Spreading of deliberate fabrications or exaggerations about the crimes committed by an enemy
Atrocity propaganda is the spreading of information about the crimes committed by an enemy, which can be factual, but often includes or features deliberate fabrications or exaggerations. This can involve photographs, videos, illustrations, interviews, and other forms of information presentation or reporting.
The inherently violent nature of war means that exaggeration and invention of atrocities often becomes the main staple of propaganda.[1] Patriotism is often not enough to make people hate the enemy, and propaganda is also necessary.[2] "So great are the psychological resistances to war in modern nations", wrote Harold Lasswell, "that every war must appear to be a war of defense against a menacing, murderous aggressor. There must be no ambiguity about who the public is to hate."[3] Human testimony may be unreliable even in ordinary circumstances, but in wartime, it can be further muddled by bias, sentiment, and misguided patriotism.[4]
According to Paul Linebarger, atrocity propaganda leads to real atrocities, as it incites the enemy into committing more atrocities, and, by heating up passions, it increases the chances of one's own side committing atrocities, in revenge for the ones reported in propaganda.[5] Atrocity propaganda might also lead the public to mistrust reports of actual atrocities. In January 1944, Arthur Koestler wrote of his frustration at trying to communicate what he had witnessed in Nazi-occupied Europe: the legacy of anti-German stories during World War I, many of which were debunked in the postwar years, meant that these reports were received with considerable amounts of skepticism.[6]
Like propaganda, atrocity rumors detailing exaggerated or invented crimes perpetrated by enemies are also circulated to vilify the opposing side.[7] The application of atrocity propaganda is not limited to times of conflict but can be implemented to sway public opinion and create a casus belli to declare war.
^MacDougall, Curtis D., Understanding Public Opinion: A Guide for Newspapermen and Newspaper Readers (New York: Macmillan, 1952) pp. 101–102
^Rogerson, Sidney (1938). Propaganda in the Next War. Great Britain: MacKays Limited. p. 27.
^Delwiche, Aaron. "Domestic Propaganda During the First World War". Retrieved 12 November 2012.
^Ponsonby, p.128
^Linebarger, Paul M.A. 1954. Psychological Warfare (2nd ed.) New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, as cited in: Budge, Kent. "Propaganda". The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
^"Inventing Atrocities". National Review Online. 10 August 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
^David L. Miller (2013). Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action: Third Edition. Waveland Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1478610953.
and 24 Related for: Atrocity propaganda information
Atrocitypropaganda is the spreading of information about the crimes committed by an enemy, which can be factual, but often includes or features deliberate...
ideological underpinnings, such as atrocitypropaganda, propaganda dedicated to nationalism and patriotism, and propaganda focused on women. The media was...
British propaganda took various forms, including pictures, literature and film. Britain also placed significant emphasis on atrocitypropaganda as a way...
Indian atrocities and the treatment of American prisoners. In the United Kingdom, the Political Warfare Executive operated a number of black propaganda radio...
Works" or "Tallow Factory" was one of the most notorious anti-German atrocitypropaganda stories circulated in World War I. In the postwar years, investigations...
Nayirah testimony came to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocitypropaganda. Nayirah's story was initially corroborated by Amnesty International...
An atrocity crime is a violation of international criminal law that falls under the historically three legally defined international crimes of genocide...
skeletons) German Corpse Factory, one of the most notorious anti-German atrocitypropaganda stories to be circulated during World War I Lampshades made from...
Marlin notes that atrocitypropaganda is used to demonize wartime enemies. He writes, for example, that during World War I, British propaganda accused German...
of enemy atrocities. The goal of this was to demoralize the opponent into thinking what was being projected was actually true. Most propaganda efforts...
The Congo Free State propaganda war was a worldwide media propaganda campaign waged by both King Leopold II of Belgium and the critics of the Congo Free...
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial...
no other evidence. These invented atrocities tainted the report and have made it an often cited example of propaganda and psychological warfare. By the...
notably the Crimean Tatars. In another video, a follow-up to the atrocitypropaganda Crucified boy-series of videos, acting as "punishers", members of...
appreciation. Cyberwarfare by Russia Crucified boy – 2014 Russian atrocitypropaganda story in Ukraine Information warfare – Battlespace use and management...
(1980) ISBN 040508854X Originally published 1898. Read, James Morgan. AtrocityPropaganda, 1914-1919 (1972) ISBN 978-0405047602 Originally published for the...
the benefit of both hindsight and detachment from the emotions, atrocitypropaganda, and political ideologies of the period, Weber alleges that German...
anti-German atrocitypropaganda campaign during WWI, which was widely known to be false by 1945. During the 1930s, the Nazi government used this propaganda against...
atrocities. The Americans wanted to ensure that the German people would take responsibility for Nazi crimes, instead of dismissing them as atrocity propaganda...
Japanese propaganda attributed this not to any disgust Americans felt for Japanese atrocities in China, but simply to more effective Chinese propaganda. Frank...
Accusation in a mirror (AiM) (also called mirror politics, mirror propaganda, mirror image propaganda, or a mirror argument) is a technique often used in the context...
In the United States, propaganda is spread by both government and non-government entities. Throughout its history, to the present day, the United States...
Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda; RMVP), also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda (Propagandaministerium)...
were caught smuggling their work out of the ghetto. Accused of "atrocitypropaganda", they were arrested on 20 July 1944 and tortured at the Small Fortress...
Global Information