Sunday 5/1/20 - History of propaganda (War)

During the first world war propaganda was very popular. This is the first record of a wide-scale organised use of political propaganda. It was in heavy usage by both the British and Germans to entice the population to enlist and fight for their country.

The British held a meeting with a number of famous authors including Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy and H.G Wells, several of the authors agreed to write books and pamphlets to act as propaganda to promote the government's point of view and interests with the war. They also hired artists to produce posters. The main focus was recruitment until 1916 with the introduction of conscription. Patriotism was another major theme.

In the second world war propaganda was once again wildly used to heavily sway the public into agreeing with the government's interests. They made heavy use of new forms of media. This was used by the Nazi party to get into power when they realised that it was instrumental for their defeat in the first world war. Their propaganda was to the extreme, being extremely racist and discriminatory. It was also very biased and full of lies to paint a bad appearance on their opponents. The British attempted to undermine German propaganda during the war, they would broadcast fake German radio broadcasts that had a negative twist. This was to give a low morale to troops. The Germans also did this in return.

During the cold war propaganda took a turn from tactical too ideological. It was used to sway opinions in the rivalry between the US, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China. This propaganda was very persuasive and introduced new ideas that are still used today in other formats. Media was heavily used for this including television programs and film.

An example of media used would be George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984. These depicted ideas of corrupt regimes using biased language to promote their ideals. Ironically this was used by the CIA with minor changes to suit their ideals.