Taking the word at face value, propaganda is that which propagates. It may be true. It may be false. It may be spread with malice or benevolence. It's key chara

Taking the word at face value, propaganda is that which propagates. It may be true. It may be false. It may be spread with malice or benevolence. It's key characteristic is that it is intentional, has a source and a purpose in contrast to 'news' which may be be picked up on simultaneous fronts by independent observers of a matter of fact. It is 'conscious manipulation', in the words of Edward Bernays who effectively "wrote the book on it". A good model is congruent with malware and so may find resonance with hackers. There is the vehicle or mechanism (medium), the exploit, and the payload. The payload is the intended effect. The exploit is the reason it may have permeability with certain groups or predispositions. Bernays, and Chomsky's re-reading of him, focuses mostly on manufacturing consent or alignment. The now common, modern understanding, as other commentators point out, is the cultivation of fear uncertainty, doubt, anxiety, division, discombobulation and disarray. That is to say, Bernays's thesis (Shared with Walter Lippman's), that propaganda is a necessary tool to ensure stability and proper functioning of society, is failing. In that sense, dicombobulation and mischief making of the modern propaganda qua Surkov (see the Three pillars of Putinism) might be seen as "anti-propaganda" through Bernays's lens. It's end is destabilisation.