Propaganda

 878. A person, whenever he is free to do so, chooses to read certain messages or listen to certain programs, and not to others. In general, whether he is aware of it or not, he listens to what he wants to hear and reads messages in support of what he wants to believe. JOHN W. WILEY, JR. & MATILDA

WHITE RILEY, “Mass Communication and the Social System,” in Sociology Today: Problems and Prospects, (Robert K. Merton, et al.) 1959.
            The meaning of this quote is that people will not chose to intake information that is not akin to what the y personally believe. For instance, people who are conservative may be more likely to watch a conservative news program than people who are more liberal. As well, people will seek out friends who have similar beliefs to theirs. What this has to do with propaganda is that propaganda cannot completely disagree with the beliefs of its audience. In America, a piece of propaganda reading “communism is good” would be much less effective than “communism promotes freedom”, because while communism is in contrast to the beliefs of most Americans, freedom is a concept important to almost all Americans.