propaganda
Ernest Blaschke (aa568@FREENET.TORONTO.ON.CA)
Sun, 9 Jun 1996 19:49:58 -0400
Mary Haas wrote:
MH=> Today I'd like to know what you remember about the
MH=> propaganda that was used by all sides both to prop up their
MH=> people and do attach and bring fear about their enemies.
I believe "propaganda", the conscious advocating of one
viewpoint, has been and is still with us, not only in times of
war. It can be called "managed news". It has become a science and
today every government has its "experts" who will tend to
influence public opinion to support whatever action they wish to
take. Since people are for the most part too smart to take
everything at face value when they first hear of it, "propaganda"
works best if repeated often enough.
Now to your question: What I remember of propaganda during the
war time (and I lived in Vienna then the German side) were
film-clips preceding any movie in a cinema (there was no TV
at that time). These film-clips (Wochenschau) would invariable
show the German army engaged in some victorious battle, or
the German air-force hitting military targets. Then there
were banners with slogans in all railway-stations:"Raeder
muessen rollen fuer den Sieg!" (wheels must roll for victory);
and signs and placards with numerous other admonitions to
help the war effort. When you add rallies with lots of pomp
and ceremony, and speeches and handing out of medals you come
pretty close to a well-implemented propaganda effort. There
were of course daily broadcasts on the radio with the "latest
news" about the current state of the war. These German broadcasts
were rebroadcast by the Radio station of "neutral" Switzerland,
together with the BBC newscast. I believe I mentioned before
that these 2 newscasts rarely seemed to describe the same
war and I am sure that propaganda on both sides accounted
for the discrepancies.
Incidentally, you wrote above:
MH=> people and do attach and bring fear about their enemies.
Propaganda does not try to instill fear about enemies.
On the contrary, it will go to great length to prove that
your enemy is not to be feared, since in the long run
you'll defeat him quite handily.
MH=> Can you describe any poster or the content of any speeches
MH=> or slogans for me?
Newspaper cartoons and caricatures of "enemy politicians"
(Churchill, Stalin ) were part of the usual fare. I presume
that the British press would have shown similar cartoons of the
German politicians. The fat Goering must have made a good
subject <g>.
Incidentally, propaganda, when overly based on lies, ultimately
is not believed by most of the people. In democracies propaganda
is occasionally unmasked as a lie by investigative reporting, in
countries ruled by dictators and with a muzzled press people tend
to be wary of anything they hear, and when they cannot openly
label something as "a lie", they resort to spreading jokes, which
tend to ridicule the propaganda. More jokes must have circulated
about Hitler in Germany and Stalin in Russia than about any
politician in other countries.
Ernest
the schoolboy from Vienna
(now living in Canada).