Sunday, December 4, 2016

Propaganda during the 20th century

Even though we haven't learned much about the WW2 and the Cold War, I have decided to give a little sneak peak on what these times were like for the normal American citizen. With the recent invention of the TV in 1927, watching tv shows and watching the news from the TV became a large part of the American lifestyle. The government utilized this change this change created a lot of state run propaganda during war times. With this new set of TV propaganda came a different style of how the government created propaganda. Brainwashing was used a lot in propaganda during the Cold war and WW2 instead of planting ideas into adults heads the US government uses cartoons which had become very popular with children. Even Doctor Seuss Anti-German propaganda during WW2. Using these types of cartoon propaganda, directed towards children around the age when they are influenced the most by what they see others do. The children will most likely grow up thinking that communism and Nazis are horrible things and they should never believe in those types of ideologies. However on the adult side of the spectrum the advances in science and nutrition in the Military. Created a lot of propaganda on how great their army is and how nice it is to be on the battle field. Some armies like the US Army began to boast about how their army's rations were the best and had the nutrients that every soldier needs to fight. Previously, war food was only beans and limited amounts of food, knowing that their lifestyle on the battlefield might be a little more "luxurious" there were less negatives on joining the army. However propaganda like this is still used today, a lot of childrens' tv shows are designed to teach them lessons and how to mature to become a socially acceptable, shaping them into the adult that society wants them to be. This can be a good on creating a better generation, but is still a type of brainwashing.
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/at-a-glance/propaganda-posters.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

2 comments:

  1. Interesting article! I like that you also included short video clips that explained the issue at hand pretty well. I was wondering if you noticed any connections between WWII propaganda and WWI propaganda. In fact, how did American propaganda evolve over time, and why did it evolve that way?

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  2. Well written! I really like video and how you explain how tv became more popular among Americans in 1927. It really focused on how it was being a problem for the future. It was really interesting how your giving us a sneak into what we will learn and study in the 2nd semester. I really enjoyed how the cartoon one explained there was things that were ruining the county and how people had different positions on and how people were persuaded to giving up there freedom which was very risky. In fact how do you think this propaganda influenced peoples decisions? Does this propaganda connect to anything still done today?

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