T2K Propaganda

[General Pain]

What will propaganda look like after ww3?

any ideas my fellow posters?



this is in no way ment to provoke my us friends...I actually agree....hehe

[Rainbow Six]

I think there's a number of forms that propaganda could take in the T2K Year 2000.

I'd imagine that the vast majority of survivors (both military and civilian) are unlikely to have much idea of what's happening outside the immediate area that they live in. I think in a lot of cantonments / communities, there might be some effort at producing some sort of news sheet for local distribution, perhaps something that can be produced on a relatively simple printing press. Obviously what goes in to these news sheets would be entirely at the discretion of the faction controlling the cantonment / community, so can be controlled / manipulated to suit.

The news sheet thus becomes a powerful tool for leaders. There are a host of different ways that one community could cause trouble for another. For example, the leaders of community A may wish to attack community B, so use their local newssheet to falsely blame community B for instigating insurgent like activity. The citizens of community A are outraged by this, so give popular support to an attack on Community B.

As an aside to this, an interesting NPC can be the T2K version of the political spin doctor, who could be either military or civilian.

The same printing presses could also be used to produce propaganda posters, etc.

Additionally, communities who wish to grow, either peacefully or otherwise, would perhaps wish to start spreading the news (or at least their version of it!) more widely, which might give rise to the sort of AM radio broadcasts mentioned in canon (the Kidnapped module??). These broadcasts could also be used for psychological warfare effect...for example community A starts broadcasts aimed at unsettling community B by encouraging B's soldiers to desert / defect (particularly effective if B is defended by a mercenary force), perhaps by offering some sort of incentive.

It wouldn't even need a radio...one guy well concealed within earshot and equipped with a loudspeaker could easily call out something like "Why risk your life for (insert Community B name here)....join us and we'll give you three meals a day and all the beer and women that you can handle...".

Just a few thoughts....

[Badbru]

I suspect there'd be a fair amount of agit-prop style propaganda going on, as detailed in... Urban Guerilla module?

Lot's of Government sanctioned (read -the guys in charge-) carrying out acts of violence on their own populations that clearly look like, and will easily be blamed upon, the enemy, whoever that is, this week. Just to keep that old fear and hatred level up. We can't have peace breaking out now can we, very bad for business.

[Webstral]

I'm thinking posters and paintings will be big for communities that have the ability to produce them. Posters showing the triumphant march of friendly forces (in whatever form) will predominate. Of course, the enemy will be thoroughly demonized, villified, and ridiculed. Lots of cantonments should be able to support a poster-based propaganda.

If there is any print news, it will be highly propagandized. MilGov's cantonment in Colorado ought to have a big enough population base to support print news, provided the materials can be found or manufactured. The Colorado periodicals would make for an interesting study. Obviously, they have to provide a mixture of facts and optimism. In post-Exchange America, facts and optimism aren't going to be natural bedfellows.

Webstral

[Mohoender]

I don't think you'll have much propaganda left in T2K. The only propaganda I can be thinking of would be positive pro-government one in places where government still exist (HMG, Civgov, Milgov, France, Sweden...). What I think about it is that it will focus on the need for the people to support any reconstruction effort. It might also focus on how much better you might be under governmental protection: basically, "surrender what freedom you still have and trade it for security".

I don't think any anti-ennemy propaganda will be left. No true ennemy will remain after some times and there will be no point of using propaganda against them. Moreover, no structure would be left to conceive and use propaganda.

Some very harsh propaganda might remain from the time preceding global collapse. When, the nukes start to fall, both side will do their best to bring the guilt on the other side but that will last for very little time. This pre-twilight propaganda might be very harsh and almost entirely made of lies. Nevertheless, the collapse of government will imply the collapse of organized propaganda or so I think.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

I don't think you'll have much propaganda left in T2K. The only propaganda I can be thinking of would be positive pro-government one in places where government still exist (HMG, Civgov, Milgov, France, Sweden...). What I think about it is that it will focus on the need for the people to support any reconstruction effort. It might also focus on how much better you might be under governmental protection: basically, "surrender what freedom you still have and trade it for security".

That last bit makes me think of New America--especially in western Florida.

Originally Posted by Mohoender

I don't think any anti-ennemy propaganda will be left. No true ennemy will remain after some times and there will be no point of using propaganda against them. Moreover, no structure would be left to conceive and use propaganda.

I don't agree that there will be no structure left. I do agree that the structures producing propaganda will be dramatically different in scale, scope, focus, resources, and application. Propaganda is useful for any government. The more stress and strain a government is undergoing, the more useful propaganda is likely to seem. Strained governments, including warlords, will want to increase public morale. Propaganda is a useful tool in shifting blame from the government to someone else. Legitimate governments and warlords alike will want to convince their people that things are better today than they were yesterday. By the same token, warlords and legitimate governments alike will want to convince their people that things will be even better tomorrow, so long as the people play ball and so long as the enemy du jour doesn't mess it all up.

Originally Posted by Mohoender

Nevertheless, the collapse of government will imply the collapse of organized propaganda or so I think.

I agree with you that national propaganda and televised/radio propaganda will cease, for the most part. Methods and focus will change so much that one might say that pre-war propaganda disappear. The need for a government--any government--to manage the attitudes and thinking of its people won't go away, though.

Webstral

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

I don't think you'll have much propaganda left in T2K. The only propaganda I can be thinking of would be positive pro-government one in places where government still exist (HMG, Civgov, Milgov, France, Sweden...). What I think about it is that it will focus on the need for the people to support any reconstruction effort. It might also focus on how much better you might be under governmental protection: basically, "surrender what freedom you still have and trade it for security".

I don't think any anti-ennemy propaganda will be left. No true ennemy will remain after some times and there will be no point of using propaganda against them. Moreover, no structure would be left to conceive and use propaganda.

Some very harsh propaganda might remain from the time preceding global collapse. When, the nukes start to fall, both side will do their best to bring the guilt on the other side but that will last for very little time. This pre-twilight propaganda might be very harsh and almost entirely made of lies. Nevertheless, the collapse of government will imply the collapse of organized propaganda or so I think.

I see your point. But I must admit that I had a "hidden" reason for this thread.

In our campaign we are now 15 years after the first nuke exchange 8 after the second and 1 year after the last and most globally exchange.. So up to now we have used live TV in our battles and a lot of propaganda to get the public to join us...Sadly the enemy does to....and as they say "In any biznizz venture....promotion promotion promotion" or "any PR is good PR"

[ChalkLine]

I studied propaganda under historiography at uni, it's a fascinating subject.

Propaganda is designed to build and maintain the ideal society to follow government aims, by developing a widespread ideology that promotes government aims.

It is both pro-active and re-active. Propaganda is closely monitored by the propagandist, who watches the reactions to the message and modifies the message to account for those reactions. The successful propagandist is also a political soldier; who fights the political aspect of the war.

The primary aim of a propagandist is dominance of message.
In essence, you must minimise the access other information has to the target, and maximise your own. You can do this by subverting other information channels/sources to carry your message or a variation of your message. Also, you can cut off other routes of information to minimise uncontrollable or hostile information.

There are many different methods and tactics used in information warfare, and many have crept into peacetime political systems that can be used for source material. Tactics such as echoing, source concealment, inference and demonisation are fairly common these days.

T2K gives the propagandist an ideal situation along with serious challenges.

The collapse of globalism and its aspects such as global communications means that the propagandist has far fewer information sources to deal with, and can under emergency powers make some behaviour such as listening to foreign broadcasts illegal. Rumour spreading may have serious legal punishments.
However, the same situation means that less control over the propagandist's target is possible. Dispersed populations and collapsed official news systems means that there may be 'grey outs' in the information theatre, and unknown information sources may exist in these areas that damage the official message.

Often, combat soldiers are prime targets for propaganda, but are also viewed as dangerous channels of information. Rear echelon soldiers in a total war are solely exposed to the official message, whereas combat soldiers are considered (rightly so in most cases) unimpeachable sources of accurate information regarding the enemy. A combat soldier standing up at a train station, rally or cinema and refuting an official statement can destroy credibility in an instant, and many believe they have a duty to refute errors regarding the enemy.
For this reason, military disagreement with propaganda is strictly penalised.

[Targan]

I agree with Webstral that New America would be big on propaganda.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by General Pain

I see your point. But I must admit that I had a "hidden" reason for this thread.

In our campaign we are now 15 years after the first nuke exchange 8 after the second and 1 year after the last and most globally exchange.. So up to now we have used live TV in our battles and a lot of propaganda to get the public to join us...Sadly the enemy does to....and as they say "In any biznizz venture....promotion promotion promotion" or "any PR is good PR"

That's why I talked about pre-global collapse propaganda. What you say make sense.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by Webstral

That last bit makes me think of New America--especially in western Florida.



I don't agree that there will be no structure left. I do agree that the structures producing propaganda will be dramatically different in scale, scope, focus, resources, and application.


Webstral

When I said you will still have it in places where you can find governments that could include local governments. However, I can't imagine it as being an offensive propaganda turned toward the ennemy such as the one used in WWI or WWII. I would imagine it as a promoting propaganda turned toward supporting the local leader in some ways.

For the level of structure left, I like the cannon idea of limited or no structure left and included it in my thinking. However, you'll find propaganda in the Middle East.

It might also be interesting to include the effect of pre-collapse propaganda on the soldiers in the field. That might make Russian soldiers unlilely to assossiate with US troops. After all you would not want to assossiate with these brutal bloody flesh eating Russian or with these kid raping Americans. We all know that US is home to pedophiliacs and serial killers. (no offense but these elements could be used in anti-US propaganda: anti-Russian is obvious so no need to explain what it might be).