◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2008 NET EY P96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS-01-169-72 July 1972 PART IV PROPAGANDA AND MASS MEDIA 1. (U) It is difficult, if not impossible, to assess the Soviet's potential for controlling or manipulating the behavior of their enemies through the use of propaganda. One can survey the Western literature and be able to make some rational judgments on the effects of mass media, for example, on the mental behavior of its audiences. Walter Weiss of Hunter College in New York has published an excellent study (181) on the relationships between mass media of communication and social change. The author also reports on the roles of the mass media in the development of modernized countries. In another report (182), Weiss surveys the significant literature on the mass media from January 1967- December 1969. Unfortunately these surveys deal primarily with the free world. 3. (U) A report prepared by Goure (183) further depicts the emphasis that Soviet authorities place on propaganda. The report relates the all out effort that Soviet authorities are using in order to indoctrinate their own people on the importance of civil defense. Included in their attempts to create fear of nuclear, chemical, and biological attack are direct assaults on the US. This certainly represents a method of behavior change or control. In an effort to propagandize civil defense in the Soviet Union inten- sive use is being made of all media of mass communication: the press, television, radio, movies, exhibits, and lectures. Pamphlets and books are published and disseminated on a wide scale. All the national and major provincial newspapers, including Pravda, Izvestiya, and Red Star, have published articles on civil defense, often by prominent party or government officials (184). The basic pamphlet for the instruction of the general public, Everyone Should Know This, first published in 1968 has been issued to most families. The following are a few select examples of the intensity and scope of Soviet civil defense propaganda activities: In 1969, the Belorussian SSR local newspapers printed 1,200 59 NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION CONFIDENTIAL Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 SG1