The Rest Isnât Politics: A Podcast
Alastair Campbell: Greetings to the listeners of our podcast, our guest today is the legendary Jeremy Corbyn, former head of the Labour Party. Our topic today is propaganda and its influence on private and public life. Mr Corbin, how do you feel about how the media portrayed you through ridicule, distortion and de-legitimising your role as a political leader in the 2015 Labour leadership contest?
Jeremy Corbyn: Thank you very much for your question and for inviting me here; I think this topic is really important to cover. My family and I have experienced the most terrible insults from some of our media. It was intrusive, it was offensive, it just was not right.
Alastair Campbell: What news or headings was the most shocking for you?
Jeremy Corbyn: According to one headline, “Jeremy Corbyn hailed the prospect of humanity being ‘destroyed’ by an asteroid.” Another newspaper went even further and printed a “mini-novel” predicting what my life would look like if I became prime minister. It is pretty scary, I have to tell you. Then the Daily Express told readers that the great-great-great-grandfather, whom I had never heard of before, was a very unpleasant person and was involved in running the workhouse. There is another journalist who has apparently been hanging around my street a lot and quotes: “Neighbours often see him riding a bicycle in the style of Chairman Mao.” Whenever we see someone on a bicycle from now on, another supporter of Chairman Mao appears. Nevertheless, I want to thank everyone who took part in those elections, in extras and rallies throughout the country. Our party was at its best, democratic, inclusive and growing.
Alastair Campbell: You say that your portrayal in the media has become shocking to you. However, many of us would agree that at some point, your leadership hit a dead end.
Jeremy Corbyn: Your article was also a surprise for me, I did not expect such a wave of criticism from former supporters.
Alastair Campbell: I was aware that I am helping the press to embroil me in the history of Labourâs chaos. I agree that you are a likeable, sincere, good local MP. You inspired hitherto disillusioned young people to get involved in politics and seek to inspire them with positive messages of change. The Labour Party was ultimately powerless in the face of the changes the government was making. I wanted to prepare our voters for Party chaos in the country. Everything I have seen in both the leadership and the Labour Party told me that your ability to lead and keep the party together had been likely to be low.
Jeremy Corbyn: That is, you agree with adding fuel to the fire of propaganda in the media?
Alastair Campbell: No, I do not think I did anything like it, I was sure your leadership faced an âexistential crisisâ. I thought you were unlikely to win a majority in the elections. In 2015, with some sadness but absolute certainty, I have reached the conclusion that I no longer wish to stay in the party. However, that is long gone, and you are also no longer the head of the Party. Let us go back to my original question about the impact of negative media portrayals on your career.
Jeremy Corbyn: Media coverage of my leadership of the Labour party was so hostile that even I would not want to live on the same street as the man I read about in some British newspapers. The media was obsessed with me and waging a campaign to destroy me. I read it from cover to cover on a Sunday afternoon, a wet Sunday afternoon, when I was tidying up my study. At the end of it I put the paper down. This Corbyn guy, God he is evil, I would not want to live in the same street as him. There had been a process of personal abuse against me, against my wife, against my sons, family and so on. And the obsessive nature of the British media, it was quite extraordinary. I had been taken aback by the vitriol he encountered as leader of the party; you cannot be prepared for it. I mean, obviously, in a whole lifetime of political activity, I have had lots of issues where, I think, the media have been very unfair to me.
Alastair Campbell: Have you made any attempts to resist this influx of negativity?
Jeremy Corbyn: Yes, I had called on the Cabinet Office to investigate leaks to the media in which civil servants had suggested that I was too frail to be prime minister. Nobody has been identified as making these remarks, it was this sort of obsessive stuff, which was kind of at one level laughable but all designed to be undermining. It meant every day when I would want us to be pursuing a political agenda on homelessness, on poverty in Britain, on housing, on international issues, what was our media team doing? Rebutting these crazy stories, abusive stories, about me the whole time. Was it unpleasant? Yes, it is unpleasant, yes. Did I feel that I am under a constant microscope? Yes, I did.
Alastair Campbell: Thank you very much for your honesty; as time went on, I do believe that the British media were unfair to you and could have seriously reduced the confidence of the voters. Thanks to Jeremy Corbin for contributing to this episode. I want to remind our listeners not to believe any unsubstantiated information: be careful about the sources you trust.
Jeremy Corbyn: Media as a Mean of Propaganda â Commentary
Goals and Objectives of the Commentary
This work is aimed at studying the phenomenon of negative propaganda as part of political communication that forms the views of voters. To consider an example of negative propaganda, the case of Jeremy Corbyn is viewed. The politician was heavily criticised for the biassed portrayal of him in the media. Such negative coverage shaped the attitude of voters and subsequently could lead to his leaving the post of leader of the Labour Party. This commentary aims to consider the case of Jeremy Corbyn, to identify the tools of propaganda and present methods of combating its negative influence. The commentary makes a significant contribution to the study of the phenomenon of propaganda and is useful for educational purposes for a wide audience to learn to distinguish between objective and subjective political messages.
Overview of Jeremy Corbynâs Case
Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party, has been heavily attacked by the British media. In his speech on the Party meeting in 2015, he claims that the media’s hostile portrayal may have distracted citizens from his political agenda. Corbyn is a long-time leftist who was elected head of the Labour Party in 2015. During the campaign, the Daily Mail published an article about Corbyn titled “Fifty infamous moments that shame him”, claiming that he supported Britain’s enemies throughout his political career. The scathing accusatory headline was accompanied by a cartoon of terrorist fighters lining up to shake hands with Corbyn. This manipulation of fear among voters is a prime example of negative political propaganda. This media intimidation is part of how much political communication depends on the media chosen and how the message is delivered to the audience.
Political Persecution and Negative Impact on Corbyn’s Career
The Labour Party lost the general election a few years later, and this defeat may have been due to the media’s negative portrayal of the party leader. Ultimately, the politician resigned, leaving the leadership to his successor, apparently unable to deal with the growing number of hatreds. Corbyn said the intrusive nature of the British media was unusual for him; he admitted that he was taken aback by the sarcasm he faced as party leader. The most surprising thing for the politician was the fact that not only opponents of his policy, but also former supporters criticised him as a failed leader. Instead of pursuing the political agenda regarding homelessness, poverty in Britain, housing, and international relations, the media published implausible theories.
Political Communication
The case of Jeremy Corbyn is an example of political communication, which aims to convey information to citizens. Political communication is the transmission of political messages through interpersonal, group or mass contacts. Political communication is the exchange of symbols and messages between political actors and institutions, the general public and the media, which are products of, or have consequences for, the political system. Political communication refers to all communication processes, including facts, opinions, beliefs, carried out by participants in the course of political activity. The media perform the functions of an event reporter in political communication, a platform for expressing opinions, an instrument for the organisation. Political communication is a special information and psychological impact designed to change the political consciousness and behaviour of people to achieve the goals of the communicator.
Mass political communication is a tool for influencing mass consciousness and behaviour. It is carried out by special mass media and includes political advertising, political propaganda and agitation. The means of political communication include political propaganda, political PR and political advertising. In this case, negative propaganda using the media has taken place. The emotional colouring embedded in messages about Jeremy Corbyn significantly reduced his support among voters. Propaganda and PR are independent means of political communication, closely related to each other. PR forms in the public mind trust in a political party, political leader or state policy. From a psychological point of view, political propaganda should be considered as a system of political communications designed to change the consciousness and behaviour of people in accordance with political goals. Propaganda is a special type of combined influence aimed at increasing influence and power.
Propaganda
Propaganda is the purposeful formation of public opinion by imposing certain points of view. The main task of this phenomenon is to root in the minds of most people an idea of the world around, beneficial to its source. The information that propaganda imposes can be anything, but at the same time it must be simple and understandable. To ensure that critical thinking does not interfere with the perception of propaganda, propagandists appeal to the basic instincts of people: fear, sympathy, indignation, the desire to protect justice, giving information a powerful emotional colouring. If a person constantly hears the same statement, which is easy to understand and feel, they can believe in any lie. In the case of Corbyn, it was propaganda that took place, not an objective presentation of events. Newspapers called for mass condemnation of Corbyn, manipulating public opinion.
The main function of propaganda is to give a certain power over people. It can refer to a social group, social stratum, or the entire society. If people hold certain beliefs, this greatly affects the decisions they make. They will not suspect that they are controlled by propaganda and that almost all their decisions are predetermined by skilled propagandists. The British media most likely had no truly destructive intent towards Corbyn. A wave of newsbreak worked, which moved from one media to another, as the topic became an agenda. However, propaganda is not always destructive and misleads the target audience. Media can promote self-development, reading books, healthy eating, love of sports and caring for the environment.
Propaganda is clearly divided into two categories, depending on the constructiveness of the goals. This classifier helps distinguish two types of propaganda: positive and negative. The purpose of positive propaganda is education, increasing the level of harmony and concord in society, instilling generally accepted values in people, popularising education and a healthy lifestyle. Constructive propaganda usually benefits not a narrow circle of interested parties, but those to whom it is directed. It does not have the task of manipulating society; it seeks to increase the level of well-being of citizens. Constructive propaganda is necessary for the life of modern society.
Negative or destructive propaganda is usually aimed at inciting social hostility and aggravating contradictions. Its main tool is interaction with primitive instincts through emotions. In particular, it exploits the instinctive desire to defend justice in order to form the image of the enemy and incite hatred. Negative propaganda can take the form of propaganda for destruction, division, intimidation, or desperation. The first type of propaganda is aimed at the whole society, and it is this phenomenon that played a role in the case of Jeremy Corbyn. Destruction propaganda is aimed at forming the image of a conditional enemy, exposing and ridiculing their personality and values. Another effective propaganda technique is to instil a sense of an impending threat. In the case of Jeremy Corbyn, the most effective labelling technique was used: the image of a politician in conjunction with known terrorists.
Propaganda is also divided into channels of information transmission. Television may be considered the most effective propaganda channel. However, the active development of the Internet in recent years has changed the situation. The user of the World Wide Web has much more freedom in choosing sources of information than the TV viewer. Propagandists can take advantage of the fact that users have much more confidence in the information they have found on their own. In the case under consideration, there is a channel for transmitting information using news channels. Paper media is not in such demand, but news on the Internet has never been so popular. The dissemination of information about British politics has reached the widest possible audience.
Regardless of the goals and objectives set, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness, the principles of propaganda must be observed. They usually include invisibility, emotional colouring, binary, desirability, simplicity and repetition. The consumer of information should not know that it is propaganda. The more emotions a propaganda message evokes, the more effective it is, even if it contradicts the laws of logic. Any propaganda tries to divide the world into white and black, leaving no intermediate options. People are more willing to accept the version of events that is preferable to them or corresponds to the ideas they already have.
The propaganda message should be as simple, accessible and unambiguous as possible. The more times people hear a certain statement, the less they have doubts about its truth. In the case under consideration, the principles of simplicity were used, since the message was distributed through headlines and pictures. The obscurity of propaganda was achieved by active discussion of the campaign and emotionality called for a sense of justice. Repetition was achieved through ubiquitous dissemination in various media. The messages are absolutely binary, as they do not represent any positive information. Finally, the message was desired by the audience, since the people often do not trust the authorities.
Media as an Agent of Propaganda
Current political gains depend on the control of mass communications such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, which are important access points for the general population. The primary role of the media is to provide information and report on critical events taking place in the world. The media are important to people and politicians because they shape the democratic process, such as reporting news, discussing current issues that need to be revisited, and enabling people to actively participate in public affairs. However, the downside of the media is that it influences how the general population can react, and the media shape public opinion. Journalists should be objective in their reviews; however, they often neglect this principle in order to cover the current agenda. The nature of media coverage matters because it is completely controlled by the government.
There is a concern about the influence of journalistic preferences as they influence one’s particular point of view. There are three types of media bias: visibility, tone, and agenda. They characterised the distortion of visibility as one political candidate receiving more media coverage than the competitors in newspapers, on television, in magazines, and this is a consequence of the fact that the political competitor has comparative qualities. Tone bias is defined as assessments reported in the media being systematically more favourable to one political party than to other parties. This bias occurs when the media in party politics share good or bad statements made by either side. Agenda bias occurs when government officials will be featured on a talk show or given an interview about specific topics, they are willing to talk about because they know it will grab the attention of the public.
Bias arises because journalists or editors choose to ignore certain news items. Sentiment bias is more common among voters because their conclusions change because what they read, hear, watch, or discuss can change when it comes to a topic of interest to them. Media news reports need balance in general, and this has appeared in almost every election. In addition, the media do activate public expression and influence the government during campaigns. The prejudices of the authors, and then the authoritative publications, were decisive in the case of Jeremy Corbyn. The bias of the authors of the original articles, perhaps pre-ordered by opponents, led to the defeat of the Labour Party leadership in the long run.
The Perception of Propaganda through Media
In order to appreciate how much Corbyn’s political career may have suffered due to media reports, it is necessary to understand how strongly society perceives negative political propaganda from this source of communication. The Sun, its sister paper The Sun on Sunday and The Daily Mail published the highest percentage of negative stories about the new leader. They are followed by The Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, with 83% of their reporting being considered negative. Of the 292 pieces of news, 181 pieces were negative and only 19 were positive. Thus, it can be unequivocally concluded that Corbyn was portrayed ineffectively in the British media, and the number of these reports was high.
The negative image of the politician becomes fundamental, and every subsequent news outlet continues this trend, and the negative attitude towards Corbyn becomes the default position. However, despite the negative media portrayal, 2015 saw a resurgence in Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity, along with active condemnation. Thus, including the negative PR of the media, attention was drawn to the candidacy of the politician. The negative propaganda effect kicked in a few years later when Corbyn unexpectedly lost all of his earned support for the electorate. It can be assumed that the strong and bright leadership of the Labour Party was more important to voters at the time of 2015 than the possible omissions of the politician emphasised in the media.
For a propaganda message to have such a broad affect, propaganda must choose the media to which the potential audience is most receptive. News publications on the Internet are the most profitable means to reach the maximum audience. Moreover, people more often turn to the media during elections and other active political campaigns. Most people in this current time of information overload are consciously or unconsciously trying to cope with severe communication overload. There is a dispersion of information, and many people often perceive information selectively. In order for a media message to successfully achieve the goals of influencing the audience, it is necessary to choose authoritative publications for the transmission of messages. The publications that disseminated messages about Jeremy Corbyn were quite authoritative, so information through these media was perceived successfully.
People mostly turn to political communication not because they want to learn something new, but in order to find confirmation of their opinion. When propagandists get people’s attention by placing messages in the few media people listen to, in order to successfully reach an audience, they must craft a message that does not stray too far from what people already want to believe. The audience tends to feel distrust of the authorities and is more willing to believe reports that a politician is not living up to expectations. Such information is easy to present with the help of online publications, using visualisation tools. From a psychological point of view, such a message will be successful in reaching a wide audience.
Another point that should be taken into account when analysing the audience’s perception of propaganda through the media is the insufficient level of people’s trust in the media. The most effective form of propaganda will be the combined use of the media and communication channels with reference groups. By establishing control over influential members of society, such as public figures, propaganda can achieve its goals of reaching the maximum number of audiences. It is necessary to prepare materials for the media, specifically designed to reach certain groups, which can then broadcast information to other people. This strategy is usually used by the major news outlets, which always target powerful members of society with their propaganda. In the case of Jeremy Corbyn, mass communication through channels within reference groups worked.
The audience for the propagandist can be divided into adherents of the transmitted messages, neutral-minded and opposition citizens. Neutral people or opponents are not affected by even the strong pressure of propaganda, if it is not supported by social pressure. Jeremy Corbyn has come under similar combined pressure as the social prejudices of a widely debated topic has made neutrals and opponents alike doubt their position. A similar effect was achieved mainly due to the mass nature of political communication, which was obtained because of the distribution through the media.
The Impact of Political Propaganda
Negative propaganda can ruin a career, prevent an election from being won, or damage a politician’s reputation. However, propaganda is dangerous not only at the political level, but at the general public level. Propaganda is aimed at suggesting the only correct opinion by forcing a person to switch to automatic perception without much thought. The main thing that propaganda does is turn on an automatic reaction in the majority of the population. Repetition is the main tool, the more times a message has been repeated, the larger part of the population will automatically perceive the proposed reaction. It is no coincidence that Corbyn’s negative portrayals were picked up by a wave of media, and the relevance of the agenda made it possible to constantly repeat the same topic.
Propaganda is dangerous not only because of the global impact on the mass consciousness, but because of the tools used. The main weapon that propaganda uses to successfully reach the audience is pressure on the pain points of the mass consciousness. A well-executed trigger is capable of independently evoking associations in the mass consciousness. In the case of Jeremy Corbyn, it was the images next to the terrorists that created potential fear in the audience. The message being spread could be taken with a strong association of fear towards the politician.
Negative propaganda threatens the psychological state of a person by imposing and implementing symbols. This is particularly successful in the case of Corbyn, who still cannot shake off the prejudice due to his caricatured images. In the minds of the audience, first of all, caustic headlines and caricatures will appear, and only then, the real face of a politician. Such associations are subsequently difficult or almost impossible to destroy.
Another side effect of propaganda is undermining public pressure. First of all, propagandists or neutral citizens may become distrustful of the authorities if politicians are portrayed in an unflattering and caricatured way. All recipients of political communication may begin to distrust even large and trusted media. In this case, the state will not be able to convey any message to the electorate, which creates a dangerous socio-political situation.
Thus, propaganda by influencing the mass consciousness of the audience has a negative effect on the mental state, the ability to critically perceive information of a wide number of people. Positive propaganda, for example, of a healthy lifestyle should be an integral part of society. However, in order to reach her audience, it must pursue ethical goals and follow the right methods. Manipulation, intimidation, appeal to primitive emotions and the pressure that negative propaganda uses have a bad effect on society.
Control over Propaganda
One of the most effective methods of combating the spread of false and discrediting propaganda information is social control. In the context of a democratic society, propaganda should be freely available to any of the parties; however, this does not minimise its negative effects. The ideal democratic system implies public and long-term competition between propagandists, so that only the most useful to society remain through selection. Achieving such a result requires a high level of education in society so that citizens are not confused by the conflicting flow of information. The democratic system also assumes that a large amount of reliable information will be distributed by relatively public and uncensored news and educational outlets. However, it is clear that such a structure of the system will not be achieved for a long time, and public figures like Jeremy Corbyn risk facing the negative consequences of propaganda.
Ways to Counter the Negative Influence
In the ideal structure of society under a democratic regime, propagandists compete with each other, creating an opportunity for everyone to agitate and attract supporters. However, achieving such a scenario requires significant efforts on the part of the state. In addition, it is difficult to balance between healthy propaganda and manipulation, to defend freedom of speech and fight against clogging the mass consciousness. At this stage, each person must independently be able to cope with the negative influence of propaganda and be able to recognize manipulation.
The only common effective way is to increase the general level of education and literacy of the population. The smarter a society becomes, the more difficult it will be to manipulate. Society must independently desire to progress and develop. The first way to combat the negative influence of propaganda is to develop critical thinking. This skill is extremely useful both in everyday life and to combat the imposition of someone else’s point of view. Critical thinking helps in the selection of sources, gives causal relationships, teaches to generalise and structure the information received. It is possible to develop the skill of critical thinking through constant reading, observing people and sharing experiences. If a person has the skill of critical thinking, propaganda will not be able to manipulate them.
When choosing sources for reading news, one must rely on reputable publications whose news are recognized as objective and are not made in anyone’s interests. People cannot rely on only one source of information to form their opinion on the issue of interest. It is advisable not to believe anything completely, even if the phenomenon seems unambiguous from the very beginning. Taking into account different points of view with the analysis of the arguments of each of the parties is the most effective way to find out the truth. When using this critical approach, it becomes easier to recognize the manipulation of emotions and symbols. The skills of recognizing true information among the abundance of different points of view is necessary for a modern person. Continuous self-education is the responsibility of the modern citizen who wants to participate effectively in the process of political communication.
Conclusion
Political communication is a broad phenomenon aimed at conveying information to citizens. An example of political communication is propaganda, which convinces the audience of its own point of view. The recent media pressure on Jeremy Corbyn is an example of a negative political propaganda campaign. Negative media portrayals may have undermined the political career of the head of the Labour Party. Society must learn to resist propaganda and recognize manipulation. The most effective method is the development of critical thinking skills, which allows the citizens to distinguish subjective messages from objective ones.
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