The discourse of propaganda : case studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror / John Oddo.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : approaching propaganda with a critical eye -- Defining propaganda and historicizing America's wars in the Middle East. Theorizing propaganda : intertextuality, manipulation, and power ; The Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror : a brief history -- Manufacturing an atrocity. How the incubator story became news : the power of performative semiotics ; Keep war fever alive : the circulation of the uncubator story -- Infiltrating network news. Message force multipliers : rewarding recontextualization ; Enacting and entextualizing the voice of the expert ; The evolution of a talking point -- The art of the slogan. "Support our troops" as portable text and cultural tradition ; "Support our troops" as vertical and horizontal propaganda -- Conclusion : war propaganda and the prospects for resistance.

"In The Discourse of Propaganda, John Oddo examines discourses supporting the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the War on Terror to show how successful wartime propaganda functions as discursive process, one that relies on recontextualization, ideally on a massive scale, to keep it alive and effective. By revealing the agents, (inter)texts, and cultural practices involved in propaganda campaigns, Oddo challenges his readers to consider the complicated processes that allow propaganda to flourish."--Back cover.