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Piers Gregory Robinson (born September 1970) is a British co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and former academic. He is also one of the founders of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, a pressure group whose declared aim is to examine various accounts of the conflict in Syria.

He was Lecturer in Political Communication at Liverpool University from 1999 to 2005 and Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Manchester University from 2005 to 2015. Subsequently he was Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at Sheffield University until 2019, where he was accused of promoting conspiracy theories.

Robinson has said that he believes significant aspects of the official narrative concerning the 9/11 terror attacks are likely to be incorrect. He has said that he has not seen persuasive evidence to implicate the Russian government in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. He often appears on Russia-backed channels such as RT and Sputnik News.

Views

Russia

Robinson believes that Russia has been blamed for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal to distract from the west’s "aggressive regime change strategy" in the Middle East. He says he has not seen evidence to show that Russia conducted any significant propaganda campaign to influence the 2016 US Presidential election.

Anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party

Robinson believes that reports of anti-semitism in the UK Labour Party have been exaggerated for political purposes. He signed a petition defending suspended Labour MP Chris Williamson which stated that the claims were "being used as a weapon to silence those who speak out against injustice".

2003 Iraq invasion

Robinson has described the 2003 invasion as "the most controversial British foreign policy decision since Suez". He accused the US and UK governments of manipulating intelligence prior to the invasion to increased the perceived threat posed by Iraq. Robinson conducted a Manchester University study of UK media coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion. He said the study found that most UK mainstream media reinforced official views rather than challenged them.

Media and propaganda

Robinson is critical of western governments and media.

He described the UK government's use of the Research, Information and Communications Unit to covertly support grassroots Muslim organisations as an example of Black propaganda.

He believes that Western news media and their respective governments act in concert, especially in the area of foreign affairs. He puts this down to "overreliance on government officials as news sources, economic constraints, the imperatives of big business and good old-fashioned patriotism". He has said western governments frequently manipulate the media through "deception involving exaggeration, omission and misdirection". He said western governments used this strategy in the run up to the 2003 Iraq War to get public support for the invasion. As evidence of government use of propaganda he cited Tony Blair's suggestion that the "war on terror" would require a "dedicated tightly knit propaganda unit". In "The Propaganda Model:Still Relevant Today" he examined the propaganda model put forward by Herman and Chomsky and concluded that it is still useful in describing how the corporate media works.

In order to become more informed, Robinson recommends the public believe that their governments and media use manipulation and to use a variety of news sources to gain information, including those that are described as "propaganda" outlets.

Criticism

In May 2018 Leeds City Council cancelled an event at one of its venues which was due to feature Robinson. The Leeds Friends of Syria group had raised concerns that it was a "pro-Assad propaganda event".

References

1. "Organisation for Propaganda Studies". Propagandastudies.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
2. "About". Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
3. ^ Professor Piers Robinson Teaches Journalism At A Top UK University. He’s Also A 9/11 Truther
4. ^ "Sheffield Uni Professor Leaves Post After Accusations Of Promoting Conspiracy Theories". HuffPost UK. 2019-04-17. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
5. Somerville, Ewan. "Sheffield University 'conspiracy theory' professor quits | Forge". Retrieved 2019-09-24.
6. Robinson, Piers (2011). "The Propaganda Model: Still Relevant Today?". International Studies Association Annual Conference. Montreal.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
7. ^ Robinson, Piers (3 May 2016). "The British government has already forgotten the great dangers of propaganda". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
8. Robinson, Piers (2 August 2016). "Russian news may be biased – but so is much western media". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
9. Robinson, Piers (2016). "The Propaganda Model: Still Relevant Today?". In Edgley, Alison (ed.). Noam Chomsky. London: Springer. pp. 77–96. ISBN 978-1-349-56778-2.
10. "Controversial Leeds museum event featuring "pro-Assad" speakers who questioned Western reporting of chemical weapons attacks in Syria cancelled". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-09-24.

Selected publications

• Robinson, Piers (2005). The Policy - Media Intraction Model: Measuring Media Power During Humanitarian Crisis. Sage Publications.
• Robinson, Piers (2005). The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13-451314-7.
• Robinson, Piers; Goddard, Peter; Parry, Katy; Murray, Craig (2013). Pockets of resistance: British news media, war and theory in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-84-779472-7.
• Robinson, Piers; Philip Seib; Romy Frohlich, eds. (2013). Routledge Handbook of Media, Conflict and Security. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41-571291-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |editorlink3= and |editorlink2= (help); Unknown parameter |editorlink1= ignored (|editor-link1= suggested) (help)

External links

• Piers Robinson on Twitter
• https://piersrobinson.wordpress.com
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Piers_Robinson
• http://www.cfom.org.uk/2017/02/propaganda-here-and-now/

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