World War I and Propaganda Techniques
The use of propaganda has been around for a long time and used through many different historical events. World War I (1914-1918) was unlike any war fought before, and the United States needed all the members throughout the nation to be involved in the war efforts (University Libraries University of Georgia, 2018). Propaganda for the war came in various forms such as advertisements, short films, pamphlets, posters, speeches, door-to-door campaigns and more (University Libraries University of Georgia, 2018). The United States wasn’t the only country using propaganda to get their nation’s people involved. Governments wanted to gain support for the war from their people and also create a sense of animosity through printed matter such as colorful posters (Rudnick, 2017). Episode 20 of the Marketing Muckracking podcast goes further into discussing the effects of the propaganda from World War I.
“In 1928 Edward Bernays published the book Propaganda, which pointed to the success of mass media in World War I to not only shape, but manufacture public opinion, creating what he referred to as “the invisible government”” (Albers, 2022, 0:58).
Bernays had a lot of strong opinions on the idea and use of propaganda. He believed that it had a huge influence on public opinion and was an extremely powerful tool for shaping public behavior as well (Albers, 2022, 1:27).
Propaganda, Social Media and Public Relations
Much modern-day propaganda is seen through politics. Specifically, in the upcoming 2024 presidential election with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump is known to have a strong influence amongst his supporters and has previously riled them up through posts or tweets that are seen as propaganda. Trump’s strong influence is seen perfectly on the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol (United States Attorney’s Office, 2024)
“So when Trumpers threaten civil war they are now revealing how well trained they are all while being convinced that they came up with this themselves. Because the goal of propaganda and militarism in general is to convince people that this is what they wanted all along” (Albers, 2022, 3:04)
Former President Trump uses various propaganda techniques to fire up and persuade his supporters to stand by him. One of the propaganda techniques I find to be the most divisive is fearmongering. Fearmongering is essentially the exaggeration of impending danger that results in inciting fear in the public. This is also an example of media framing and how Trump brings awareness to certain issues by inciting fear in his supporters by presenting information in a specific way that warrants a specific reaction (Moore, 2024, Theory and Public Relations). People have a strong impulse to pay attention to danger, especially when it revolves around current events (Buckingham, 2021). In my opinion, fearmongering can be good in certain situations, such as making people more aware of the effects of climate change. Fearmongering that is almost unnecessary or not true and only used with malicious intent shouldn’t be allowed.
Another example of other propaganda tactics used by former president Donald Trump is the recent artificial poster of Taylor Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, endorsing his presidential campaign. I think this is another divisive tactic of misinformation. The image was AI-generated and led to Taylor Swift’s public endorsement of Kamala Harris on her Instagram account (Kruesi, 2024). Taylor Swift has an extremely large group of supporters, and Trump wanted to take advantage of that by spreading misinformation and a fake endorsement. Using the spread of misinformation as a propaganda technique is dangerous and wrong.
The best way for PR professionals to navigate the use of current propaganda techniques is to maintain honesty. Social media has been an easy conduit for public figures and businesses to spread propaganda. PR professionals should uphold honesty and transparency to maintain trust with their audience (Bowen, 2007). Having a good understanding of ethics and be prepared for a crisis is much better than being blindsided and stuck with how to handle and navigate a situation.
Key Words/Tags
Propaganda, public relations, World War I, social media
References
Bowen, S. (2007, October 30). Ethics and Public Relations. Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/ethics-and-public-relations/
Bridie Buckingham. (2021, July 28). I Explored The Psychology Behind Fear Mongering In The Media. Source PR. https://www.sourcepr.co.uk/fear-mongering-in-the-media/
Cleveland. (2018, June 14). War of Words: Propaganda of World War I | UGA Libraries. Libraries.uga.edu. https://libraries.uga.edu/news/wwipropaganda
KRUESI, K. (2024, September 11). What to know about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-endorsement-democrats-harris-trump-3a5f4827a930d5cf5439febaf014de76
Moore, J. (Ed.) (2024). Public Relations: Principles, Origins, and Practice. Cognella Academic Publishing
Rachael Kay Albers. (2022, August 17). Marketing, Propaganda, and Politics From WWI to Trump – Rachael Kay Albers. Rachael Kay Albers. https://rachaelkayalbers.com/episode-20-marketing-muckraking-wwi-propaganda-to-trump-raid/
Rudnick, A. (2017, December 28). Humor and Horror: Printed Propaganda during World War I. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/articles/printed-propaganda-world-war-i
United States Attorney’s Office. (2024, September 9). 44 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on U.S. Capitol. Justice.gov. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/44-months-jan-6-attack-us-capitol