Foreign Propaganda Research Articles

The Enlightenment Committee of Hamburg-Bremen and the Nazi Seizure of Power: the Case of "Self-Coordination"?

The subject of the study is the "coordination" of the Enlightenment Committee Hamburg-Bremen after the Nazis came to power. The purpose of the study is to characterize the process of including this organization in the system of the state apparatus of Nazi Germany. The article analyzes documents from the collections of Russian, German and British archives. The study revealed that the attitude of the Enlightenment Committee Hamburg-Bremen to the Nazi regime was due to a number of reasons: the negative impact of the world economic crisis of 1929-1933 and, against this background, increased interaction with the state even before the Nazis came to power; the rapprochement of some Hamburg and Bremen entrepreneurs with the Nazi Party at the decline of the Weimar Republic due to the success of the party in local and national elections; the rapid process of "coordination" of Hamburg and Bremen and their chambers of commerce after the Nazis came to power; dissatisfaction with the existing system of foreign propaganda, hopes for its strengthening in new conditions. The article shows that the management of the Enlightenment Committee Hamburg-Bremen itself sought to make the organization under the control of the Hitler regime, therefore, even before officially joining the structure of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, it carried out personnel "coordination" and began to produce materials in a pro-Nazi manner. In Nazi Germany, the Hamburg-based organization came under state control and was provided with stable funding and other support. The previous areas of activity have been preserved and strengthened. The result of the study is the conclusion that in relation to the Enlightenment Committee Hamburg-Bremen, we should not talk about forced "coordination", but rather about "self-coordination".

Postępowanie władz czeskich i położenie ludności polskiej na Śląsku Cieszyńskim w okresie przedplebiscytowym (luty 1919–lipiec 1920) w świetle dokumentów z Archiwum Instytutu Józefa Piłsudskiego w Ameryce

The subject of the article is the conduct of the Czech authorities towards Poles and the situation of the Polish population in Cieszyn Silesia in the period from the end of February 1919 to July 1920. The aim of the considerations was to identify and describe selected phenomena characterizing the situation of the Polish population and Polish-Czech social tensions, contributing to the deepening of the Polish-Czechoslovak dispute over Cieszyn Silesia in the pre-plebiscite period. The research material consisted of documents from the Archives of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in America, and auxiliary documents as well as studies from scientific literature were used too. The analysis of the presented material allows us to conclude that Polish messages indicated numerous manifestations of the anti-Polish activities from the Czech authorities in Cieszyn Silesia. Czech propaganda and agitation activities, persecution and attempts to bribe the Polish population, obstruction of the development of Polish education, and the use of the army and gendarmerie to support the Czechization of the region were taken into account. An important role was assigned to paralyzing the professional activity of Poles in workplaces, especially in the mining industry. The activities of the German minority and Silesian circles in destabilizing the region and strengthening Polish-Czech social tensions were noted. Reference was made to the resettlement of the Polish population and the Czech foreign propaganda aimed at supporting the policy of Czechoslovakia in gaining international support for Cieszyn Silesia.

Sound Japanese corpus to help Jiangmen's cultural and tourism industry develop in high-quality

Nowadays, epidemic prevention and control are fully liberalized, the domestic economic situation is good, and the tourism fever climbs. The hit of the TV series "Rampage" made Jiangmen tourism become a popular tourist city for a while. For this reason, it is urgent to improve and supplement the translated foreign propaganda materials of Jiangmen attractions promptly, and at the same time increase its language variety, to help Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges, and then enhance the international influence of Jiangmen attractions. By analyzing the current situation of Japanese corpus translation of domestic attractions, combining with the existing Japanese corpus translation of foreign attractions that can be learned from, using the knowledge learned to try to supplement the Japanese translation materials of Jiangmen attractions, and providing reference opinions for the key issues raised.

Analysis of English Translation of Folk Culture Texts in Northern Shaanxi

With the implementation of the cultural Go Out policy, in order to promote the protection and development of national historical and cultural cities, folk culture in northern Shaanxi has gradually come into the public's view. However, there are still signifcant problems in the English translation of northern Shaanxi folk culture foreign propaganda. Based on the author's on-site research, this article points out the errors in the publicity of folk culture in northern Shaanxi, and takes cultural consciousness as the core, starting from two aspects of seeking common ground and reserving differences . From the view of seeking common ground , it is necessary to appropriately compile the origi-nal text and delete from the original text, and respect for different cultures. From the view of reserving differences , translation methods such as transliteration and annotation are used to respect the original culture and improve the quality of translation, outlining exquisite images of northern Shaanxi's folk culture and effectively spreading the folk culture.

A Study of the Russian Translation and Outreach Paths of the Maritime Cultural Terms in Zhufanzhi under the Perspective of Corpus Translation

Chinese civilization is rich in maritime consciousness and has a long maritime tradition. As a book containing maritime culture, the study of Russian translations of maritime cultural terms in the Zhufanzhi helps to disseminate maritime culture to the outside world and to show the uniqueness of China’s maritime culture. This paper uses a corpus approach to classify and analyse in detail the translation methods used for the maritime cultural terms in the book. It is found that the translators mostly used direct translation, phonetic translation and annotation method for the Russian translation of marine culture terms in Zhufanzhi. By analysing the translation results and combining the background of the times and communication theories, four reasonable and feasible translation paths for foreign propaganda are proposed.

Research on English Foreign Propaganda Translation and External Communication Paths Based on Multimodal Analysis Approach

Abstract In this paper, a multimodal phrase corpus is created, enabling phrases to be searched automatically. The phrase structure is constructed through phrase centroids, and multilevel linguistic measurements are obtained for vocabulary, syntax, and parts of speech styles. A joint feature analysis model for the automatic conversion of English-Chinese machine translation is constructed through distributed feature fusion and joint parameter analysis. Linear statistical features and feature analysis detection are utilized to compute the optimal solution for English-Chinese machine automatic translation text. The graph embedding technique was used to pretrain the knowledge graph and obtain information about the network structure. Combined with the graph convolution technique, deep semantic information mining was carried out to achieve efficient content matching and cultural dissemination. It has been proved that the method of this paper has an AUC value of 0.921 and a satisfaction rate between 80% and 95% in English-translated movie data. The proposed method can accurately translate information from English to foreign propaganda content, which further promotes the development of international cultural exchange and communication.

ПОЛПРЕДСТВО АДОЛЬФА ИОФФЕ: КРИЗИСНЫЙ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ МЕЖДУ МОСКВОЙ И БЕРЛИНОМ В ИЮЛЕ 1918 Г.

The article puts into scientific use the materials of the Soviet Embassy in Berlin which was opened according to Brest peaceful treaty and operated since April till November 1918. Lack of reliable telegraph connection led to substantial volume of correspondence between A. Ioffe and V. Lenin together with G. Chicherin who determined the Soviet foreign policy. In the chaotic process of formation the Bolshevik political regime the relationship between them went far outside the framework of departmental subordination, and Ioffe cut off from Moscow had to repeatedly assume strategic decisions. Owing to diplomatic blockade of the Soviet Russia his activity fell outside the scope of his duties as an envoy, in his reports he gave the general analysis of German internal economic and military situation, supported close contacts with local left socialists and supervised Soviet foreign propaganda. After count Mirbach, German ambassador, was killed in Moscow 6 July 1918, it was Ioffe who was able to prevent violent political unrest in Soviet-German relationship which threatened to resume military operations between two countries.

Building the Network of Bulgarian Trade Agencies in the Ottoman Empire at the End of the 19th Century – Challenges, Problems, Solutions

The article examines the challenges in the construction of the network of Bulgarian trade agencies in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century. Although they officially have consular functions, the Bulgarian representations are an important part of Prime Minister Dr. Konstantin Stoilov’s strategy for solving the Bulgarian national question and the accession of Macedonia to the Principality of Bulgaria. Their task is to counteract the development of foreign propaganda in European Turkey and to become a coordination and management center of Bulgarian legal and illegal organizations. Therefore, the Bulgarian trade agents encountered opposition not only from the Ottoman authorities, but also from the consuls of the neighboring Balkan states and Russia – contenders for the distribution of the Ottoman heritage in the Balkans. The author uses the rich archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Denominations in Sofia to show the solutions of the Prime Minister to the main problems and to analyze the result of their implementation.

Remembering the anti-Soviet partisan war in Lithuania, 1944–1953: The effects of heroization at different levels of remembrance

The collective-level heroisation of the armed resistance (1944–1953) against the Soviet occupation in Lithuania faces various challenges, which initially address the threat posed by foreign propaganda or the legacy of Soviet period narratives. However, in this article, I argue that the difficulties in constructing a hero-freedom fighter from the partisan past lie in the exaltation of the ‘right’ type of behaviour at the ‘wrong’ time of occupation. As collective (political)-level memory portrays heroic resistance, the ‘memory consumers’ within families of different generational experiences mediate meanings and react to them with certain strategies. This reveals rather painful aspects of remembering collaboration and being on the ‘wrong side’, although the heroic image of the partisan aims to foster pride in the conflictual past. The Lithuanian case illustrates more general challenges in the intersection of individual, communicative and structural (political) memory in a country that experienced transformational regime change and commemorates the difficult past.

Subtitling Translation of Foreign Propaganda Documentaries from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

As an important component of Chinese culture, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is receiving increasing attention in the world. Documentary is a multimodal communication medium that integrates elements such as text, image, sound, animation, and so on, effectively promoting the international dissemination and development of TCM culture. Based on the theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis by Delu Zhang, taking the documentary Our Traditional Chinese Medicine released by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an example, this paper analyzes the subtitling translation of the documentary from the cultural, textual, expressive aspects, and the aspect of content, and explores the use of language, image, voice, action and other modes and their cooperation. The result shows that the subtitling translation of Our Traditional Chinese Medicine utilizes multiple modalities to enhance the expressiveness and logic of documentaries, thereby improving the effectiveness of external dissemination.

Analyzing the Impact of COVID-19 on China’s International Image

At the end of 2019 the first outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections occurred in Wuhan, prompting the China government to take up lockdown measures to stop the outbreak from spreading. This showed that the country’s pursuit of administrative efficiency against the epidemic came at the expense of the universal values of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Moreover, the central government’s slow response to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 and its concealment led to it quickly spreading around the world. For this reason, U.S. President Trump’s administration frequently used the term “Chinese virus” in place of its proper terminology.Although China has been actively building up its image as a “great nation that has succeeded in fighting epidemics” through its “Global Foreign Propaganda” campaign and diplomatic actions, it has still been criticized by European countries, the United States, and other countries at international conferences. The United States and other countries formally blamed China for COVID-19 and asked for compensation, and even anti-Chinese sentiments in the international community have arisen. Although China has employed its “Global Foreign Propaganda” campaign and various diplomatic actions to refurbish and build up a heroic image of fighting against the epidemic, the international community still questions the integrity of its government and its political propaganda purposes.

Profils du concept de Pologne dans la revue Polska en 1968. Étude des textes de propagande extérieure à destination des lecteurs du premier, du second et du tiers monde

This paper examines the profiles of the concept of Poland based on a corpus of foreign propaganda texts published in French and Slovak in 1968. The texts analysed come from three magazines: La Pologne, Polsko and La Revue Polonaise, created by political decision of the communist leaders to disseminate a positive image of Poland abroad. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that the three profiles of the concept of Poland, aimed at first, second and third-world audiences, are different from each other due to differences motivated by extra-linguistic factors, and in particular, the various objectives of the country’s foreign policy. The study is inspired by the work of the Lublin School of Ethnolinguistics on the linguistic representation of reality. Its methods make it possible to identify variants of the representation of an object through the examination of textual data, such as the ways of naming it, the semantic relations of synonymy and antonymy, or the series of its aspects mobilised in the discourse.

The Strategy Research of the Foreign Propaganda Translation of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials in Longxi County, Gansu Province in the Perspective of Communication Science

The Strategy Research of the Foreign Propaganda Translation of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Materials in Longxi County, Gansu Province in the Perspective of Communication Science

Пропаганда антинаучных взглядов Т. Д. Лысенко на страницах французских периодических изданий в 1930-х ‒ 1940-х гг.

The article is devoted to foreign propaganda of T. D. Lysenko’s views on the nature of heredity and variability. Articles from French communist periodicals are used as an example. The article?s relevance is determined by understudied issue of the Lysenkoism promotion in France, although it is known that his doctrine, which was close to Lamarckism, was being implanted after 1948 in the countries of the socialist camp and criticized by the British and American biologists. The historical picture of purposeful promotion of anti-scientific views criticizing fundamental genetics has been reconstructed in materials of French periodicals and documents deposited in the T. D. Lysenko fond in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (fond 1521). To determine the political factors that influenced international scientific relations between Soviet and French scientists, the documents from the Political Bureau of the Central Committee fond of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (fond 3) have been used. When describing popularization of Lysenkoism in France, an integrated approach has been chosen, as it takes into account various factors (political, ideological, cognitive) that determined penetration and reception of scientific ideas. Using newspapers and magazines as historical source have permitted to detail the phenomenon, to supplement the available information with new facts, and to revise established notions. It is shown that T.D. Lysenko’s figure came into the spotlight in the French press as early as the late 1930s, when a campaign began in the Soviet Union against Mendelism-Morganism, called metaphysical-idealistic bourgeois science by the party elite. In those years, such scientists as N. I. Vavilov, G. D. Karpechenko, S. G. Levit, I. I. Agol were arrested and repressed. In 1948, with J. V. Stalin support, Lysenko organized the August session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, where representatives of classical genetics were accused of sabotage. Lysenko claimed that his experiments were aimed at increasing productivity of agricultural crops and solving food security issues. The Soviet bureaucracy saw innovation and bold struggle against old scientific dogmas in populist statements of the “People's Academician.” The fight against genetics was not limited the territory of the USSR, almost all socialist countries were involved. However, the leading scientific powers (the USA and Great Britain) actively resisted penetration of the works of Soviet Lysenkoists into scientific and popular publications. The exception was France, which had long-standing scientific contacts with the Soviet Union. Information on the “victory” of Michurin Biology over genetics at the 1948 Agricultural Sciences Session was widely presented on the pages of French liberal publications. It is shown that the French scientific community was not categorically opposed to Lysenkoism for a number of reasons, among them spread of communist ideas in the country, stability of Lamarckian traditions, cooling diplomatic relations between the USSR and the USA, desire of the Soviet leadership to make France its political ally.

Иностранная комиссия Союза писателей в 1960-е гг.: приоритеты, особенности работы, вызовы

The Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers’ Union, founded at the same time as the Union in the 1930s, was supposed to follow the principles and techniques generally accepted among Soviet institutions of foreign propaganda, but the practice of this institution differed due to the human factor and the specific nature of the writers’ profession. In the 1960s, the priority of the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers’ Union was personal contacts with foreign writers, as well as interaction with international organisations such as European community of writers (COMES), PEN-Club and the Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau. The Commission was also involved in the struggle for influence over Third World writers, and this struggle developed in competition with Cuba and China. Nevertheless, it was not foreign policy factors that led the Writers’ Union to isolation at the end of the decade, but campaigns against writers and dissidents inside the country. The Sinyavsky–Daniel trial paved the way for a deeper crisis following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. By creating a semblance of well-being with the help of statistics, the Commission’s staff was aware that the prestige of Soviet literature had been severely damaged.

Russian strategic narratives on the Arctic region: embedded in strategic documents and narrated by RT and Sputnik

ABSTRACT In the context of Russia’s aggressiveness towards the ex-Soviet bloc since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Moscow’s messaging concerning other “spheres of interest’ has largely been overshadowed by Russia’s activities in its Eastern near abroad. This paper examines Moscow’s framings of the Arctic through the lenses of its Strategies from 2013 and 2020. The purpose is to extract the core strategic narratives and ‘read between the lines’ so that an evaluation can be made of how Moscow perceives the Arctic, defines its interests and assesses the prospect for future confrontation in the region. This provides the basis for the second part of the paper which investigates the way in which two Russian propaganda vectors – RT and Sputnik – presented Moscow’s strategic narratives for the Arctic between 2014 and 2021. Based on this analysis, the paper concludes that although RT and Sputnik act as vessels for Moscow’s strategic narratives, they also reveal Russia’s frustrations and misperceptions that are embedded in programmatic documents. The findings reinforce recent scholarly literature which claims that Russian media vectors of foreign propaganda are more complex than simple tools for disseminating misinformation and blatant lies.

Türkiye’nin Kamu Diplomasisi Aracı Olarak Sinema Faaliyetleri (1923-1945)

Dünyanın hızla küreselleştiği son yüzyıllık dönemde yaşanılan teknolojik atılımlar, devletlerin ülke içerisinde ve dışarısında politika üretimlerine yönelik önemli değişiklikler meydana getirmişlerdir. Medyanın Soğuk Savaş döneminde artan gücü, politikada önemli bir unsur haline gelen kamuoylarını çok daha ileri noktaya taşımıştır. Savaşın getirdiği yıkım devletlerin, sert-kaba güce dayanan politikalar yerine yumuşak güce dayanan politikalar üretmesini gerektirmiş, bu durum ise devletlerin dış politikalarında diğer devletleri ve onların kamuoylarını dikkate almalarını zaruri kılmıştır. Bloklar arasında sıcak çatışmanın yerini alternatif araçların aldığı 1945 sonrasındaki dönemde Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nden (ABD) başlayarak tüm ülkeler yeni bir nüfuz mücadelesi alanı olarak kamu diplomasisine yönelmişlerdir.
 Türkiye, yaşanan değişimden çok daha önce 1923 yılından itibaren ülke sınırları içerisinde yaşanılan değişimi aktarmak, ülkenin tanıtımını yapmak amacıyla dış propaganda, tanıtma isimlendirmeleriyle kamu diplomasisi faaliyetleri gerçekleştirmiştir. Sinemanın manipülatif gücü, Türkiye’nin ülke tanıtımını gerçekleştirmek için sinemaya yönlendirmiş, 1923-1945 yılları arasında ülke imajı amacıyla sinema konusu önemli bir faaliyet olarak ele alınmıştır. Çalışma bu çerçevede Türkiye’nin erken sayılabilecek döneminde ülke imajı, ülke tanıtımı için kamu diplomasisi aracı olarak sinemayı nasıl değerlendirdiğini, hangi kurumlar üzerinden süreci kurguladığını analiz etmektedir. Çalışma, Türkiye’nin kamu diplomasisi amacıyla kullandığı dokümanter filmleri ve yurt dışında hangi ülkelerde izlettirildiği, ayrıca sinema bahsi üzerinden kamu diplomasisini eksik yönlerini değerlendirmektedir.

Socialist Yugoslavia’s Efforts to Democratize International and Intercultural Communication: A Reappraisal

In this article, I present an annotated (re)reading of some of my research and writings on mass communication and the development of socialist democracy in Yugoslavia published during the last two decades of the existence of this multinational federation before its sudden and violent collapse. The article is conceived as a reappraisal of key ideas and results of some empirical research I designed and conducted in the 1970s and 1980s until Slovenia’s independence in 1991. They include many diverse topics, such as communication between republics in Yugoslavia, foreign radio propaganda and the performance of the Tanjug news agency, news gathering and editorial gate-keeping, and development of communication science as a scientific discipline in Yugoslavia.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOL ‘SOCIAL BEARING’ TO COMPREHEND FOREIGN PROPAGANDA RELATED TO PAPUAN SEPARATIST ISSUES

Foreign intervention in interfering with domestic affairs is a violation of international law. The intervention was in the form of massive propaganda about Papuan separatists carried out on social media Twitter so an analytical tool was needed that made it easier to understand propaganda by foreign parties. The purpose of this study is to determine the implementation of social media analysis tools in the form of Social Bearing to understand foreign propaganda related to the Papua issue. This research is qualitative research using Modern Propaganda Theory. The results showed that Twitter account propaganda could be identified easily through the use of the Social Bearing analysis tool so that the @FreeWestPapuaNL account propaganda techniques and techniques could be identified and visible in the 11 results of the Social Bearing analysis, the account used pervasive propaganda methods while the propaganda techniques were Testimony and Card Stacking. These propaganda methods and techniques constitute a violation of international law due to foreign intervention in Indonesia's internal affairs. For this reason, Indonesia must reaffirm at international forums that the Papua problem is a domestic problem for Indonesia. In addition, foreign parties massively spread content about Papuan separatists, both from their tweets and by sharing tweets from other Twitter accounts. The use of separatist issues is more massive when there are moments that are closely related to the Papuan separatist issue

Comrades-in-Arms and Partners in Crime: The German Democratic Republic (GDR) and China in the 1950s and 1960s

This article analyzes the quality of selected aspects and issues regarding relations between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and China in the 1950s and early 1960s. How was Chinese dictator Mao Zedong’s Hundred Flowers Campaign perceived and interpreted in East Berlin, and why and until when was GDR leader Walter Ulbricht enthusiastic about Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward are among the questions this article will seek to answer. As it turned out, East German leaders’ assessments and newspaper reporting on Mao’s domestic and foreign policy and government propaganda did not in any way correspond with China’s on the ground realities. The East German authorities took Chinese propaganda and entirely false statistics and data on steel and agricultural production at face value and ordered its mouthpiece newspapers to do the same. The same was true for Chinese reporting and propaganda on Ulbricht’s decision to divide Berlin with a wall in 1961: misleading and nonsensical reporting in support of a fair-weather friendship, which in the wake of the Sino-Soviet Split in the early 1960s would turn into enmity (as ordered by Moscow).