Government Propaganda

Totalitarian states have an advantage over democratic ones in using propaganda because they have greater control over the means of mass communication. They can present coherent and consistent messagesto their publics with little fear of contradiction. Even a totalitarian state with all of its police power needs the support of its population, however. Both the Soviet Union and China had much opposition to overcome after Communist regimes were installed. Bonds of attachment to old ways of doing things and discontent with the new had to be overcome. In the Soviet Union, after 1921, a vast campaign using slogans, posters, lectures, and radio broadcasts was mobilized on behalf of literacy and the merits of socialism. In China, Mao Zedong mobilized the nation's youth through a massive propaganda campaign to stamp out all opposition to his reforms. The result was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which nearly destroyed the economic and social fabric of the country. Lenin, the Soviet revolutionary, realized the value of propaganda to indoctrinateeducated people. Toward the uneducated he advocated another tactic, called agitatsiya (agitation)—the use of simple-minded slogans, stories, half-truths, and outright lies in order to avoid the need for complex arguments. The two words, agitation and propaganda, were combined by him in the term agitprop. The Nazi government of Germany, from 1933 to 1945, was very adept at propaganda. In order to gain power, Adolf Hitler used his ability to tell each audience what it wanted to hear. He stirred fears of Communism when talking to businessmen, and he preached socialism when talking to the workers. After his party won office he installed Joseph Goebbels as head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. In this capacity Goebbels controlled the press, radio, theater, films, music, literature, and fine arts. He built support for war by drawing parallels with historical events and by emphasizing the Nazi concept of Germany's destiny and racial superiority.

Democratic nations do not have such complete control of the media. Their governments are forced to a larger extent to deal in the open marketplace of ideas, where official propaganda can quickly be contradicted by nongovernment sources. This lack of control, however, is not necessarily a disadvantage. Citizens of a republic are more supportive of their governments because they do not need to fear them. The unrestricted flow of information makes it possible for the best ideas to prevail in the long run. In times of crisis, such as war, democratic governments can be just as effective in making propaganda as police states. This was demonstrated during the two world wars. On the positive side the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, declared that World War I was a “war to end war” and a war to make the world “safe for democracy.” Both of these goals proved to be illusions, but at the time they raised the level of patriotism and public support for the war effort. On the negative side the government promoted ethnic propaganda against the Germans, calling them Huns—thereby suggesting they were barbarians. The war efforts of the 20th century have demonstrated how effectively all means of mass communication can be used for propaganda. Posters, war bond rallies, songs, stage productions, radio programs, and movies were all enlisted to help bolster public morale. The American film industry was especially effective in promoting the war effort in movies that depicted the heroic and noble efforts of the Allies against the cowardly and treacherous tactics of the enemy. Among the most successful World War II movies were ‘A Yank in the RAF' (1941), ‘Wake Island' (1942), ‘A Guy Named Joe' (1943), ‘Destination Tokyo' (1943),‘Action in the North Atlantic' (1943), ‘Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo' (1944), and ‘The Story of G.I. Joe' (1945). Although the films were not government sponsored, the producers usually had the cooperation of the United States War Department.

Disinformation is a word that came into use during the 1970s. It means a deliberate attempt by government to deceive by spreading mixtures of truth and lies. The word was coined in the Soviet Union about 1959, when a department was founded to spread false information in other nations. The tactics of disinformation are numerous. It can be as simple as getting a false news story printed in newspapers or spreading rumors by word of mouth. It may mean publishing misleading scientific and technical articles in official journals. Specialists in disinformation have used letters and other communications on official stationery with forged signatures. These are allowed to fall into the hands of government officials in one country to persuade them that another government is plotting against it. Sometimes disinformation is spread by organizations that are really fronts for political parties, special-interest groups, or for intelligence agencies.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14