A
study about the EU’s use of information campaigns
Key
points:
“The
European integration and peace project called the European Union
(EU), has various forms of information campaigns to influence
citizens. Media such as the European Commission‘s video "Low
inflation with a limbo dancing euro" and other similar messages
are propaganda. Propaganda is "the acceptance of government
policies by the people on the basis of the partial picture of issues
offered by mass media, denying them access to alternative views,
which might lead to opposition of policies" and "persuasive
mass communication that filters and frames the issues of the day in a
way that strongly favors particular interests." The agenda
behind the video and other EU messages are trying to keep the euro
and the EU together. Last year the European Union spent $3.98 billion
on information campaigns and marketing; a capacious amount of money
for an organization going through financial trouble.”
“The
hypothesis asserts the European Union‘s use of traditional and
social media on the Eurozone crisis is propaganda because the EU
information campaign‘s messages are partly false, made to
influence, appeals to emotion, serves an agenda, only presents one
side of an argument, few points, presents popular opinion and the
messages say different things but have the same meaning. The study
classified messages in the information campaigns as propaganda if
they had some characteristics of the criteria previously explained.”
“EU
member states had no one to blame but themselves. The EU on the other
hand, started blaming the United States and the Lehman Brothers for
the Eurozone crisis through its information campaigns on social and
traditional media outlets. The EU messages created resembled
propaganda. The EU is mostly a non-democratic institution; only
European citizens directly elect the European Parliament. Political
appointments fill the rest of the six EU‘s institutions positions.
The EU never established true political legitimacy and is struggling
with economic legitimacy during the crisis; the information campaigns
provide insight into the insecurity and self-perceived weakness of
the integration and economic project.”
“The
European Commission released more Eurozone crisis propaganda than the
rest of the EU institutions analyzed. The European Parliament
released more messages relating to the Eurozone crisis but the
messages from the European Parliament had less propaganda elements.
[...] The study concludes that the European Commission released the
highest amount of Eurozone crisis propaganda. [...] The study found
that the European Commission released more Eurozone crisis messages
with propaganda elements than any other European Union institution.”
“The
study concludes twitter releases the most messages but YouTube
releases the most messages with propaganda content. [...] The study
concludes YouTube has the highest average of Eurozone crisis
propaganda videos.”
“Gatekeeping
is the process of selecting, writing, editing, positioning,
scheduling, repeating and otherwise massaging information to become
news. It describes the news selection process that operates under
several layers of influences from the individual to the routine,
organization, social institution and social system levels. Agenda
setting is a situation where critics perceive inexplicit political
motives (or an institutional tendency to overlook underprivileged
perspectives) to lie behind the choice of topics covered (e.g. in
news, current affairs, and documentaries), their relative importance
(inferred from sequence and/or the relative amounts of space or time
devoted to them), how they are presented, and what issues are back
grounded or excluded. While some EU journalism-type articles fall
under gatekeeping and agenda setting theories, the scope and
limitations of this study do not allow for the two theories to be
fully explored. Consumers of EU news articles should be aware of
these two theories when consuming EU journalism style news messages.”
“Propaganda
was been used widely in the past, and probably will continue to be
used into the future. The EU is not truly a democratic institution,
analyzing EU media provides insight into the democratic deficit and
struggle for political legitimacy the EU is currently facing. Further
studies include analyzing all of the EU‘s institutions social media
accounts for propaganda elements and exploring the democratic deficit
the EU currently faces. Also, exploring gate keeping and agenda
setting theories in EU news articles.”
Source:
Comments
Post a Comment