CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Radic, Petra |
|---|---|
| Title | Towards Conceptual Clarity: Shaping the Research Agenda of Propaganda Studies |
| Summary | In recent years, the role of media in producing dominant social and political narratives has not only been reaffirmed, but also problematized as the main manufacturer of new forms and classifications of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news – all premised and partially explained through the notion of propaganda, and all serving as foundation stones for post-truth politics overall. Considering this, the concept of propaganda is crucial not only for understanding the most relevant issues of the 20th century (when propaganda itself was initially defined), but also for understanding the contemporary struggles of political reality – such as polarization, democratic backsliding, resurgence of political violence, development of hybrid regimes, and more. However, the perpetual fragmentation of its definition and meaning has significantly limited the scope of potential scientific inquiry in the field – leaving contemporary academia with a myriad of definitions and theories of propaganda that have never been empirically tested, expressed, or even theoretically contextualized within grander political narratives. More importantly, the limited empirical work that has been conducted upon such theoretical foundation suffers from inherent biases and poor scholarly practices precisely because of the unsystematized groundwork of propaganda research. In most cases, the operationalization of propaganda in empirical research (and the case selection upon which said operationalization occurs) purely relies on arbitrary choices made by each individual researcher – as there is no alternative structure to follow. This thesis presents a scoping review of the overall field of propaganda studies, with the aim of specifying the outlined issues in scientific approaches to propaganda. |
| Supervisor | Bogaards, Matthijs |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/radic_petra.pdf |
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