COMMUNIST BROADCASTS TO ITALY

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 16, S. 671-680

Abstract

106 broadcasts monitored by the official Italian radio in the Spring of 1952 were analyzed. 35 of these broadcasts were transmitted by quasi-clandestine stations ('probably located in Prague, Leipzig, Budapest, but purporting to be native resistance radios'); 49 were transmitted by Radio Moscow; the rest from various Soviet satellites. The Soviet radio concentrated on general news, mostly international and cultural topics, and comments on news, while the quasi-clandestine stations dealt more with domestic Italian matters. 'The overall target of these broadcasts was the broad mass of the lower middle and laboring classes.' Five main objectives of the communist propaganda broadcast to Italy are given with pertinent broadcast excerpts: (1) to discredit the anti-communist block in Italy; (2) to promote fear and hatred of the West, particularly the US; (3) to promote sympathy for Communist policies; (4) to portray the USSR as the sole champion of world peace; & (5) to demonstrate the unity of communist groups in a common struggle. Certain more specific propaganda techniques utilized by the communist broadcasters are discussed, among them the black and white picture of the non-communist vs. the communist world, the 'pin-point' technique of giving detailed attention to events close to the listeners' experience, the exploitation of discontent, etc. A. Simmel.