Propaganda 2.1: Understanding Propaganda in the Digital Age

by Peter K. Fallon

Overview

As the Internet Age endures and expands, Peter K. Fallon peers into the Pandora's Box of our age. A twenty-first century update to Jacques Ellul's masterful sociological study Propaganda, Propaganda 2.1 explores how the 'digital revolution' has transformed the boundaries between individuals, institutions, and centres of power. Coupling historical analysis with a wealth of current examples, Fallon exposes the intricate and insidious ways propaganda alters our daily realities. Propaganda 2.1 is divided into three sections: propaganda 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1. Propaganda 1.0 compares the popular conception of propaganda with persuasive techniques such as rhetoric and coercion; 2.0 reveals how the development of moveable-type printing built the foundations of modern propaganda; and, finally, 2.1 inhabits the 'post-truth' world in its totality. Whilst the media landscape continually shifts, Propaganda 2.1's analysis is an opportunity to tackle this new reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780718897666
Publisher:	The Lutterworth Press
Publication date:	06/27/2024
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Peter K Fallon is the author of two award-winning books, Why the Irish Speak English (Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book, 2007) and The Metaphysics of Media (Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship, 2010), and a third book, Cultural Defiance, Cultural Deviance (2013). He was active in the Occupy movement between 2011 and 2012, supports the Catholic social justice movement (Pax Christi), and is an associate of the Sinsinawa Dominicans.

Fallon spent twenty-three years in television, seventeen of those years at the NBC News TODAY program in New York before leaving the news business in 1999 to teach full-time. Working in what he called “the news racket,” Fallon learned firsthand about both the power and reach of propaganda 2.0.

His work has been profoundly influenced by three people: his teacher in New York University's Media Ecology program, Neil Postman; Jacques Ellul, theologian and author of Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes; and his father, James P. Fallon Sr., who emigrated from Ireland to the United States at the age of eleven.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Writing in the tradition of media-ecology scholars such as Jacques Ellul and Neil Postman, Peter Fallon takes on the subject of propaganda with intelligence, insight, and moral clarity. Coupling historical context with contemporary analysis, Propaganda 2.1 is essential reading for anyone concerned about the contemporary media environment and where we may be headed in the years to come.”

—Lance Strate, Fordham University



“Propaganda 2.1 is a timely contribution to digital-literacy education. After a thoughtful rereading of Ellul’s classic work, the book offers in a lucid exposition a wealth of original research and insights into the changing nature of propaganda in the twenty-first century. No student of media or reader who wants to better understand and defend themselves from the new generation of propaganda in the digital age can afford to ignore this extremely resourceful book.”

—Casey Man Kong Lum, William Paterson University



“Propaganda 2.1 is a brilliant contribution to our fragile planet and civilization. . . . The picture is bleak, but Fallon shows how the emergence of the World Wide Web and various internet technologies can open up new possibilities—not just QAnon and Alex Jones, but WikiLeaks, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter. Individuals and smaller movements can have a voice. Resistance, truth, justice, freedom, and community may not be likely—but they are possible with Propaganda 2.1.”

—David W. Gill, International Jacques Ellul Society

Editorial Reviews

Writing in the tradition of media-ecology scholars such as Jacques Ellul and Neil Postman, Peter Fallon takes on the subject of propaganda with intelligence, insight, and moral clarity. Coupling historical context with contemporary analysis, Propaganda 2.1 is essential reading for anyone concerned about the contemporary media environment and where we may be headed in the years to come.”

—Lance Strate, Fordham University



“Propaganda 2.1 is a timely contribution to digital-literacy education. After a thoughtful rereading of Ellul’s classic work, the book offers in a lucid exposition a wealth of original research and insights into the changing nature of propaganda in the twenty-first century. No student of media or reader who wants to better understand and defend themselves from the new generation of propaganda in the digital age can afford to ignore this extremely resourceful book.”

—Casey Man Kong Lum, William Paterson University



“Propaganda 2.1 is a brilliant contribution to our fragile planet and civilization. . . . The picture is bleak, but Fallon shows how the emergence of the World Wide Web and various internet technologies can open up new possibilities—not just QAnon and Alex Jones, but WikiLeaks, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter. Individuals and smaller movements can have a voice. Resistance, truth, justice, freedom, and community may not be likely—but they are possible with Propaganda 2.1.”

—David W. Gill, International Jacques Ellul Society

From the Publisher