Image 1. English propaganda poster from 1915, created by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, London, shows a column of soldiers marching into the distance, while being joined in the foreground by men in a variety of civilian attire.
We are surrounded by messages that try to get our attention. Advertisers, politicians and other groups all try to get us to agree with them. Another word for this is propaganda. While propaganda is not always a bad thing, it refers to information that attempts to change what people believe. It also leaves out details that might show a different point of view.

Propaganda is not exactly the same as advertising, where the goal is to get people to buy a specific item. With propaganda, the goal is to change a belief or way of thinking.

Propaganda has been around for hundreds of years, but the term was used for the first time in 1622, about 400 years ago. That was when Pope Gregory XV, the head of the Catholic Church, started the Congregation of Propaganda. The job of this group was to convert people back to the religion of Catholicism. Many had started following a slightly different religion, called Protestantism.

Today, propaganda is used by businesses, political groups and the government. It is spread through posters, television, radio and the Internet. The Internet has made it much easier to get messages out to the whole world.

Propaganda Techniques

There are many different techniques, or ways, to create propaganda. Name-calling is one of the main techniques. Politicians use it when they insult someone they don't like. They might call someone a "traitor" or a "liar" to make them look bad.

Image 2. A drawing from 1911 that criticizes the economic system of capitalism. Words like "rule," "fool," and "shoot" drive the point that the majority of the people are being oppressed by a privileged few.
Another is the bandwagon technique. Since people want to be on the winning side, they will join a politician who acts like they're already winning or popular. This is called jumping on the bandwagon.

A third technique is called glittering generalities. This means bringing together positive words with an idea that people love. People will usually agree with ideas like defending democracy or protecting the family.

Card-stacking is a technique that only presents good information about a topic. The bad information is completely left out. Although the information is usually true, card-stacking can make people think that there are no bad sides to a topic.

The plain folks technique is used often in politics. For example, many politicians have a great deal of money, but they might want to prove that they are still ordinary people. They might show up in ads in which they do simple things like hunting or fishing. This makes them more relatable and people are more likely to vote for them.

Some propaganda is based on fear and scares people into choosing sides or taking action. A group may want people to stop smoking. They may run a campaign that warns if you smoke, you will likely get cancer and die.

Image 3. Cover of the propaganda comic book "Is This Tomorrow" from 1947. Fear-based propaganda was very common during the Cold War. The economic system of communism, which opposed capitalism, was depicted as the greatest threat to Western society and values.
The transfer technique is a bit harder to notice. A group or person tries to become connected to a symbol that people like. For example, a U.S. president might stand in front the U.S. flag so that people will see him as a true American patriot.

Propaganda Mediums

Television, radio and movies can be the most dangerous kind of propaganda, said M. Lane Bruner. He is a professor at Georgia State University. He said that the audience can't respond to a message that appears on TV. This is a problem because it makes it look like the message is always true.

Types of Propaganda

Political propaganda has been around as long as there have been politicians. But the first official type of propaganda was religious. Missionaries have used it for hundreds of years to convince people to follow a certain religion.

To see through propaganda, it's necessary to do extra work and use different sources of information. It can be very useful to find out who created the message and who is paying for it. It is also useful to learn what words and images are being used. Then, you can decide if the message is true or has a secret purpose.

War Propaganda

War propaganda began during World War I, more than 100 years ago. Great Britain and Germany were enemies, and they used propaganda in the United States. They both wanted Americans to take their side. Britain was able to block Germany from sending messages directly to the United States. After that, many Americans only saw the war from the British point of view.

Propaganda was used even more during World War II. Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, which controlled all information. Germans only got positive information about Nazis. Books that went against Nazi ideas were gathered and burned.

Posters were also very popular during the war. They were used by all sides, including Germany, Britain and the United States. Posters can be put up anywhere, and people remember images more than words. In the United States, for example, a poster was used to get people to carpool. This means having more than one person in the same car. The poster said that "When You Ride Alone You Ride with Hitler." It meant that if people drove separate cars, they wasted too much gas. The United States was fighting Hitler's Germany and needed to save how much gas it was using.

Image 4. Anti-Nazi propaganda poster circulated in the U.S. to encourage the conservation of gas.
Today, war propaganda still exists. The Internet lets it reach more people than ever. For example, extremist groups in Iraq use the Internet to get new members and raise money.

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