Using case studies from recent American military interventions, examines propaganda as an intertextual process, one in which discourse is recontextualized faithfully by multiple parties over time. Explores how messages are constructed, performed, and recontextualized in new and diverse situations.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Approaching Propaganda with a Critical Eye
Part 1: Defining Propaganda and Historicizing America’s Wars in the Middle East
1. Theorizing Propaganda: Intertextuality, Manipulation, and Power
2. The Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror: A Brief History
Part 2: Manufacturing an Atrocity
3. How the Incubator Story Became news: The Power of Performative Semiotics
4. Keeping War Fever Alive: The Circulation of the Incubator Story
Part 3: Infiltrating Network News
5. Message Force Multipliers: Rewarding Recontextualization
6. Enacting and Entextualizing the Voice of the Expert
7. The Evolution of a Talking Point
Part 4: The Art of the Slogan
8. “Support Our Troops” as Portable Text and Cultural Tradition
9. “Support Our Troops” as Vertical and Horizontal Propaganda
Conclusion: War Propaganda and the Prospects for Resistance
Appendixes
A Studying Discourse in Context
B Factors Facilitating Detachability and Recontextualization
C Data and Methods for Intertextual Analysis of the Incubator Story
D Transcript of Nayirah’s Performance at the HRC
E Generic Components of George H. W. Bush’s Incubator Allegations
F Featured News Analysts and News Broadcasts
G Incentives for Recontextualizing Pro-war and Pro-government Claims
H Analysis of Speech Act Verbs
I Recurring Themes in News Analyst Discourse
J Themes Repeated by Analysts and Administration Officials
K Reports About Aluminum Tubes in Classified Documents and Public Discourse
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“A timely and thoughtful challenge to our terrifying political misinformation culture that relies on numerous sophisticated modes of deception. John Oddo makes an important distinction between democratic civic rhetoric that fights for human rights and undemocratic propaganda that reinforces power. His detailed and convincing intertextual critical analyses demonstrate the dangers of war propaganda and reveal propaganda’s tragic consequences in human suffering.”
—Gae Lyn Henderson, co-editor, Propaganda and Rhetoric in Democracy: History, Theory, Analysis
