War Propaganda Essay

1011 Words5 Pages
War propaganda The word “propaganda” comes from the Vatican. The phrase “congregatio de propaganda fide” (The congregation for the propagation of the faith) was used to support the catholic faith in response to the Protestant Reformation (Labash, 20 Dec, 2001). Propaganda has been around for a long time and most mass media platforms contain elements of it, many people know it has a negative connotation due to its history of control and power, e.g Hitler’s regime, but its actual definition is simple. One of the most influential pioneers of propaganda in Germany, Joseph Goebbels, defines it as a positive tool; "The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea, so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it" (Welch 1945). Propaganda is used regularly in news stories, sometimes in light-hearted topics so its publics don't even realise it's there and it has no significant effect on society, though with more powerful topics, such as media coverage of a war, propaganda has the ability to change how a society views it. It is so important that it can often be used as a weapon because of the power that comes with public support. The ability to win public support can be just as important as the ability to fight the war. From my research I found examples of war propaganda from as early as around 330 BC, when Alexander the Great was forced to retreat in battle, so as to not show weakness he had his army build oversized armour and left them behind, the intent to intimidate the enemy to not follow them as the armour made his army look like giants. (Labash, 20 Dec, 2001). A later example is in Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler is one of the most well-known propaganda experts in history, in his book Mein Kampf, an entire section was dedicated to war propaganda. He described that its purpose was to support
Open Document