--- title: 'Types of propaganda: source, aim and 42 techniques' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/ description: 'Types of propaganda by source, aim and technique: white, grey and black, agitation and integration, and all 42 techniques with sourced examples.' section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an intelligence briefing room with case files and behavioral-analysis notes on a chalkboard.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-learn.jpg) Learn # Types of propaganda: source, aim and 42 techniques Types of propaganda by source, aim and technique: white, grey and black, agitation and integration, and all 42 techniques with sourced examples. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/) 3. Types of propaganda: source, aim and 42 techniques > **Content note.** Some objects linked from this page caricature enemies or use hostile labels. They are shown as issued, from several sides, as evidence of how each method worked. Showing an example is not endorsing it. [What are the types of propaganda?](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#what-are-the-types-of-propaganda) [Why there is more than one list](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#why-there-is-more-than-one-list) [Types by source](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#types-by-source-white-grey-and-black) [Types by aim](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#types-by-aim-agitation-and-integration) [Types by technique](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#types-by-technique-all-42-in-this-archive) [How the three lists fit together](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/#how-the-three-lists-fit-together) ## What are the types of propaganda? Propaganda is sorted three ways. By source: white (openly attributed), grey (source blurred) and black (source falsified). By aim: agitation, which pushes people to act now, and integration, which builds long-term conformity. By technique: the named methods behind a message, such as name-calling or bandwagon. All 42 techniques the archive tracks are listed below. ## Why there is more than one list No single list of types is standard. The source scheme asks whether the audience can tell who is speaking, the aim scheme asks what the sender wants done, and the technique scheme asks which device carries the message. One poster can sit in all three. Explain moreShow less This archive applies one working definition to every country and period ([how FRAME defines propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/working-definition/)), so the same labels are used for US, British, German, Soviet, Chinese and other material. A type describes a method, not a verdict on the cause or on whether the content is true. For the broader concept, see [what is propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/what-is-propaganda/). ## Types by source: white, grey and black The colour scheme appears in the work of the propaganda scholars Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell and in US military psychological-operations manuals, which define white products as acknowledged by the sponsor, grey products as not identifying a source and black products as attributed to a source other than the true one. FRAME states the same three levels in its working definition. Colour is about disclosure, not virtue: white propaganda can be more effective than black. ![Voice of America Sends News to Korea: a Korean photo sheet with nine photographs of correspondents, editors and a family listening to a radio](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/voice-of-america-news-to-korea-korean-1953.jpg) ![Luftpost No. 16, 2 September 1941: front page of a German-language leaflet newspaper with a photograph of two Hitler Youth boys](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/luftpost-no-16-es-gibt-kein-zurueck-1941.jpg) Explain moreShow less *Voice of America Sends News to Korea, poster, 5 May 1953. U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program). U.S. National Archives, RG 306. Public domain (U.S. government work).* **White propaganda** names its sender. Documented examples: - **Voice of America** began broadcasting on 24 February 1942 in German, as a US government service, and the 1953 poster above promoted its Korean-language news. - **The BBC's foreign-language services** carried British government-funded news and comment abroad, with the BBC German service starting in 1938. - **Soviet agitprop** posters, press and broadcasts carried the Communist Party's name openly ([agitprop](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/agitprop/)). **Grey propaganda** hides or blurs the sender without naming a false one. Documented example: on 30 November 2005 the *Los Angeles Times* reported that articles written by US military information-operations troops were translated and placed in Baghdad newspapers through a Washington contractor, often as news rather than labelled advertising. Military spokesmen said the articles were factual. Radio Free Europe fits here for its early years. It began broadcasting to Czechoslovakia on 4 July 1950 and was run by the National Committee for a Free Europe, which the CIA covertly funded. The CIA tie was exposed in the 1960s, including by a 1967 *Ramparts* article, and the CIA stopped funding RFE and Radio Liberty in 1972, when Congress took over. The archive holds the fundraising side of this story: [The Crusade for Freedom: Truth Dollars for a CIA-funded radio, 1950-1971](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/crusade-for-freedom-radio-free-europe/). **Black propaganda** claims to come from someone else. Documented examples: - **Soldatensender Calais.** From 14 November 1943 the British Political Warfare Executive, under Sefton Delmer, ran a radio station that posed as a German military broadcaster. It mixed music and sport with material aimed at lowering German soldiers' morale. It closed on 30 April 1945. - **Soviet active measures.** The KGB's Service A placed forgeries and planted stories. The 1980s AIDS campaign, which claimed the virus was made in a US laboratory, passed from an Indian newspaper to Soviet and East German channels, as Thomas Boghardt documented ([doctrine summary](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/soviet-agitprop/)). In a second case, letters on Ku Klux Klan letterhead threatened athletes before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics: ['For whites only': the forged Klan letters sent to Olympic committees in 1984](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/kgb-olympic-klan-letters-1984/). - **FBI COINTELPRO.** The FBI mailed items that did not name it as source, some written to look as if they came from members of targeted US groups: [COINTELPRO: the FBI's covert media and information operations against U.S. groups, 1956-1971](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/cointelpro-media-operations/). The cases differ in scale and intent. They share one feature, a source that was not what it appeared to be. *Luftpost No. 16, 2 September 1941. British government German-language leaflet newspaper dropped by the Royal Air Force. Scan from the Rainer Hoffschildt collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired).* ## Types by aim: agitation and integration The French sociologist Jacques Ellul, in *Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes* (1962), divided propaganda by what it wants. **Agitation propaganda** stirs people to break with the existing order or to make a sudden effort. He saw it in revolutionary movements and in governments launching campaigns. **Integration propaganda** aims at long-term conformity and stability, and he argued it is the more typical form in developed societies. He drew examples from the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, China, France and the United States. A summary is in [Ellul, Propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/ellul-propaganda/). ![Poster of two workers shaking hands over a fallen officer, headed We Are Fighting the Lordly Breed, Not the Polish Working People (ROSTA, 1920)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/my-voyuem-s-panskim-rodom-rosta-1920.jpg) Explain moreShow less The earlier Bolshevik split used different words for a related idea. Plekhanov and Lenin separated *propaganda*, many ideas for a few people, from *agitation*, one or a few ideas for a mass. Ellul's agitation and Lenin's agitation overlap but are not the same thing. The history is on the [agitprop page](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/agitprop/). *"We are fighting the lordly breed, not the Polish working people", ROSTA window poster, 1920. ROSTA (Russian Telegraph Agency), Moscow; artist Ivan Malyutin, text by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.* Two special cases are covered on their own pages. [Psychological operations](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/psychological-operations/) are the planned military and intelligence form, mostly aimed at foreign audiences. [Disinformation](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/disinformation/) and misinformation are sorted by whether content is false and whether harm was intended, and not by source or aim. ## Types by technique: all 42 in this archive Each technique below links to its own page, with a definition, the tell, a sourced example list and the archive objects that use it. The four families come from the archive's taxonomy. The seven classic devices (name-calling, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonial, plain folks, card stacking, bandwagon) were named by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1937. See [propaganda techniques](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/) for the full index and [propaganda examples](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-examples/) for dated cases of the seven. Explain moreShow less ### Classical: emotion, identity and selective evidence - [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): attaches a loaded label so the audience rejects the target without checking the claim. - [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/): uses virtue words such as freedom or security in place of a testable claim. - [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/): borrows prestige or stigma from a respected or hated symbol. - [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/): a named person or institution vouches, and the vouch is meant to end checking. - [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/): the speaker performs ordinary-person identity so the message feels homegrown. - [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/): selects, omits or orders facts so the pile can only be read one way. - [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/): treats popularity or "everyone knows" as proof. - [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/): stages imminent harm so the audience accepts the offered protection. - [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/): puts blame for a complex harm on a bounded out-group. - [Dehumanization](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/dehumanization/): portrays a group as vermin, disease or objects. - [Loaded language](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/loaded-language/): chooses words for their emotional charge, so the wording delivers the verdict. - [Appeal to emotion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/appeal-to-emotion/): uses pity, pride, anger, guilt or hope to win assent the evidence would not. - [Repetition and the illusory truth effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/): repeats a claim until familiarity is mistaken for truth. ### Rhetorical: argument-form tricks - [Whataboutism](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/whataboutism/): answers an accusation with a different accusation. - [Semantic hijacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/semantic-hijack/): captures a prestigious or stigmatised word and stretches its meaning. - [Motte and bailey](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/motte-and-bailey/): advances a bold claim, retreats to a modest one when pressed, then returns. - [Bothsidesism](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bothsidesism/): forces symmetry between unequal piles of evidence. - [Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/): replaces a concrete act with a sanitising phrase. - [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/): makes checking a claim feel like betraying the group. - [Gaslighting](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/gaslighting/): denies or rewrites what the audience saw or lived through. - [Ad hominem](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/ad-hominem/): attacks the person making a claim instead of the claim. - [Dog whistle](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/dog-whistle/): a phrase that reads as innocent to most but carries a second meaning for an in-group. - [Red herring](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/red-herring/): introduces an attractive side topic so attention leaves the question. - [Straw man](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/straw-man/): restates an opponent's position in a weaker form, then refutes that. - [False dilemma](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/false-dilemma/): presents two options as the only ones. ### Operational: how a campaign is staged and sourced - [Flooding the zone](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/flooding-the-zone/): saturates attention so a preferred frame crowds out slower checking. - [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/): passes a state or factional message through a more legitimate-looking surface. - [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/): creates the appearance that independent voices reached the same conclusion. - [Overton window shifting](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/overton-shift/): moves an unsayable position into the discussable by repetition or institutional blessing. - [Limited hangout](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/limited-hangout/): releases a partial, survivable truth to block a larger one. - [Disclosure theater](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/disclosure-theater/): a disclosure that is technically present but does not travel with the content. - [Accusation in a mirror](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/accusation-in-a-mirror/): accuses the target of the method you are preparing or running. - [Cult of personality](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/cult-of-personality/): builds a leader into an infallible, omnipresent figure. - [False flag](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/false-flag/): stages or attributes an act so it appears to come from someone else. - [Demagoguery](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/demagoguery/): wins support by turning a public's fears and resentments against an out-group or critics. - [Big lie](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/big-lie/): a falsehood so large that audiences assume no one would invent it, sustained by repetition. ### Computational: volume, automation and synthetic production - [Firehosing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/firehosing/): high-volume, multi-channel output that ignores internal consistency; the goal is exhaustion. - [Astroturfing](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/astroturf/): fake or rented grassroots, such as personas, pages or crowds that are not what they claim. - [Synthetic media](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/synthetic-media/): machine-made content presented as human witness, journalism or research. - [Corpus poisoning](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/corpus-poisoning/): seeds search indices or model-facing text so systems repeat a frame as research. - [Outrage bait](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/outrage-bait/): crafts an item so the profitable reaction is fury, which then spreads it. - [Sleeper effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/sleeper-effect/): a discounted source is forgotten faster than its claim, so the claim later feels ownerless and true. ## How the three lists fit together One object has all three labels. The 1952 US State Department poster [Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/) is white, because it names its issuer, and it answers a charge with a side-by-side comparison. A Soviet ROSTA poster is white and agitational. Each object in the [collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) is tagged by technique, era, country and medium. Sources and further reading ## Sources Jowett and O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion (Sage). Jowett and O'Donnell, *Propaganda and Persuasion* (Sage). Ellul, *Propagandes* (Armand Colin, 1962; English, Knopf, 1965). Institute for Propaganda Analysis, *The Fine Art of Propaganda* (1939). Mazzetti and Daragahi, *Los Angeles Times*, 30 November 2005. Boghardt, *Studies in Intelligence* 53, no. 4 (2009). FM 3-05.30 (2005). Wikipedia, *Soldatensender Calais* and *Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty*, for dates.