This is no April Fool’s joke.

In a recent post I wrote about the potential for social media, or rather social media content, to be used as propaganda.  It’s a definite possibility.

There’s another thought that I want to add to my theory in this area.  Normally, we think about propaganda as being “pushed” at us.  You turn on the TV, open the newspaper (Yes, Virginia, there still are newspapers, at least for now.), pick up a magazine, and there it is.  You don’t need to live in the classical dictatorship to experience propaganda.  It’s everywhere.

In these cases, propaganda is pushed at us.  We don’t actually seek it out.  When we pick up that paper or magazine or turn on the TV we might actually be seeking something else, but are made to settle for what’s presented to us.  Not so with social media.

With social media, we actively seek out the topics we want.  We head to the sites with the skewed information that will tickle our fancy.  We don’t settle; we select.  We’re pulled to what might be just a polemically slanted view on something that only serves to further the writer’s own personal causes.  Or, it may have a larger impact than that.  What we select from, we all know, is not always true and often supports one point of view or the other.  That’s part of what social media is about, freedom of information and freedom of selection.  But social media is also becoming about the freedom to delude ourselves.

It’s the “pull” propaganda phenomenon, representing a major shift in how we deal with our world.

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There’s a great book on the idea of propaganda.  It’s titled, quite cleverly , Propaganda, and subtitled The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.  Now, this is a really great book.  It’s a classic work in the theory of communication.  I’ve had this book in my library for quite a while, since I read it as a college sophomore taking his first course in communications.  This book is somewhat “thick” in its 1962 writing style, but if you can stay with it the book can greatly enlighten you into the basics of communication, and help you understand just what propaganda really is and how it can affect people.  Keep in mind that the author’s primary focus is in the area of political communication.  My focus is in the area of communication for commercial purposes, but we can still use Propaganda as a jumping off point for the effect that social media is having upon business.

Written by Jacques Ellul, the author talks about ten factors that need to be present in order for propaganda to be effective.  When I reread these factors recently, it was very interesting to see that many of them can be applied to social media.  Let’s just discuss one for now.

For his first factor, Jacques says that to be successful propaganda needs to address both the individual and the masses at the same time.

This seems curious.  Why would he say this?  Jacques explain his reasoning by saying that the individual is of no interest to the propagandist because “as an isolated unit he presents too much resistance to external action.”

He goes on to say that propaganda looks to reach persons who are participants in a group, meaning those that possess common interests.  The propagandist wants to target individuals in a group because, per Jacques, the group is bound together by emotionalism, impulsiveness, and excess, and as such they are considered as not being “alone.”  The propagandist leverages this group relationship and dynamic and uses it to exert influence on each individual and ultimately the group.

Think about this.  Really think about this.  It appears that Jacques is describing an environment which is much like social media.   Social media address the individual from within a group. Social media is both a tool of mass communication and one of individual communication.  It is “mass” because its public messages can be read by anyone with access to the Internet.

Yet social media’s communications are also individualized because:

1) they are often addressed to persons taking part in a community of common interest (the topic area of the blog or social network) and, as such are somewhat specific and not general in nature; and,

2) because a feedback loop is provided (e.g., the comments in a blog) a conversation can be created between the site author and each reader, individually.  (In reality, a conversation between the author and each reader is probably impractical, yet it is possible.)  Commenters may even address each other, providing ample opportunity for sub-currents of propaganda.

Many of these comments are created in an air of emotionalism and impulsiveness created by the nature of the social medium itself, anonymous, free-wheeling, open, and candid.  Note that Jacques said that this type of group atmosphere is a factor in exerting influence on the individual.  ( I bolded those words above for easy reference.)  So what’s this mean for business?

It means that yes, of course social media could be used as a propaganda tool.  Any communications medium, when placed in the “wrong” hands, can be used to “distort” an image or meaning.  Surely, much of that is done, and has been done, in the “traditional” media.  Just check with the lunatic fringe.  They’re very anxious to discuss their theories on that.

But seriously, with such a tool as social media in the hands of millions of people, most of whom never had a writing or research lesson in their lives, a serious risk is posed to businesses every day.  How do businesses minimize this risk?

They gotta get in the game.  Get in the game.

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