Patrick Mendez

UF300-001
June 30, 2014


Propaganda and the Media
The first words that most often come to a persons mind after hearing the word propaganda
is World War II. This affiliation of these items occurred through the power garnered through
disseminating information, true or otherwise, through the skillful application of technological
mile-stones reach in the first half of the twentieth century.
The power of propaganda to produce a certain affect was not lost on our ancestors, however.
Since the time of Alexander the Great to the most recent posting of horrific images of the
atrocities committed by ISIS terrorists, mass media, in its many forms, is the vehicle of
propaganda.
But, until Nazi Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels lent his masterly integration of the
then-current cutting edge technologies, propaganda via the media remained rather
unsophisticated.
Chief among Goebbels tools was radio. While newspapers and news reels had not lost their
relevance, the ability to disseminate information in real-time provided the most far-reaching and
time-sensitive means achieve the goals of the Nazi Regime. The control of radio was of such
importance to the Nazi regime that every on-air personality throughout Germany and much of its
conquered territories were vetted by Goebbels himself (Goebbels, 1983). A modern equivalent of
that would be to have the head of the Federal Communications Communication interviewing
every disc-jockey in America. Control of all information, but particularly radio, was guarded to
the point where German citizens were subject to being sent to concentration camps for merely
listening to foreign radio broadcasts (Shirer, 1984).
Patrick Mendez
UF300-001
June 30, 2014



Each and every possible media sources were subject to similar, (or even more), harsh
guidance. Though radio was the most significant source of information for Germany, Goebbels
knew that the use of news reels and movies was a medium that could not be ignored. For
example, Goebbels not only reviewed every news-reel released for viewing by the German
population, he critiqued the accompanying music and cinematography (Goebbels, 1983). Other
examples included reviewing all movie scripts before production started and ordering that scenes
that did not meet arbitrary standards set by Goebbels during daily screenings (Goebbels, 1983).
The attempts to control all information reaching German citizens ears, however, had an
unintended, but almost equally powerful, consequence. The uniform massaging of news and
releasing it as determined by Goebbels and the propaganda yielded material that was flat and
uninteresting, resulting in bored and apathetic consumers who simply stopped reading the news
papers and only listening to the musical portions of radio broadcasts (Zimmerman, 2006).
Lying by Omission
Though it may seem contradictory, the destruction of media is just as powerful of a tool.
Though not unique to Germany, the most infamous images of book-burnings come from the
Nazi-endorsed ceremonies of May 1933 and were intended to limit Un-German information
available to the populace (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2014). Other absurd
measures taken to purge Un-German items was the was the removal of degenerate art and
the restriction prohibiting the performing or broadcasting of music written by Jewish composers
(Goebbels, 1983).
Patrick Mendez
UF300-001
June 30, 2014


The venture into the absurd with regard to propagandistic measures was taken up by the
Soviet Union. Former K.G.B. agent Vasili Mitrokhin relates the following regarding the typical
measures ordered by the Soviet leadership to ensure that even the slightest memory of a recently-
executed counter-revolutionary would not be able to inspire rebellion:

In true Stalinistic tradition, subscribers to the Great Soviet
Encyclopedia were advised to use a small knife or razor blade
to remove the entry on Beria, (the executed person), and
then to insert a replacement article on the Bearing Sea. (Andrew &
Mitrokhin, 1999. p. 2)
This absurdity could almost be regarded as comical if not for the deadly intent of the
authorities.
And finally, the modern day gives propagandists the ultimate in outreach, (the entire civilized
world) and speed, (almost instantaneously) in the form of the Internet. These differences are
significant to technologies of times past, but even The Illustrated London News had illustrations
from the Crimean War and one only needs to turn on a television to see equally vivid video
(Seethaler, 2013). What the Internet lacks in originality, though, is more than made up by its
efficiency and effectiveness in disseminating information.


Patrick Mendez
UF300-001
June 30, 2014



References

Andrew, C. & Mitrokhin, V. (1999). The sword and the shield: the Mitrokhin archive and
the secret history of the K.G.B. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Goebbels, P.J. (1983). The Goebbels diaries: 1939-1941. F. Taylor (Ed.). New York, NY:
Putnam.
O'Shaughnessy, N. (2012). The death and life of propaganda. Journal Of Public Affairs
(14723891), 12(1), 29-38. doi:10.1002/pa.377
Seethaler, J. (2013). Selling war: the role of the mass media in hostile conflicts from World War I
to the War on Terror. Bristol: Intellect.
Shirer, W. L. (1984). Berlin diary: the journal of a foreign correspondent 1934-1941. New York,
NY: Bonanza.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2014, June 20). General Format.
Retrieved from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852
Zimmerman, C. (2006). From propaganda to modernization: media policy and media audiences
under National Socialism. German History, 24(3), 431-434. doi:10.1191/0266355406gh382oa