Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 67

COUNTERPROPAGANDA

of twenty thousand foreigners from over eighty countries responding to IS propaganda recruiting efforts.15
Clearly, counterpropaganda concepts should be
addressed more thoroughly, and the Joint Staff should
incorporate the guidance found in FM 3-05.301 into
joint doctrinal publications (see figure on page 66).

Analyzing Propaganda
Though obsolete, FM 3-05.301 provides a proven
approach in analyzing propaganda. Propaganda analysis
is a complex process that requires historical research,
examination of propaganda messages and media, and
critical scrutiny of the entire propaganda procedure.
While propaganda analysis is primarily done to gather

(Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Australian World War I-era propaganda cartoon by Norman
Lindsay, circa 1918. Allied propaganda sought to adversely shape
international perceptions regarding German soldiers as well as
undermine German domestic morale. German soldiers and their
leaders were relentlessly depicted as brutish and uncivilized savages bent on conquering the world.

(Image courtesy of Worldwar1postcards.com)

A World War I propaganda postcard depicts the exe cution of
Edith Cavell, a British nurse working in Belgium during the German
occupation who helped more than two hundred Allied soldiers to
escape. Arrested and executed for treason by German occupation
forces in 1915, her death was exploited extensively by British propagandists to portray German forces as murderers of innocent women.

information to develop future IO programs, it can
uncover intelligence for other uses: errors of fact that
suggest a weakness in the adversary’s intelligence-gathering assets, indications the adversary is attempting
to prepare public opinion for a particular eventuality,
issues on which the adversary displays exceptional
MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

sensitivity, and successful military operations that require propaganda reaction from the adversary.16
Previously, FM 3-05.301 was the Army’s doctrinal reference for analyzing adversarial propaganda. Its approach
is still sound. IO cells have used its source-content-audience-media-effects model to effectively analyze adversarial
propaganda activities.
Source. A source is the origin or sponsor of the propaganda.17 It may be an individual, government, organization, or combination thereof. Identifying the source
of the propaganda provides information concerning the
purpose of the propaganda. According to Garth Jowett
and Victoria O’Donnell, “Propaganda that conceals
its source has a larger purpose than what is readily
discernible.”18 For example, the Soviet Union often used
left-wing front groups resident in many nations during
the Cold War to disseminate its propaganda messages
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