G. Thompson
It may be surprising to realize that words did not mean the same thing in the past as they do now. Words carry a history of their meanings along with them . . . The word propaganda first appears in the 16th century, in the context of the Reformation.
[Gloss Reformation--objection to Catholic bureaucracy, indulgences, official dogma rather than an individual experience of religious conviction. Martin Luther, challenge to the church, met by Jesuits in particular: 1622, Congregatio de Propaganda Fide--congregation for propagating the faith. To propagate something means to make it grow . . . that word dates in English from 1570, derived from Latin--used originally of plants. First mention of this congregation in English comes in 1718; used as a means of persuasion, the OED mentions this from 1842--
Derived from this celebrated society, the name propaganda is applied in modern political language as a term of reproach to secret associations for the spread of opinions and principles which are viewed by most governments with horror and aversion.
Despite this negative description, propaganda was used before WWI in sometimes neutral terms, and in England and Europe today it still may be neutral.
However, propaganda as a tool of warfare was not in use or widely recognized until WWI, beginning in summer 1914. The Great War, as it was called, was the first to draw upon entire societies to take part in "total war"--all the warring countries created agencies to manage information: build morale at home, depress morale in the opposing countries (particularly their soldiers), and increase material support.
[Recruitment poster, State of Deception, p. 19]
[Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion, p. 91]
[Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion, Eat more Corn, Oats, and Rye, p. 118, p. 122]
The US and Britain had their own propaganda agencies: Britain's Ministry of Information, the US's Committee on Public Information. In the US, we have a group of Four-Minute Men tasked with giving public talks (for four minutes).
[State of Deception p. 3]
One means of building war support was demonizing the enemy.
[Link to 10-min. talk on atrocity propaganda--
https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/atrocity-propaganda]
Serbia commissioned a forensic professor to categorize atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian forces in Serbia:
Victims shot, bayoneted to death, killed with knives, arms lopped off, torn off, or broken, legs broken, nose cut off, ears cut off, eyes put out, genital organs cut off, victims stoned, women violated and killed, breasts cut off, persons hanged, victims burnt alive, one child thrown to the pigs, victims clubbed to death with butt-ends of rifles or sticks, victims impaled, victims whose skin was cut into strips.
These descriptions match very closely similar accounts by the French and British of atrocities committed by the Germans in WWI. It's really hard to refute supposed eyewitness accounts of this sort, as any attempt to rebut would be assumed to be counter-propaganda.
Atrocities were shown symbolically by propaganda posters:
[State of Deception p. 16, 17]
Animal imagery is used commonly in these posters.
In wartime, there is not attempt at balance: if there were atrocities committed by Our Troops, those would be concealed.
A more recent illustration of atrocity propaganda was from the first Gulf War in 1990: Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in Aug. 1990--following a meeting with our ambassador which was taken as tacit approval. Kuwait had and has rich oil reserves, but is small and without much of a military, and the US felt Hussein had crossed a line. So, in addition to building international support, there had to be domestic support, or at least approval from Congress. Atrocity stories played a part in this.
The government of Kuwait hired as many as 20 US public relations firms to build support here. One of these, Hill and Knowlton, had close connections to President Bush (the first). They produced video news releases, short clips furnished to local news stations--a lot of the local news you watch has been provided by PR firms--
the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where ... babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
The war began three months later, in part due to the PR campaign waged by the Kuwaiti government. As it happens, information concealed at the time would have been relevant: the girl was in fact the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter, coached to give false testimony which was then recirculated throughout news channels. By the time this lie was exposed, we were at war and it was too late. There were no witnesses to the charge that Iraqi soldiers had killed babies in this manner.
After WWI, there was widespread recognition of the part that propaganda used in building and sustaining the war effort. In the 1930s a short-lived Institute for Propaganda Analysis circulated a succinct list of propaganda techniques (name-calling, glittering generalities, etc.) meant to immunize the American public against such deceptions--those promoted by demagogues such as Huey Long in Louisiana, Father Coughlin on the radio, as well as ordinary advertising techniques--with an eye to Hitler's and Mussolini's rise in Europe. The IPA was dissolved in 1942, when the US was in the war and deeply involved in propaganda techniques.
Some further images from WWII:
Germany, images of the Leader:
[Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion, 69;
Mussolini, p. 67;
North Korean leader, 54-55]
State of Deception, Images of the Heroic German People, 80, 81
US version, Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion, p. 103
Demonizing the enemy:
Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion, 171, 177
Japanese images are more explicitly racist
German representations of Jews:
State of Deception, 102, 117]
Aristotle, the means of persuasion: ethos, logos, pathos. These are not limited to propaganda, of course.
Define and discuss with relation to advertising: links on Canvas
Ethos
Viceroys-- http://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/blog_files/a/6a00e553a80e10883401a73d906071970d-800wi.png
Chesterfields--Ronald Reagan
http://americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/blog_files/a/6a00e553a80e10883401a3fcd57538970b-800wi.png
Carl's Jr.
https://sexualityinadvertising.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/carls-jr-picture.png
Another Carl's Jr. http://www.adweek.com/wp-content/uploads/files/blogs/bbqs_best_pair.jpg
Logos (pathos?)
Lucky Strike
https://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/smoke3.jpg
Camels http://www.christopherjamesclark.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/camels_doctors_choice-3.jpg
Pathos
Capri cigarettes
http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/images/2008/10/28/1990_capri_cigs_ad.jpg
Joe Camel
http://gigabiting.com/wp-content/uploads/joe-camel.jpg
Care--"I am powerful"
http://www.fundraising123.org/files/u4/care.jpg
Next class--draft of assignment. Finished version due Sept. 13; 80% draft due Sept. 6. Bring a hard copy, as we will spend about 30 min. of class working with these in peer groups. Be prepared for your essay to speak to your group about your image, what it is, and how you see it as deceptive.
Essay #1: How can a photograph or image be untrue? For this assignment, find an image (still or video) which you regard as untrue. Reproduce the image for your paper, describe it verbally, and then discuss why it is in some way deceptive (500 words).
We will also view part of Triumph of the Will in class, and that will be the subject of an informal writing Sept. 11.
