Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ch. 1. Introduction / Gerald Sussman -- Pt. 1. Propaganda in the media -- Ch. 2. Advertising and the Genius of commercial propaganda / Robert W. McChesney, Inger L. Stole, John Bellamy Foster, & Hannah Holleman. Ch. 3. Branded entertainment and the new media economy / Doris Baltruschat -- Ch. 4. "Very high art": the cultural enhancement of product promotion in "making-of" videos about advertising campaigns / Matthew P. McAllister -- Ch. 5. Net worth: popular social networks as colossal marketing machines / Tim Dwyer -- Ch. 6. The regime of propaganda in a neoliberal state: Berlusconi and the Italian media / Massimo Ragnedda & Glenn W. Muschert -- Pt. 2. Propaganda in popular culture. Ch. 7. Corporate discourse on climate change / Sharon Beder -- Ch. 8. Cause marketing as commercial propaganda: neoliberal wolf in sheep's clothing? / Inger L. Stole -- Ch. 9. Celebrity philanthropy: in the service of corporate propaganda / Michael Barker -- Ch. 10. Pornography as propaganda / Robert Jensen -- Pt. 3. Propaganda for global hegemony -- Ch. 11. War correspondents, the military, and propaganda: some critical reflections / Douglas Kellner -- Ch. 12. Legitimizing versus delegitimizing elections: Honduras and Iran / Edward Herman & David Peterson -- Ch. 13. The new rhetoric of the global war on terrorism / Lee Artz -- Ch. 14. International public relations: neoliberal fixer and diplomat without portfolio / Sue Curry Jansen -- Pt. 4. Propaganda and the state -- Ch. 15. Promotion, propaganda, and high finance / Aeron Davis -- Ch. 16. Covering workers: new media, labor and the 2008 economic crisis / James F. Tracy -- Ch. 17. Telling it like it is: The focus group as an ideological weapon / Dominic Wring -- Ch. 18. Direct from the source: Canada's integrated system of state propaganda / Patricia Mazepa -- Epilogue / Gerald Sussman.

"The Propaganda Society" analyzes the rapid expansion of propaganda and promotional activities in the leading post-industrial states under the regime of neoliberalism. With the outsourcing of manufacturing, these states have converted to service, selling, and speculative economies, with a concurrent rapid growth of advertising, marketing, public relations, sales management, branding, and other promotional enterprises. Aided by digital technologies and the removal - deregulation - of political, legal, administrative, and moral barriers to state and corporate expansion on a global scale, a group of dominant political and commercial actors have brought about a common discourse and convergent set of practices rooted in sophisticated and unprecedented levels of propaganda and promotion. Written by leading scholars in the field, each of the eighteen chapters in this book discuss the ways in which elite uses of propaganda have radically transformed media and information systems, political and public culture, the conduct of war and foreign relations, and the overall behavior of the state.