Propaganda in film
Propaganda in filmPropaganda in film and the manipulation of popular opinion in modern western civilization
Ever since Aristotle outlined his principles of persuasion in Rhetoric, these principles of persuasion or compliance have been an important part of human history. However, the word "Propaganda" is a relatively new term and is associated with ideological struggles in
the twentieth century. It was originally used by the Vatican to describe the systematic spread of beliefs, values or practices in the seventeenth century and to counteract the ideas of the Protestant reformation. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when it was used in Europe it was quite neutral and described various political beliefs, religious evangelism and commercial advertising. An example of the earliest use of political propaganda included the literature of the American Revolution The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson was the ultimate form of rational propaganda. It was written with the idea of rallying the public around the idea of America as a country and to justify its existence to the world. Examples of literary propaganda include the histories of the French author Voltaire, the pamphlets of the religious reformer Martin Luther, and the works of Karl Marx.
During the First World War, the meaning of the word "Propaganda" and its neutrality changed. With the technological advances with respect to warfare, the traditional methods of recruiting men for the military was not sufficient. For governments public opinion became very important. As a result, newspapers, posters and the cinema, the various media of mass communication were used on a daily basis to address the public. Consequently, propaganda came to be associated with censorship and misinformation because it was used more and more in the form of psychological warfare against the enemy. From the beginning of the war, both the Germans and British tried to gain the support of the United States. Once it had entered the war, the United States organized the Committee on
Public Information, an official propaganda agency, to help get the public behind the war. Propaganda used opinion for the purpose of influencing the actions or attitudes of individuals or groups. Propaganda was therefore completely different from scientific
analysis. Propaganda influences someone or something, be it good or bad, while the scientist tries to discover something new and in so doing is prepared for examination and criticism of his facts and ideas. The propagandist does not want to be scrutinized or cirticized because propaganda often uses distortions of fact and appeals to passion and prejudice and it is usually false or misleading. Some propagandists deliberately distort the facts, others do not,
but no matter what, propaganda tries to persuade people through rational or emotional appeal or personal opinion.
After the First World War, "Propaganda" continued to be used in every country but in the democratic countries it was disseminated through "information services" or "public education." With the negative connotation of the word its use...
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