Institute for Propaganda Analysis


The Institute for Propaganda Analysis was a U.S.-based organization operating from 1937 to 1942, composed of social scientists, opinion leaders, historians, educators, and journalists. Created by Kirtley Mather, Edward A. Filene, and Clyde R. Miller, because of the general concern that increased amounts of propaganda were decreasing the public's ability to think critically. The IPA's purpose was to spark rational thinking and provide a guide to help the public have well-informed discussions on current issues. "To teach people how to think rather than what to think." The IPA focused on domestic propaganda issues that might become possible threats to the democratic ways of life.

Genesis

had amassed a fortune in meeting a mass demand, but he feared that democracy was threatened by propaganda preying upon the unsuspecting citizenry, so he asked Kirtley Mather to help him endow an effort to save democracy. A meeting on "education for democracy" was held March 29, 1937, at the University Club in Boston which attracted Alfred Adler, Lyman Bryson, Edward L. Bernays, and Clyde R. Miller among others. At a second meeting in New York City, Filene provided Miller with a check for $10,000, presumably to finance the Institute in the first year. Filene’s Good Will Fund agreed on June 9 to continue the funding for three years.
The Institute was incorporated on September 23, 1937. The initial board of directors was Clyde R. Miller, Robert S. Lynd, E. Ernest Johnson, James E. Mendenhall, and Robert K. Speer. Added to the board later were Charles A. Beard, Hadley Cantril, Ernest O. Melby, James T. Shotwell, and Percy S. Brown. The board elected its officers as follows: President: Cantril, V.P.: Melby, Sec.: Miller, Tr.:Speer
In October 1937 the IPA distributed 3,000 copies of an Announcement edition of the Propaganda Analysis bulletin, soliciting subscriptions. The first two weeks produced 750, and there were 2,500 subscribers in the first year.
Father Coughlin’s radio talks were selected by the IPA for analysis since they represented "a fairly typical borrowing of foreign anti-democracy propaganda methods by an American propagandist." Seven tricks of the propagandist were outlined and illustrated by reference to the radio talks in a book The Fine Art of Propaganda, edited by Alfred McClung Lee and Elizabeth Briant Lee. As Clyde Miller explained in the Preface, "So far as individuals are concerned, the art of democracy is the art of thinking and discussing independently together." The book is presented as a "candid and impartial study of the devices and apparent objectives of specialists in the distortion of public opinions." Chapters four through ten described the following propaganda tricks:
  1. Name-calling
  2. Glittering generalities
  3. Transfer
  4. Testimonial
  5. Plain folks
  6. Card stacking
  7. Bandwagon

    Publications

To get their message across, the IPA distributed flyers, wrote several issues of the Propaganda Analysis Bulletin, and published a series of books, including:
The bulletin Propaganda Analysis indirectly targeted the mass public through newspapers, educators, public officials, and thought leaders. The IPA directly targeted the presidents and deans of national colleges, bishops and ministers, educational and religious periodicals, and education students by sending out flyers.
These "ABCs of Propaganda Analysis" encouraged readers to understand and analyze their own views on propagandistic material in order to promote informed, thought-provoking discussions:
The IPA faced many allegations that undermined its purpose. These suggested that the IPA created "more of a destructive skepticism than an intelligent reflectiveness." The IPA lost support from many of its publishers and also faced internal conflicts through resignations by its board members and its troubled teachers. The approach of World War II also posed a problem. It would force the IPA not only to examine and criticize the enemy's propaganda, but assess America's use of propaganda as well. The IPA maintains the reason it suspended its operations in 1942 was due to lack of sufficient funds and not the war.
After war was declared on Nazi Germany the neutral stance of propaganda analysis was untenable and the IPA folded in January 1942 with the final issue of its bulletin:

Assessment

While the IPA existed many people sought assistance from the organization through the many publications that were available. The process includes teaching the audience to avoid emotion while being deceived by tainted propaganda. In order to get the facts, the Institute's authors wanted the public to "adopt scientific attitudes towards all questions of fact and to accept the conclusions to which they lead as a basis for action whether he likes them or not." The IPA encouraged students to think intelligently and independently on topics which they discussed. While many hailed the IPA for its guidance, others argued that the approach was "too simplistic because many messages fell into more than one category, and they do not account for differences between members of the audience, and do not discuss the credibility of the propagandist." Despite controversy, the IPA was a resource available to American citizens in hopes of enlightening and activating minds to think freely and independently.
In 1940 Edgar Dale and Norma Vernon wrote an Introduction to an annotated bibliography noting the IPA contribution: