Page 126 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

PROPAGANDA
115
PRIMING is a specific kind of agenda setting that has implications for political
campaigns. The media in their coverage create an agenda for a political cam-
paign, and that agenda, rather than the candidate's own agenda or campaign
platform, may be the basis on which the voter evaluates the candidate.
One study found that during the Persian Gulf crisis, President George Bush's
overall rating depended more on opinions of his foreign policy than on opinions
about his economic policy. Before the Gulf crisis, economic policy carried more
weight, as it apparently did after the crisis.
SOURCES: Shanto Iyengar and Adam Simon, "News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis and
Public Opinion: A Study of Agenda Setting, Priming and Framing," Communication
Research, June 1993; Wemer J. Severin and James W. Tankard, Jr., Communication
Theories, fourth edition, 1997.
Guido H. Stempel HI

PROGRESSIVE CASE. This rare court order of "prior restraint" preventing
publication of information in 1979 never made it to the U.S. Supreme Court for
a ruling under the First Amendment. The Justice Department, claiming national
security was at risk, obtained an injunction in federal district court against Pro-
gressive magazine, which planned to publish information on how to build a
hydrogen bomb. The Progressive, a left-wing magazine published in Madison,
Wisconsin, since 1909, said the "secret" information about the H-bomb had
been obtained from unclassified sources and was thus available to anyone. The
magazine sought to publish the article to demonstrate how badly the classifi-
cation system was working. The government, however, cited provisions of the
1954 Atomic Energy Act as justifying prior restraint. Federal judge Robert War-
ren granted the injunction, ruling the act allowed prior restraint. He did not
consider the Pentagon Papers case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled
against prior restraint, to be a clear precedent. Before an appeal could be heard,
however, articles containing the same information were published in two other
periodicals. The government dropped the case against the Progressive imme-
diately, and the magazine published the article six months after the original
planned date. The extent to which national security concerns might override the
Pentagon Papers decision against prior restraint thus was never clarified by the
U.S. Supreme Court.

SOURCES: Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy, In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights
in Action, 1991; Wayne Overbeck, Major Principles of Media Law, 1997-1998.
Marc Edge

PROPAGANDA is written, oral, or visual communication used to influence the
attitudes, beliefs, and actions of an audience. Many political groups and gov-
ernments use propaganda to further their causes and interests to sway public
opinion. Communication that is considered propaganda is biased, intentional,
and motivated by personal gain on the part of the person or group that initiates