The Propaganda Society

Modern capitalist democracies have increasingly become propaganda states in which governments work assiduously to manufacture public consent to its preferred views and definitions of events and corporations seek to displace the figure of the worker from the public discourse in favor of the persona of the pleasure-seeking consumer. So argues Sussman (urban studies and communication, Portland State U.), who presents 18 papers exploring how government and corporate propaganda operate under contemporary conditions across a range of cases and situations. Specific topics include branded entertainment, social networks as marketing machines, neoliberal propaganda in Berlusconi's Italy, corporate discourse on climate change, cause marketing as commercial propaganda, celebrity philanthropy in the service of corporate propaganda, pornography as propaganda, the legitimization and delegitimization of other countries' elections (comparing media and government representations of elections in Honduras and Iran), the rhetoric of the "Global War on Terrorism," propaganda and high finance, and the Canadian system of state propaganda. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gerald Sussman is Professor of Urban Studies and Communication at Portland State University, where he teaches graduate courses in international community development, political economy, political communication, and media studies. His latest book is Branding Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe (Peter Lang, 2010). He is also the author of Global Electioneering: Campaign Consulting, Communications, and Corporate Financing (2005) and author or editor of three other books. Professor Sussman serves on a number of academic journal editorial boards as well as the Community Advisory Board of Portland, Oregon’s public broadcasting station, KOPB.