Propaganda and Persuasion

Communication scholars Jowett (U. of Houston) and O'Donnell (Montana State U.) update their textbook for graduate and undergraduate courses on propaganda and persuasion and other courses in a rhetoric or mass communication curriculum. Among their topics are how the two differ, propaganda through the ages, psychological warfare, how to analyze propaganda, four case studies, and how propaganda works in modern society. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

An updated and expanded (1st ed., 1986) overview of the history of propaganda as well as a review of the social scientific research on its effects and an examination of its applications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Victoria O'Donnell is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University Honors Program Professor of Communication at Montana State University-Bozeman. Previously she was the Chair of the Department of Speech Communication at Oregon State University and Chair of the Department of Communication and Public Address at the University of North Texas. In 1988 she taught for the American Institute of Foreign Studies at the University of London. She received her Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. She has published articles and chapters in a wide range of journals and books on topics concerning persuasion, the social effects of media, women in film and television, British politics, Nazi propaganda, collective memory, cultural studies theory, and science fiction films of the 1950s. She is also the author (with June Kable) of Persuasion: An Interactive-Dependency Approach, Propaganda and Persuasion (with Garth Jowett), and Speech Communication. She is currently writing a book on television criticism. She made a film, Women, War, and Work: Shaping Space for Productivity in the Shipyards During World War II, for PBS through KUSM Public Television at Montana State University. She has also written television scripts for environmental films and has done voice-overs for several PBS films. She served on editorial boards of several journals. The recipient of numerous research grants, honors, and teaching awards, including being awarded the Honor Professorship at North Texas State University and the Montana State University Alumni Association and Bozeman Chamber of Commerce Award of Excellence, she has been a Danforth Foundation Associate and a Summer Scholar of theNational Endowment for the Humanities. She has taught in Germany and has been a visiting lecturer at universities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Wales. She has also served as a private consultant to the U.S. government, a state senator, the tobacco litigation plaintiffs, and many American corporations.