Media and Propaganda in an Age of Disinformation

Ribeiro and Zelizer argue that the contemporary disinformation discourse has made a serious analytical error: by adopting new terminology — misinformation, fake news, information disorder — it has severed the connection to propaganda, the foundational concept through which strategic manipulation of public information was understood and analysed for most of the twentieth century. This collection makes the case for recentring propaganda in contemporary media analysis, reading 'fake news' and 'disinformation' not as novel phenomena but as continuations of a long history of state and institutional manipulation.

The argument is both historical and methodological. The chapters move across WWI British propaganda, Soviet active measures, African state media, and contemporary digital operations, demonstrating that the structural logic — the use of media to shape belief and behaviour in support of political power — is continuous. For analysts who work on influence operations and strategic communications, this historical grounding matters: it contextualises contemporary tactics, connects them to known doctrines and playbooks, and resists the ahistorical novelty claims that often distort assessment. Available open access via Taylor & Francis.