PROPAGANDA’S IMPACT ON THE 21st CENTURY SOCIETY

Key Opinions on Propaganda...

This essay will look at the impact in which 20th Century War Propaganda has had on 21st Century Society. During the first half of the twentieth century the world had witnessed two great wars. Propaganda played a big part in both wars in various forms including picture, literature and film. Propaganda is persuasive communication design built around political, ethical, political and educational campaigning. It is designed to manipulate its audienceʼs beliefs and induce action by getting through to the viewer. Propaganda uses images, symbols and slogans to play on emotions. The ultimate goal of Propaganda is to entice the audience to take side on the message being portrayed; a message may be positioned at a single person, group or various parties.

Propaganda has had an impact on the world of design; it has changed the way in which the design world reacts to an advert or message. Most commonly known Propaganda is that from World War 1 and World War 2. Some designs of which are still shown and used in 21st Century design and merchandise. Propaganda in the First and Second World Wars was aimed at men, women and families. The visual language used in the most successful war posters was familiar and something that could be understood by everyone, the posters needed to be simple and memorable, thatʼs why catchy tag lines were used to be as direct as possible to its viewer. "Wartime propaganda attempts to make people adjust to abnormal conditions, and adapt their

priorities and moral standards to accommodate the needs of war. To achieve this, propagandists have often represented warfare by using conventional visual codes like semiotics, which are already established in mass culture. Thus, recruitment posters have often been designed to look like advertisements or movie posters." (Soules, 2007) Posters using a direct address position the audience as people who have responsibilities and duties to their country, an example of two well known posters that do this is the ʻUK Your Country Needs You poster 1914ʼ and the ʻI Want You For The US Army poster 1917ʼ. The images used in the posters command our attention with authority, a father figure and finger pointing. Another thing which Propaganda tended to depict was women, they were portrayed as guardians of the home, with a gentle nature and vulnerability making them both objects of a mans affections as well as victims of the enemyʼs barbarous moves. Women also served as a reminder of the necessity of the fight and of the companionship that awaited soldiers on their safe return.

Propaganda has become a common element of politics and war over the years; the end of World War two specifically marked a huge shift in international politics, culture and society. As new communication technologies develop in the 21st century, designers have to continue developing new methods to reach increasingly large audiences, and continue to shape peoples views.

“A study by the Office for National statistics found that the total number of women with dependent children in the workplace has leapt by almost a fifth since the mid 1990s. While there have been big increases in single mothers going out to work, after initiatives by successive governments, the number of mothers who are married or in a long-term relationship in the workplace has also jumped by 10 per cent. Overall the number of working mothers has leapt by almost 800,000 to 5.3 million since 1996.” - John Bingham, 2013

“As women were encouraged to take wartime jobs in defense industries, they became a celebrated symbol of female patriotism. But when the war ended, many industries forced women

to relinquish their skilled jobs to returning veterans.”- American History 1942

“Home Office statistics show a continuing decline in the conviction rate for rape over the last three decades, which reached a low of 5.27 per cent.” - Liz Kelly 2007

“Everything has changed and gone the opposite direction these last 20 years, as if 200 years have passed, everything that was not normal is normal today. Everything has been radically

changed. The whole system of values has disappeared.” - The World Bank 2012

1917

1943

1942

1943

1946

1917

1914

TIMELINE OF IMAGERYPropaganda Imagery Used WITHin THE Essay

Jessica Kenyon

Literature behind propaganda often refers to “mass persuasion,” “suggesting that propaganda is persuasion on a one-to-many basis.” (Jowett, 1986) Propaganda has tendency to be linked to a general societal process, whereas persuasion is regarded as an individual psychological process. (Fig 1)

We have depicted culture within the social-historical context only for purposes of clarifying the concepts presented here. In the model, the elements of culture are depicted as a rim surrounding the flow of propaganda, with canals leading to and from the process and the cultural rim. The cultural rim is the infrastructure that provides the material context in which messages are sent and received. How propaganda is developed, used, and received is culture specific. (Fig2) (Jowett 1986)

THE JOWETT & O’DONNELL PURPOSE MODEL OF PROPAGANDA

MODEL OF THE PROCESS, CULTURE & ECONOMY OF PROPAGANDA

Fig 1: The Jowett & OʼDonnell purpose model of Propaganda

Fig 2: Model of The Process of Propaganda