Public Relations Review 34 (2008) 207–214 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Public Relations Review Does the European Union (EU) need a propaganda watchdog like the US Institute of Propaganda Analysis to strengthen its democratic civil society and free markets? Johanna Fawkes a , Kevin Moloney b,∗ a Leeds Metropolitan University, Headingley Campus, Leeds LS6 3QS, UK b Bournemouth Media School, Bournemouth University, Weymouth House, Talbot campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK article info Article history: Received 21 April 2008 Accepted 28 April 2008 Keywords: Communicative equality Ethics Institute for Propaganda Analysis Propaganda Persuasion Public relations abstract This article 1 addresses a paradox in the public communications of liberal democracies and suggests an easement of the social tensions created by it. Communication by public relations (PR) is an unavoidable consequence of such democracies, yet PR produces communicative inequalities, which offend the egalitarian and libertarian ethos of their civil societies and freely accessed markets. PR in this way renders itself into weak propaganda: historically and currently more available to principals rather than to subalterns. This is a conclusion most PR academics and practitioners reject. The former also distance themselves from persua- sion and in their attachment to communicative symmetry they have ironically weakened the role of ethics in PR production. We seek to restore propaganda, persuasion and ethics to the centre of PR thinking. Our restoration begins with the establishment of propaganda detectors and regulators in the EU. We call them institutes for propaganda analysis after the example of the American Institute for Propaganda Analysis 1937–1942. These whistle- blowers will measure the flows of PR propaganda amongst organisations and groups in the political economy and civil society; and counter-intuitively, will provide PR resource sub- sidies for those wanting to be heard in public via a PR ‘voice’ but who lack the capacity to produce it. In this way, a minimal communicative equality of PR production capacity will be created and European citizens and consumers given a more level playing field of infor- mation sources. PR propaganda is constitutive of liberal democracy, their civil societies and of capitalist markets but it needs reformation in the interests of equality of communication resources. This is a worthy and legitimate public policy goal to work towards. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. The need Citizens and consumers in Europe, as in the four other continents, have to take public relations (PR) seriously because many live in a promotional culture (Wernick, 1991), immersing us underneath a great Niagara of persuasive messaging—all the consequence of living in pluralist, market-orientated, and prosperous liberal democracies (Moloney, 2006). We are drowning in PR promotion and it is a submersion which wants our agreement, our money, our support in ways which are always persuasive, one-sided, and sometimes emotionally charged. It is weak propaganda. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: kmoloney@bournemouth.ac.uk (K. Moloney). 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2008.04.004