Isn’t propaganda just a form of persuasion? What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?
Edit: Not all propaganda involves lying. For some reason, we seem to be more comfortable with a person lying to us than we are with viewing a propaganda poster that uses verifiable facts.
Edit 2: Another interesting note is that in some countries, propaganda is not viewed negatively like it is in English speaking countries.
It kind of depends on the context it’s used in. The common meaning has also changed over time. All government press releases could be considered propaganda and they generally aren’t frowned upon. Having a Ministry of Propaganada used to be common until the word gained a negative connotation.
News propaganda is frowned upon because it’s fundamentally dishonest, even if individual stories are true. It’s masquerading as an attempt to discover truth through fact-finding when in reality it’s disseminating received “truth” from an authority. If, for example, the Russian government wants to spread a false story through RT, it doesn’t matter the size of your mountain of facts negating it, you cannot overturn received truth at RT. It’s not easy, and is often impossible, to discern between discovered and received ‘truth’ from propaganda networks.