Propaganda is a term we are all familiar with, and as it should be, the word, brings to mind war, blood shed, atrocities,death and, destruction. Propaganda has been traced back to before 500 BC. when stone and clay posters were discovered, promoting the virtue of one King over another and urging the people to join the effort to eradicate this enemy king from the earth. In the 1930, the National socialist party of Germany, began a propaganda program against the Jews, Gypsies, and many other groups by painting slogans on buildings, glass store fronts and posters. About this time arose a film maker named Joseph Goebbels, and approached Hitler with the Idea of filming his inciting speeches, and showing them around the country effectively allowing Hitler to spread his hate and propaganda to a world wide audience, something never before done. we read the results in history.
Shortly after the second world war, several things happened to create a sort of perfect storm, for those who recognized the potential of propaganda in peace time. Hundreds of thousands of G.I.s returning home with money in their pockets, the advent of television, thousands of news papers and the affinity the G.I. had developed for news papers and magazines, while far from home looking for a connection to life back on the farm.
Just Pryor to this two men, Lippmann and Bernays, who had been propagandists for the government, had come up with phrases like "Group Thought" and "Crowd Mentality". Not long after the term "mass media" occurred to them, and the first "Public Relations" firm was formed. The word propaganda was replaced with ad, advertising, spot, blurb, campaign, however their exact definition is propaganda pure and simple.
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