Let’s Start a Dialogue on Propaganda

I’ve had a love affair with propaganda my whole life.  I grew up after World War II, during the Cold War, joined the Army and was stationed in West

English: Loose lips might sink ships — a poster advocating operational security. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Germany, opposite the Soviets and the East Germans, I was in Korea during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, then I wound up in DC doing IO ‘stuff’ at the Pentagon.  That was when I was introduced to Herb Romerstein, one of the world’s foremost experts on Soviet propaganda and disinformation. I had the honor of presenting Herb with the “IO Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2010, a much deserved award.  Herb’s archives will form the basis of tons of research material in the future.

After that I met Dr. Steven Luckert, a curator at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington DC, in charge of the display on Nazi Propaganda in the downstairs display center.  If you have not seen this display, I absolutely recommend it.  The exhibit appears to be solely online here.  Dr. Dan Kuehl took all his classes to see the display, as did other IO professionals in the area of Washington DC.  The person guiding the tour gave a good description on how propaganda words, various techniques used and how truth supports the overall theme.

As I have grown up, my perspective on propaganda has also matured, as I hope yours does.  A good propaganda poster tells you a message, and then you should probably see the message inside the message, pointing to the big picture.  Nested inside the big picture are a number of themes, all meant to build upon a central theme.  During World War II many of the posters had Americans contributing food so that soldiers could eat, growing their own vegetable gardens so individuals wouldn’t take away food intended for soldiers, as well as “Loose Lips Sink Ships” posters, and so on.

Today I did a little experiment and put “propaganda” into the search box on Pinterest.  Oh my…  I was overwhelmed with pages and pages of examples, so I searched for ‘Boards” instead, not just individual propaganda posters.  Again I was overwhelmed, but at least now it was a bit more manageable.

The problem, I quickly determined, was everyone has a different definition of propaganda.  The late Phil Taylor, of the UK, was most likely the world’s foremost expert on propaganda but even his definition seemed to change, based on experience.

The history of the word propaganda started out innocently enough.  Edward Bernay’s book, Propaganda, was written in 1928, when propaganda was still a good word.  Joseph Goebbels later became the Nazi chief propagandist and forever changed how the word propaganda is perceived.  Today the word seems to be thrown around, forever a negative word but what falls within the definition is widely misunderstood.

As I flipped through the pages I realized how ‘Joe and Jane Citizen’ perceive propaganda, because there are few resources to teach them otherwise.  I saw commercial advertisements labeled as propaganda.  I saw editorial and political cartoons labeled propaganda, but then again, there is no reason not to label them as such.

There is no dialogue as to the meaning, use and misuse of the word propaganda.  Until we begin to discuss the word propaganda, we will use the word and have the word used against us correctly and incorrectly.  What sources do you use?

Here are a few of the ‘propaganda’ pages I found on Pinterest:

• http://pinterest.com/edward1313/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/patternt/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/blumepeter/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/nickmarquis/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/wendyphd/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/margaretmkrupp/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/revvame/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/nimsey/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/svst/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/scoutthrasher/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/jasonsandy/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/juannex/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/mskarlinski/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/christoferguson/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/alundeere/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/davedye/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/broncadeneve/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/robmarciano/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/katkehoe/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/omarpolo/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/franciscodr/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/kaymatt11/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/brismilitaria/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/ameruso/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/farallon/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/beatgrrrl/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/asiapundits/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/awesomeepossum/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/jeanpauloury/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/senginy/propaganda/
• http://pinterest.com/heartember/propaganda

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