda is
not going to be able to reach us.

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Actually, propaganda is going to reach
people who are connected to the world.

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So, if we are very well-connected
to the media in general,

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then we can be the target of propaganda.

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If we decide to completely
close ourselves from the outside world,

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then it will be very difficult
for propaganda to find us.

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We, not the others,
are the target of propaganda.

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Pretty much anybody
can be the target of propaganda.

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As long as that person
is living in a society

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and willing to embrace
the idea of the society.

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Propaganda is tricky to spot also because
it has different approaches and names.

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<i>Propaganda</i> is the word
that sounds negative.

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And sometimes we believe that <i>propaganda</i>
is a dirty word from the past.

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It's a term that many people use,

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but most of us don't know that

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<i>public relations</i> is the same
as <i>propaganda</i>.

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Public relations was theorized
by an American called Ivy Lee,

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usually considered to be the inventor
of modern public relations.

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But the person who came up
with the term <i>public relations</i>

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is Edward Bernays.

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He came up with the term because, [coughs]
as the nephew of Sigmund Freud,

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he also knew that we,
the people, are irrational,

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and that you need to convince us not
so much with strong arguments and logic,

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but more by using emotions.

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Bernays worked on propaganda himself

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for the U.S. Army
during the First World War.

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He published, in 1928,
<i>Propaganda: The Public Mind in the Making</i>,

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which is still work
that is used by propagandists.

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That book had a tremendous influence
on propagandists around the world,

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including Joseph Goebbels, the architect
of the Third Reich propaganda

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and its last Führer.

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Bernays understood
that the term <i>propaganda</i>

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had to be rebranded
as it triggered negative emotions.

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Propaganda and public relations
are one and the same.

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It's exactly the same

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except for one difference
which can be massive, the perception.

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Bernays is known for many campaigns,

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but his most famous
might be the "Torches of Freedom,"

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where he created a mythology

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associating the act of smoking for women
to expressing freedom,

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just like Lady Liberty holding a torch.

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He also created trends,
the most-famous one being

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to make the color green fashionable
for American women in 1934.

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The ultimate goal was to make
American women wear green

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so that they would buy Lucky Strike,

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a cigarette brand initially rejected
because of its green package.

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Propaganda still has a negative image,

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whereas <i>public relations</i> sounds
way more positive.

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We ought to Bernays this idea that PR,
<i>public relations</i>, will be positive,

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though it's only
the rebranding of <i>propaganda</i>.

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What about the future? The future
of propaganda is hard to tell, of course,

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but since propaganda has always been there
to accompany humans to develop societies

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like a loyal companion, we can also assume
that in the future there will be some

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and maybe more propaganda.

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First of all, because today we are facing
a phenomenon called <i>hyperinformation</i>,

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meaning we suffer
from an overload of information.

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We have so much data to process,

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we don't know
where to get the right information.

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Therefore, an increasing problem today
is misinformation,

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when we are wrongly informed
with no intention to mislead,

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unlike disinformation,
where lies are being spread on purpose.

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Misinformation is all over the place
because of hyperinformation.

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An example is
when we google an information.

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Google, as a commercial search engine,
does not provide the right information.

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But the most popular ones are the ones
paid for by commercial companies.

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And often, Wikipedia is among
the first results on Google.

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Wikipedia is a wonderful tool indeed.

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It celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021
and aim at organizing knowledge,

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a very ambitious task.

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But Wikipedia is using
a process called "consensual knowledge",

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meaning that if we all agree on something,
then it must be true.

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That's the bandwagon effect.

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Wikipedia is therefore a very fast way
to obtain information,

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but its accuracy is highly debatable.

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Its users don't mind,
as it is fast, free, and true enough,

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meaning probably not completely true,

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but enough for a fast,
free piece of information.

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Because of misinformation

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and the lack of trust
in what used to be called gatekeepers,

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such as journalists, scholars,
experts, and other specialists,

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propaganda can become more powerful,
especially on so-called social media.

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Social media are not real media.

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They're barely social,

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but sometimes can be more trusted
than reliable sources of information.

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As a result, a new form
of propaganda is emerging,

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a smarter one, computational propaganda.

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Algorithms and bots will
be specifically programmed

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to develop the work of propaganda
by targeting each and every person

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directly on so-called social media.

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Instead of speaking
to a large target audience,

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computational propaganda is
now able to tailor its message to each user,

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sometimes giving the impression
of an echo chamber,

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wherein an individual
can be led to believe

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its opinions are supported by many.

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Propaganda is very much alive,
developing its tools,

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and enjoying the information chaos
we are facing as the transition

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from data into information and knowledge
is questioned and even attacked.

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I remember a student at my university
asking why my definition of<i> propagand</i>a

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was different from the one
provided by Google.

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Even academia is not protected
from propaganda.

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But is it even possible
to get some protection from propaganda?

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How can one find protection

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from such a powerful
and constantly changing weapon?

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First of all, the good news is propaganda
is just a tool of communication.

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As such, it's neither negative
nor positive.

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It's a set of techniques
with a dash of art

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that will be used
to control people's beliefs.

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And it seems that,
sometimes, it is necessary.

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Propaganda is necessary in the sense
that we have to organize societies

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and therefore
organize stories and beliefs.

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Propaganda provides orders,
which of course can be dangerous.

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Some leaders might not use it
for the greater good.

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But propaganda can also be useful
for humanity to move to the next step.

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As such, propaganda needs
to be known and understood

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to avoid temporal
or spiritual dictatorships.

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So propaganda is not dead.

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Very much alive.

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Always changing and potentially dangerous.

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If we really want
to protect ourselves from propaganda,

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there are a few useful tips to remember.

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Knowing how propaganda works
is very important.

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I'm always happy when
some of my students or readers

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analyze media articles
or political speeches

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using the propaganda techniques
I explained.

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It's not always possible

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to spot all the techniques
and become propaganda proof.

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But it's manageable
to analyze media, politics, religions,

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or alternative theories

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with a set of tools that was
initially used by propagandists.

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I would also argue
that curiosity is a great weapon

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against propaganda.

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Trying to be as curious as possible

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and trying to understand
why certain people think differently.

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Other people have different beliefs,

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and trying to understand
what they're all about

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can also help understand
one's own beliefs.

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For this, honesty is indispensable.

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Honesty doesn't seem
to be very trendy nowadays,

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but honesty means that sometimes
we have to think against ourselves.

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Thinking against ourselves
is asking ourselves a simple question.

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"What if I was wrong?"

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It doesn't mean we're going to
stop believing in what we believe.

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Maybe our faith will be even stronger.

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But thinking against ourselves
is an effective way to fight propaganda.

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To avoid falling
into the traps of propaganda,

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it's always a good thing
to once in a while ask, "What if?"

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That's why the last tool
I suggest is science fiction.

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Science fiction is a very powerful way
to fight undesirable propaganda

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and one of my favorites.

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Since propaganda is binary

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and explains that the world
is either black or white,

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science fiction is the exact opposite
by always asking, "What if?"

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I often use science fiction
to counter the effects of propaganda

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or to reclaim the use of creativity

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and sometimes regain hope
in troubled times.

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But that is another story,
maybe one for an episode

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of the University of the Netherlands
in the future.

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Thank you for listening.

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