Contents
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Approaching Propaganda with a Critical EyePart 1: Defining Propaganda and Historicizing America’s Wars in the Middle East1. Theorizing Propaganda: Intertextuality, Manipulation, and Power2. The Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror: A Brief HistoryPart 2: Manufacturing an Atrocity3. How the Incubator Story Became news: The Power of Performative Semiotics4. Keeping War Fever Alive: The Circulation of the Incubator StoryPart 3: Infiltrating Network News5. Message Force Multipliers: Rewarding Recontextualization6. Enacting and Entextualizing the Voice of the Expert7. The Evolution of a Talking PointPart 4: The Art of the Slogan8. “Support Our Troops” as Portable Text and Cultural Tradition9. “Support Our Troops” as Vertical and Horizontal PropagandaConclusion: War Propaganda and the Prospects for ResistanceAppendixesA Studying Discourse in ContextB Factors Facilitating Detachability and RecontextualizationC Data and Methods for Intertextual Analysis of the Incubator StoryD Transcript of Nayirah’s Performance at the HRCE Generic Components of George H. W. Bush’s Incubator AllegationsF Featured News Analysts and News BroadcastsG Incentives for Recontextualizing Pro-war and Pro-government ClaimsH Analysis of Speech Act VerbsI Recurring Themes in News Analyst DiscourseJ Themes Repeated by Analysts and Administration OfficialsK Reports About Aluminum Tubes in Classified Documents and Public DiscourseNotesBibliographyIndex
John Oddo is Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University and the author of Intertextuality and the 24-Hour News Cycle: A Day in the Rhetorical Life of Colin Powell’s U.N. Address.
“John Oddo provides a much-needed theoretical update to the concept
of propaganda. Central to his theory is recognition that propaganda
involves an intertextual process that allows it to propagate—both
vertically and horizontally—throughout society. His book provides
valuable insights into the mechanisms of this propagation, showing
how even unwitting actors contribute to its circulation. The
discussion holds important implications for how we might immunize
democratic discourse from the harms of manipulative rhetoric.”—Adam
Hodges, author of The “War on Terror” Narrative
“Oddo's analysis of propaganda supporting recent US military
actions reveals that the effect of propaganda lies in the
intertextual uptake within social systems by which messages spread
and transform, taking on their own viral life. By implication, the
art of propaganda depends on understanding intertextually linked
social systems, having the authority and power to activate those
systems for replicating messages, locating diverse motives that
will increase the spread, and designing messages that will
reverberate in multiple systems. The appearance of social media now
increases the visibility, rapidity, and intensity of these
processes, making Oddo's analysis especially timely.”—Charles
Bazerman, author of A Rhetoric of Literate Action
“John Oddo's book takes great strides in political discourse
studies, bringing together a wealth of rhetorical,
sociopsychological, and critical linguistic approaches and applying
them to decisive texts in the contemporary world. Exploring
American discourses of the Gulf War and the War on Terror, he
develops a new theory of propaganda, which provides a viable handle
on several hitherto underresearched yet crucial aspects of
propagandistic discourse, such as intertextuality and (forced)
recontextualization.”—Piotr Cap, University of Lodz
“In a period of fake news, troll factories, and WikiLeaks, John
Oddo shows how propaganda circulates covertly, manipulates publics,
and threatens democracy. Taking a novel approach in The Discourse
of Propaganda, Oddo reveals the intertextuality of propaganda by
studying some of the U.S. military’s most consequential campaigns
in the Middle East.”—Shawn J. Parry-Giles, coauthor of Memories of
Lincoln and the Splintering of American Political Thought
“John Oddo’s The Discourse of Propaganda is a timely and
provocative follow-up to his elegant Intertextuality and the
24-Hour News Cycle (2014). Grounded in discourse analysis, the book
is not only a powerful argument for reconsidering the concept of
“propaganda” and a persuasive analysis of the role of propaganda in
the Iraq invasion public discourse, but also a useful model for
methodologically robust rhetorical analysis.”—Patricia
Roberts-Miller, author of Demagoguery and Democracy
“A timely and thoughtful challenge to our terrifying political
misinformation culture that relies on numerous sophisticated modes
of deception. John Oddo makes an important distinction between
democratic civic rhetoric that fights for human rights and
undemocratic propaganda that reinforces power. His detailed and
convincing intertextual critical analyses demonstrate the dangers
of war propaganda and reveal propaganda’s tragic consequences in
human suffering.”—Gae Lyn Henderson, co-editor, Propaganda and
Rhetoric in Democracy: History, Theory, Analysis
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |