Front Burner — "Iran and the Propaganda War"
CBC | April 2, 2026
Host: Jayme Poisson
Guest: Nicholas J. Cull, Professor of Communication and Public Diplomacy, USC

Episode Overview

This episode explores how the Israel-US-Iran conflict has ushered in a new era of digital propaganda—short, meme-driven, AI-generated, and hyper-targeted for contemporary online audiences. Host Jayme Poisson and propaganda historian Nicholas J. Cull discuss the definitions and purposes of propaganda, analyze provocative Iranian and American wartime content, and draw parallels to Cold War information battles. The discussion unpacks how states now operate like viral content creators, waging narrative wars as aggressively as military ones.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Defining Propaganda: Mass Persuasion & Manipulation

• The Double Meaning of Propaganda
  • Cull highlights the gap between public and academic understandings of propaganda (02:29).
  • Quote:

    "In popular understanding, propaganda is thrown around as a term of abuse for information that you dislike ... We assume that propaganda is false information, and I found that not necessarily to be true. I think of propaganda as simply the political form of mass persuasion, with advertising being the economic form of mass persuasion."
    — Nicholas Cull (02:29)

  • He cautions against manipulation, asserting that truth eventually emerges and "the recipient of the propaganda will receive a bump and sort of a reality bump" (03:34).

The Anatomy of Iranian Digital Propaganda

• "One Vengeance for All" Video

  • Jayme describes a viral Iranian AI-generated video, depicting global victims of U.S. policy culminating in an Iranian missile striking a devil-horned Statue of Liberty (04:03).
  • Cull explains its intent:

    "It's a very, very emotive image designed obviously to rally international feeling against the United States and to present a kind of a catalog of American hypocrisy, American involvement in atrocity, American human rights abuses..."
    — Nicholas Cull (05:04)

• Measuring Effectiveness

  • Propaganda is strongest when it activates existing beliefs and repressed doubts, not by implanting new ones (05:52).
  • Despite provocative Iranian content, global perceptions of Iran remain poor.

    "If we look at how the world feels about Iran, in fact... Iran generally comes out at the bottom." (07:51)

• AI and the TikTok Age

  • Iran’s embrace of AI and algorithmic content is seen as continuation, not revolution.

    "This is just creating emotive pieces of provocation more efficiently and maybe with more bells and whistles than would have been possible in the past. But it's really like an animated newspaper cartoon."
    — Nicholas Cull (09:57)

Humor, Meme Culture, and Humiliation Online

• Ridicule as a Propaganda Tool

  • Iranian propaganda's cartoonish depictions of adversaries (e.g., Trump as a Teletubby, Netanyahu as a Lego figure) serve to score psychological points where military success is limited (11:03).

  • Cull draws historic parallels (e.g., British mocking Napoleon or Hitler) to explain the enduring need for such ridicule (11:53).

  • Quote:

    "It is a way of scoring a psychological success when an actual military success is really hard to find ... It comes from a psychological need not to be overwhelmed."
    — Nicholas Cull (11:53)

The American Response: Propaganda Goes Meme

• US "Gamification" of War Content

  • Since Trump’s second term, US military and government accounts have published AI-generated, meme-friendly content—NFL tackles intercut with missile strikes, apocalyptic images of American cities (14:34, 17:20).

  • Cull sees a rupture: unlike past wars, the "lowest level of political communication is being shared at the highest level," with official channels amplifying what was once grassroots or satirical content (14:34).

  • Quote:

    "What we're seeing in this war is that the lowest level of political communication is being shared at the highest level..."
    — Nicholas Cull (14:34)

• Target Audience and Consequences

  • This content primarily targets younger Americans—teens and 20-somethings—using the language of memes and games (17:52).
  • Cull warns this "memeification and gamification of war" may alienate global audiences and ultimately damages U.S. influence, to the benefit of others:

    "It makes China look like the adult in the diplomatic room." (19:14)

PSYOPs, Influencers, and the Future of Narrative Warfare

• US Embassies & Localized Narrative Control

  • Poisson references reports that US embassies are coordinating with the Pentagon and Elon Musk to seed pro-American messaging using local influencers (19:27). Cull deems this a "very sensible strategy" and cites Cold War examples of leveraging local expert voices (20:02, 20:36).

• Effective Public Diplomacy

  • Successful public diplomacy empowers credible local voices rather than relying solely on top-down messaging.

Lessons from the Cold War: Soviet & American Propaganda Legacies

• Soviet Anticolonial Messaging

  • The USSR effectively used its support for decolonization and criticism of American racism as propaganda (22:53).

  • Soviet campaigns forced US leaders to address civil rights issues domestically for image management abroad.

  • Quote:

    "Soviet propaganda brings the issue of race relations up the political agenda in the United States when they could have been thinking about a number of other issues."
    — Nicholas Cull (25:17)

• US "Jazz Diplomacy" and Cultural Statecraft

  • Jayme brings up jazz tours as an example of subtle American cultural propaganda; Cull distinguishes between manipulative propaganda and legitimate cultural diplomacy, emphasizing agency and respect for the audience (26:34).
  • Notably, Louis Armstrong leveraged his role to advocate for racial justice by refusing a Soviet tour as protest (28:29).

The United States Information Agency: "Good Cop, Bad Cop"

• Strategic Storytelling
  • The USIA coordinated official American messaging abroad, differentiating between open public diplomacy (e.g., Voice of America) and covert operations (e.g., Radio Free Europe, CIA initiatives) (28:59–33:17).
  • Cull frames the USIA as a positive public diplomacy force, lamenting its shutdown in 1999.

Navigating Propaganda Today: Media Literacy as Citizenship

• Enduring Reality of Propaganda

  • Cull urges listeners to treat propaganda as a permanent facet of political life, not a historical episode (33:34).

  • Quote:

    "I see propaganda as an enduring element in political history. Something that is always there, something that we always have to be looking for and we always have to be thinking, well, why are we being asked this question? ... part of our citizenship should be to look at international images ... and to ask, well, what's this really about?"
    — Nicholas Cull (33:34)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Countries are operating like content houses, publishing competing stories and fighting for public attention." — Jayme Poisson (00:36)
• "A lot of propaganda right now has an audience of one and they can count on it enraging President Trump, who doubtless is shown these videos." — Nicholas Cull (07:58)
• "For a democracy going to war, it has to be done with intense explanation... it's almost as if Pete Hegseth thinks that Dr. Strangelove is a how to manual, not a satire." — Nicholas Cull (16:30)
• "I think that the musicians themselves, people like Louis Armstrong, had a sense of where they were doing something that was moral and legitimate... So Armstrong refused to go to the Soviet Union because he said that would be endorsing a government in the U.S. the Eisenhower government, that was not doing enough for African Americans." — Nicholas Cull (27:37, 28:29)

Key Timestamps

• 00:36: Introduction — the new landscape of digital wartime propaganda
• 02:29: Defining propaganda, value neutral vs. manipulation
• 04:03: Breakdown of Iranian "One Vengeance for All" AI video
• 09:57: Role of AI and digital content in new propaganda
• 11:53: The importance of humor, ridicule, and humiliation in propaganda
• 14:34: How US military and government meme-ify their own wartime messaging
• 17:52: Memes and the gamification of war as targeted at Gen Z
• 19:27: US embassies’ psychological operations and influencer coordination
• 22:53: Soviet propaganda and its influence on American civil rights policy
• 26:34: Jazz diplomacy and the boundary between propaganda and cultural exchange
• 28:59–33:17: The function and legacy of the United States Information Agency
• 33:34: Cull on media literacy and propaganda as a permanent reality

Summary in Context

This timely conversation with Nicholas J. Cull exposes the mechanics and history behind the new wave of digital propaganda in the Israel-US-Iran conflict. It moves from the viral "One Vengeance for All" video to US meme-warfare strategies, through historic comparisons with Cold War campaigns. The episode not only diagnoses the tactics and targets of today's propaganda but drives home the importance of vigilant citizenship and media literacy in an age where manipulation is a swipe away.

Whether used to inflame, ridicule, persuade, or distract, propaganda is not a relic of the past; it’s a constant in the political bloodstream, reshaped by technology but still fundamentally about power, narrative, and influence.