Johan Farkas, editors: Stockemer, D., Sawyer, S., Gagnon, A. Propaganda, IPSA Companion to Political Science2026.
Academic Field:
Political Science
Topic:
News and journalism, Concepts in social sciences and humanities

Propaganda has been called “the defining political communication topic of our time” (Freelon & Wells, 2020, p. 145) alongside associated phenomena of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news. Digital media environments have enabled new forms of persuasion and manipulation, including through AI-generated content, micro-targeted advertising, and networks of fake profiles on social media. This has led to debates and concerns about a potential new era of “post-truth politics” (Bjola, 2018, p. 305). As scholars remind us, however, propaganda has a long and complex history, with technological developments throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—from radio to the internet—being appropriated for propaganda (La Cour, 2020). Accordingly, it is important to avoid both ahistoricism and technological determinism when assessing propaganda and its implications.

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