Concept
the propagandist as technician
This lesson’s shorthand, not Lasswell’s term: the view in his 1927 book of propaganda as a professionalising field of expertise that studies the ‘technique’ of managing opinion through significant symbols.
“The propagandist as technician” is the shorthand this lesson uses to sum up a view in Lasswell’s 1927 Propaganda Technique in the World War; it is not Lasswell’s own term. The book’s title already foregrounds “technique”. Lasswell limits propaganda to the management of opinions and attitudes through significant symbols and separates it from military and economic pressure .
Later in the book he says “propaganda has become a profession”; he speaks of a corps of men who study the ways of changing minds and expects governments to rely increasingly on professional propagandists . The description of the “expert propagandist” that he quotes from another author lists choosing the target public, picking out the aspects that appeal to it and presenting them attractively . The Turkish dictionary defines propagandacı as “a person who does propaganda” .
This view has two sides: the analysis of a technical profession, and the description of that profession purely as a skill, apart from its purpose. The second is a contested reading and is marked in the lesson as “our interpretation”.
Example
(Documented example.) Lasswell’s streetcar: passengers can be influenced by placards, posters, newspapers, overheard conversations and leaflets; the “working propagandist” explores all these routes .