Welcome to our propaganda blog! This blog was created in order to examine and discuss propaganda and specifically how it is used by organizations generally thought of as positive. We’ll start with a brief overview of our subject, the basic concepts, historical uses and its place in our world today.
WHAT IS PROPAGANDA?
The book Propaganda and Persuasion defines propaganda as “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”
Generally thought of as negative and pejorative, propaganda can fall into three categories depending on how it is used: white, black, and gray.
HISTORY
In the late 16th Century, Protestant dogma spread through Europe and loosened the grip of the Catholic Church on the population. As a response to this threat to the Church’s control, Pope Gregory XIII assembled a commission of cardinals charged with the task of spreading Catholicism throughout the heathen lands. In 1922, with the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, the commission was made permanent, officially called Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith). This eventually evolved into the College of Propaganda, which existed to teach young missionaries how to go about doing their work. So the first official propaganda organization was created simply for the dissemination of religious dogma.
From the seventeenth century through the twentieth century, we see many uses of propaganda, but they generally occur only in times of political or social upheaval. During the lead-up to the American Revolution, pamphlets were disseminated, urging people to support the revolution and reject the views of colonial Loyalists. The campaign was highly successful, prompting John Adams to remark that a revolution in the minds of the colonists took place before a drop of blood was shed. The Ottoman Empire and its various rulers employed extensive use of propaganda over the course of the Empire’s existence, both as a method of legitimizing their rule and controlling the populations. Even before Pope Gregory XIII’s commission, the rulers of a growing Ottoman Empire were using displays of grandeur and pageantry to distract their newly acquired subjects from the nomadic and very non-divine origins of the ruling class.
However, it is not until the outbreak of World War I that we see propaganda being used as a coordinated weapon of modern warfare. For the first time, whole nations were being pulled into “total war,” a war in which the whole population of each nation had to be mobilized for the war effort. A result of this inclusiveness of the population was a narrowing of the gap between the normal citizen and the soldier on the front lines and the public came to vocalize their opinions and take interest in state affairs. These nations’ governments realized the importance of maintaining public morale in support of the war and so began creating government agencies solely charged with the task of swaying public opinion. In 1917, Britain established the Ministry of Information and a separate Enemy Propaganda Department. It is interesting to note that these names imply that the British merely deal in information, while the enemy employs propaganda. Through strict censorship, government control the media and an extensive propaganda campaign, consisting of pamphlets, posters, and films, the British government executed a highly coordinated and largely successful method of disseminating state-approved information.
Anti-German WWI propaganda
more….
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