Propaganda

French Postcard - French Military Humour Propaganda : The Ingordo, from 1915.

Propaganda is information. It is always biased. The information is designed to make people feel a certain way or to believe a certain thing. The information is often political.

It is hard to tell whether the information is true or false. Very often, the information is confusing and unfair. Propaganda does tend to make disputes last longer, and be more difficult to resolve.

The word 'propaganda' comes from Latin. At first, it meant 'ideas to be spread around'. But in the First World War, it came to mean 'political ideas that are supposed to be misleading'.

Propaganda is like advertising in some ways. For example, it uses the mass media to spread its ideas. But advertising is usually trying to sell something, whereas propaganda is about ideas. It is often political, and used by states or political parties, not private companies.

Propaganda is often used during wars. There it can be very useful. It can take the form of posters, TV advertisements, and radio announcements. Sometimes it keeps the people of a country happy - telling them that their country is fighting well and telling them how important it is that the enemy is defeated. Sometimes it tries to make people hate the enemy. The information could tell people that the enemy is evil or make them seem not human. Sometimes a government gives propaganda to the enemy - telling them that the war is going badly for them and that they should stop fighting.

When a country is not at war, propaganda can still be used. The government may use propaganda to change what people think about a political situation. A group may try to change the way people act towards an issue.

Propaganda under some countries, like dictatorships, is used along with censorship. While propaganda tries to give people false ideas, censorship forces the ones who disagree with propaganda to keep quiet. Then the propaganda can say everything, because nobody can question it in public.

Propaganda is also used to win people by tricking them. Some people say that cults use propaganda to get people to join them.

Examples for propaganda:

• English propaganda against Germany in the First World War.
• German propaganda against Poland to start the Second World War, see Attack on Sender Gleiwitz

Early history

Propaganda has been used in every known civilisation. It was used by Rameses II on his monuments in Ancient Egypt; it was used by Ancient Greek orators; it was used by Julius Caesar, and all Roman Emperors. The word itself is formed from propagate, meaning to multiply.

A landmark in propaganda was the Inquisition, founded in the 12th century. This was reinforced by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) of the Catholic Church. This committee, founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, had action branches in most European countries. These were the local branches of the Inquisition, which sought out heretics. With torture and the threat of death by burning at the stake, they forced heretics to recant (to publicly withdraw their previous beliefs). The objective was to remove all challenges to the supremacy of the Church in matters of belief.

A 1578 handbook for inquisitors spelled out the purpose of inquisitorial penalties: ... quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur. Translation from the Latin: "... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit". Therefore the purpose was truly propaganda in the modern sense.