Propaganda is the deliberate, organized effort to shape what people believe and do in order to serve the aims of the propagandist. The word comes from a body the Catholic Church created in 1622 to spread the faith, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. For centuries it was fairly neutral, but the twentieth century gave it a dark reputation.

The First World War

The First World War was the first war in which governments organized mass persuasion on an industrial scale. Britain set up a secret War Propaganda Bureau in 1914. When the United States entered the war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, led by the journalist George Creel. It produced posters, films and pamphlets, and organized the “Four Minute Men,” thousands of volunteers who gave short patriotic speeches in movie theaters and other public places.

Wartime propaganda on all sides included atrocity stories, some true, some exaggerated and some invented. In 1917 British papers spread a claim that Germany was boiling down soldiers' bodies in a “corpse factory”; it was later shown to be false. After the war, as such stories were exposed, many people grew deeply suspicious of official claims. Some historians argue that this suspicion made the public slower to believe early reports of real Nazi atrocities during the next war.

The war also produced the first studies of propaganda. In 1928 Edward Bernays, who had worked for Creel's committee and became a founder of public relations, published Propaganda, which begins: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” He meant it approvingly. Others found it alarming.

The Second World War

In Germany, the Nazi regime created a Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in 1933, headed by Joseph Goebbels. It controlled newspapers, radio, film and the arts, promoted cheap radio sets so the regime's voice could reach every home, and produced films glorifying the party and its leader. Above all, it spread relentless messages blaming Jews for Germany's problems, preparing the ground for persecution and genocide. The Nazi case shows propaganda at its most dangerous: combined with censorship, so that no competing voice could answer.

Democracies used propaganda too. The United States created the Office of War Information in 1942, and the Allies produced films, posters and radio broadcasts to sustain morale and spread their messages abroad.

Classic techniques

In 1937 a group of American educators founded the Institute for Propaganda Analysis to teach citizens to recognize persuasion techniques. Their list of seven devices is still taught today:

• Name-calling: attaching a negative label to a person or idea so it is rejected without examining the evidence.
• Glittering generalities: vague, positive words like “freedom” or “honor” used to win approval without saying anything specific.
• Transfer: linking a cause to a respected symbol, such as a flag or religious image, so its prestige rubs off.
• Testimonial: having a famous or admired person endorse something.
• Plain folks: presenting a leader or product as ordinary and “just like you.”
• Card stacking: selecting only the facts that support one side and hiding the rest.
• Bandwagon: suggesting that everyone is joining in, so you should too.

To these, many teachers add fear appeals, which warn of terrible consequences unless the audience acts or believes as told, and scapegoating, which blames a group for complex problems.

Persuasion versus propaganda

Not all persuasion is propaganda. A public health campaign urging people to wear seat belts uses emotion and repetition too. Warning signs of propaganda include deception, hiding who is behind a message, suppressing or demonizing alternatives, and trying to bypass reasoning rather than engage it.

Worked example: two recruiting posters

Two famous posters from the First World War show propaganda techniques at work.

“I Want YOU for U.S. Army” (1917), drawn by James Montgomery Flagg, shows Uncle Sam pointing directly at the viewer. Consider the techniques:

• Transfer: Uncle Sam, a symbol of the nation, lends his authority to the recruitment message.
• Direct address: the pointing finger and the word “YOU” make the appeal personal, so the viewer feels singled out.
• Glittering generalities are implied rather than spelled out: duty, patriotism and country.

“Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” (1915), a British poster, shows a man in a comfortable chair after the war. His daughter, on his lap, asks the question while his son plays with toy soldiers. The father looks uneasy.

• Fear appeal: the fear here is not of the enemy but of future shame before one's own children.
• Bandwagon: the poster implies other men did their part.
• Card stacking: it leaves out the realities of trench warfare and the casualties.

Was this propaganda? By the definition in this level, yes: deliberate, organized persuasion serving a government's aims. Many people at the time believed the cause was just, and you may agree. Recognizing the technique does not settle whether the cause was right. It helps you see how the message works on you, so that you can judge the cause on its merits rather than on the feelings the poster creates. The same analysis can be applied to any modern advertisement or political message.