{{Short description|Communication used to influence opinion}}
{{About|the biased form of communication||Propaganda (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
[[File:I Want You for U.S. Army by James Montgomery Flagg.jpg|thumb|[[James Montgomery Flagg]]'s famous "[[Uncle Sam]]" propaganda poster, made during [[World War I]]]]
'''Propaganda''' is a form of [[mass communication]] that is primarily used to influence an audience and persuade them to further an agenda.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-05-16 |title=Propaganda {{!}} Definition, History, Techniques, Examples, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda |access-date=2026-07-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224155733/https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Khoo | first1=Justin | last2=Sterken | first2=Rachel Katharine | title=The Routledge Handbook of Social and Political Philosophy of Language | date=21 April 2021 | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-1-000-37549-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DokmEAAAQBAJ&dq=Propaganda%20By%20Anne%20Quaranto%2C%20Jason%20Stanley&pg=PT190 }}</ref> Propaganda may not be [[subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)|objective]] and often selectively presents facts to encourage a particular perception, or uses [[loaded language]] to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information presented.<ref name="brit_BLS">{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Bruce L. |author-link=Bruce Lannes Smith |title=Propaganda |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]], Inc. |date=17 February 2016 |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda |access-date=23 April 2016 |archive-date=20 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420160621/https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref> Propaganda can be found in a wide variety of different contexts.<ref name="Hobbs2020">{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Renee |title=Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2020 |location=New York |author-link=Renee Hobbs}}</ref>

Beginning in the twentieth century, the English term ''propaganda'' became associated with a [[manipulation (psychology)|manipulative]] approach, but historically, propaganda had been a neutral descriptive term of any material that promotes certain opinions, [[ideology|ideologies]], or concepts.<ref name="brit_BLS"/><ref name="Diggs-Brown2011p48"/>

A wide range of [[propaganda through media|materials and media are used]] for conveying propaganda messages, which changed as new technologies were invented, including paintings, cartoons, posters,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Stephanie |date=2008-06-01 |title=Display folk: Second World War posters at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |url=https://tuhinga.arphahub.com/article/34165/ |journal=Tuhinga |language=en |volume=19 |pages=7–27 |doi=10.3897/tuhinga.19.e34165 |doi-access=free |issn=2253-5861 |archive-date=3 June 2025 |access-date=28 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250603221719/https://tuhinga.arphahub.com/article/34165 |url-status=live }}</ref> pamphlets, films, radio shows, TV shows, and websites. More recently, the digital age has given rise to new ways of disseminating propaganda, for example, in [[computational propaganda]], bots and algorithms are used to manipulate public opinion, e.g., by creating [[fake news|fake]] or [[media bias|biased news]] to spread it on social media or using [[chatbot]]s to mimic real people in discussions in social networks.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Susser | first1=Daniel | last2=Roessler | first2=Beate | author2-link=Beate Roessler | last3=Nissenbaum | first3=Helen | author3-link=Helen Nissenbaum | title=Technology, autonomy, and manipulation | journal=Internet Policy Review | date=2019 | volume=8 | issue=2 | doi=10.14763/2019.2.1410 | url=https://doi.org/10.14763%2F2019.2.1410 | hdl=11245.1/de72b2e8-18d3-499f-b468-6a432b0a1a8d | hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==Etymology==
{{Main|Propaganda Fide}}

''Propaganda'' is a modern Latin word, the neuter plural [[gerundive]] form of {{lang|la|propagare}}, meaning 'to spread' or 'to propagate', thus ''propaganda'' means ''the things which are to be propagated''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/152605 |title=propaganda, n. |date=December 2020 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=20 April 2021 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316122809/https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/152605 |url-status=live }}</ref> Originally this word derived from a new administrative body ([[congregation (Roman Curia)|congregation]]) of the [[Catholic Church]] created in 1622 as part of the [[Counter-Reformation]], called the ''[[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Congregatio de Propaganda Fide]]'' (''Congregation for Propagating the Faith''), or informally simply ''Propaganda''.<ref name="Diggs-Brown2011p48">{{cite book |last=Diggs-Brown |first=Barbara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7c0ycySng4YC&pg=PA48 |title=Strategic Public Relations: An Audience-Focused Approach |date=2011-08-12 |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]] |isbn=978-0-534-63706-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=propaganda |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=6 March 2015 |archive-date=2 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702174356/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref> Its activity was aimed at "propagating" the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.<ref name="Diggs-Brown2011p48"/>

From the 1790s, the term began being used also to refer to ''propaganda'' in [[secularity|secular]] activities.<ref name="Diggs-Brown2011p48"/> The word gained it's modern sense of "propagating information to spread a cause or movement" in 1929.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Search 'propaganda' on etymonline | url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=propaganda | access-date=2026-07-10 | website=www.etymonline.com | archive-date=25 March 2025 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250325134013/https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Propaganda | url-status=live }}</ref>

Non-English cognates of ''propaganda'' as well as some similar non-English terms retain neutral or positive connotations. For example, in official party discourse, ''[[xuanchuan]]'' is treated as a more neutral or positive term, though it can be used pejoratively through protest or other informal settings within China.<ref>{{cite book |last=Edney |first=Kingsley |url=https://archive.org/details/globalizationofc0000edne/page/22/mode/1up?view=theater |title=The Globalization of Chinese Propaganda |date=2014 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-349-47990-0 |location=New York |pages=22–24, 195 |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137382153 |quote=Outside the realm of official discourse, however, propaganda (xuanchuan), is occasionally used in a negative way...(p. 195)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lin |first=Chunfeng |title=Red Tourism in China: Commodification of Propaganda |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2023 |isbn=9781032139609}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=4–6}}

==Definitions==
[[File:Propaganda Poster SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Langemarck met anti-Semitisch opschrift Samen zullen wij hem verpletteren!.jpg|thumb|[[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|Nazi propaganda]] poster of [[Flemish Legion|27th SS Volunteer Division Langemarck]] with [[antisemitic]] title: "Together we will crush him!".]]
Historian [[Arthur Aspinall]] observed that newspapers were not expected to be independent organs of information when they began to play an important part in political life in the late 1700s, but were assumed to promote the views of their owners or government sponsors.<ref>Arthur Aspinall, ''Politics and the Press 1780-1850'', p. v {{ISBN|978-0-2-08012401}} New York: Barnes and Noble Books (1949)</ref> In the 20th century, the term propaganda emerged along with the rise of mass media, including newspapers and radio. As researchers began studying the effects of media, they used [[suggestion theory]] to explain how people could be influenced by emotionally-resonant persuasive messages. [[Harold Lasswell]] provided a broad definition of the term propaganda, writing it as: "the expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately by individuals or groups with a view to influencing the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends and through psychological manipulations."<ref>Ellul, Jacques (1965). Introduction by Konrad Kellen in ''[[Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes]]'', pp. [https://archive.org/details/propagandaformat0000ellu/page/n16/mode/1up xi–xii]. Trans. Konrad Kellen & Jean Lerner from original 1962 French edition ''Propagandes''. Knopf, New York. {{ISBN|978-0-394-71874-3}} (1973 edition by Vintage Books, New York).</ref> Garth Jowett and [[Victoria O'Donnell]] theorize that propaganda and [[persuasion]] are linked as humans use communication as a form of [[soft power]] through the development and cultivation of propaganda materials.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jowett |first1=Garth |last2=O'Donnell |first2=Victoria |title=Propaganda and Persuasion |date=2012 |publisher=Sage Publications Inc. |isbn=978-1412977821 |edition=5th |language=en}}{{Page needed|date=February 2020}}</ref>

In a 1929 literary debate with [[Edward Bernays]], [[Everett Dean Martin]] argues that, "Propaganda is making puppets of us. We are moved by hidden strings which the propagandist manipulates."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Everett Dean |author-link1=Everett Dean Martin |editor1-last=Leach |editor1-first=Henry Goddard |editor1-link=Henry Goddard Leach |title=Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays |journal=[[The Forum (American magazine)|The Forum]] |date=March 1929 |volume=81 |pages=142–150 |url=http://postflaviana.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/martin-bernays-debate.pdf |access-date=22 February 2020 |publisher=Forum Publishing Company |language=en |archive-date=18 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918143905/https://postflaviana.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/martin-bernays-debate.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1920s and 1930s, propaganda was sometimes described as all-powerful. For example, Bernays acknowledged in his book ''[[Propaganda (book)|Propaganda]]'' that "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bernays L |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward Bernays |title=Propaganda |date=1928 |publisher=Horace |location=Liveright |page=[https://archive.org/details/BernaysPropaganda/page/n3 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/BernaysPropaganda}}</ref>

[[NATO]]'s 2011 guidance for military public affairs defines propaganda as "information, ideas, doctrines, or special appeals disseminated to influence the opinion, emotions, attitudes, or behaviour of any specified group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly".<ref>{{cite book |last=Kuehl |first=Dan |date=2014-03-10 |editor-last=Snow |editor-first=Nancy |title=Propaganda and American Democracy |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |pages=12 |chapter=Chapter 1: Propaganda in the Digital Age |isbn=978-0-8071-5416-8}}</ref> More recently the [[RAND Corporation]] coined the term ''[[firehose of falsehood]]'' to describe how modern communication capabilities enable a large number of messages to be broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels (like [[news media|news]] and [[social media]]) without regard for truth or consistency.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paul |first1=Christopher |last2=Matthews |first2=Miriam |title=The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model |chapter=Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It |date=2016 |publisher=RAND Corporation |jstor=resrep02439 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep02439 |archive-date=30 November 2025 |access-date=24 May 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251130190822/https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep02439 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Zegart |first1=Amy B. |title=Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence |date=28 February 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22307-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNGAEAAAQBAJ&dq=firehose%20of%20falsehood%20rand&pg=PA373}}</ref>

==History==
{{Main|History of propaganda}}
Propaganda has existed since the beginning of recorded history. In the [[New Kingdom of Egypt]], the state utilized a "Clean Victory"{{Failed verification|date=August 2026|reason=See the linked "main" article for details.}} ideology to prioritize the preservation of [[Maat]] (cosmic order) over factual military reporting.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Šmejkal |first1=Ondřej |title=Ancient Egyptian State Propaganda: the Battle of Kadesh Case Study |url=https://www.academia.edu/19849394}}</ref> Temple reliefs sanitized warfare by omitting violence against non-combatants,<ref>{{cite web |title=Violence of Gender and Gender of Violence in Ancient Egypt |date=February 2022 |url=https://anetoday.org/matic-gender-violence/ |access-date=27 January 2026 |archive-date=10 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250910202827/https://anetoday.org/matic-gender-violence/ |url-status=live }}</ref> portraying the [[Pharaoh]] as a disciplined protector rather than a chaotic aggressor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient Egyptian Art Propaganda |url=https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Ancient-Egyptian-Art-Propaganda-FJXZNCE3NLV}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2026|reason=See the linked "main" article for details.}} This was exemplified by Ramesses II, who reframed the [[Battle of Kadesh]], a stalemate, as a divine personal victory.<ref>{{cite web |last=Butt |first=Merilyn |date=2023-03-02 |title=5 Pieces of Propaganda from the Ancient World |url=https://www.thecollector.com/propaganda-ancient-world/ |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=TheCollector |archive-date=16 February 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260216022248/https://www.thecollector.com/propaganda-ancient-world/ |url-status=live }}</ref> To visually reinforce this authority, artists used hierarchical scaling to depict the king as a giant among men,<ref>{{cite web |title=Relief Representation of a Battle Scene |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/en-GB/objects/3863 |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=Brooklyn Museum }}{{Dead link|date=June 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> utilizing motifs like the "smiting of the enemy" to symbolize the Pharaoh's triumph over chaos.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Das |first1=José |last2=Sales |first2=José Das Candeias |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262174750 |title=The smiting of the enemies scenes in the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu |journal=Oriental Studies |date=January 2012 |volume=1 |pages=79–110 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Relief of Ramesses II Smiting his Enemies |url=https://egypt-museum.egypt-museum.com/post/778850354055004160/ramesses-ii-smiting-his-enemies |access-date=27 January 2026 |archive-date=17 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250917133243/https://egypt-museum.egypt-museum.com/post/778850354055004160/ramesses-ii-smiting-his-enemies |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Behistun Inscription]] ({{circa|515}} [[Common Era|BCE]]) detailing the rise of [[Darius I of Persia|Darius I]] to the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] [[throne]] is viewed by most historians as an early example of propaganda.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nagle |first=D. Brendan |title=The Ancient World: Readings in Social and Cultural History |year=2009 |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=978-0-205-69187-6 |author2=Stanley M Burstein |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientworldread00nagl/page/28 28] |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientworldread00nagl/page/133}}</ref> Another striking example of propaganda during ancient history is the last [[Roman civil wars]] (44–30 BCE) during which [[Augustus|Octavian]] and [[Mark Antony]] blamed each other for obscure and degrading origins, cruelty, cowardice, oratorical and literary incompetence, debaucheries, luxury, drunkenness, and other slanders.<ref>{{cite book |last=Borgies |first=Loïc |title=Le conflit propagandiste entre Octavien et Marc Antoine. De l'usage politique de la uituperatio entre 44 et 30 a. C. n. |year=2016 |publisher=Éditions Latomus |isbn=978-90-429-3459-7}}</ref> This defamation took the form of ''uituperatio'' (Roman rhetorical genre of the invective) which was decisive for shaping the Roman public opinion at this time. Another early example of propaganda was from [[Genghis Khan]]. The emperor would send some of his men ahead of his army to spread rumors to the enemy. In many cases, his army was actually smaller than his opponents'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Davison |first=W. Phillips |date=1971 |title=Some Trends in International Propaganda |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=398 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1177/000271627139800102 |jstor=1038915 |s2cid=145332403 |issn=0002-7162}}</ref>

[[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I]] was the first ruler to utilize the power of the printing press for propaganda – in order to [[cultural depictions of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|build his image]], stir up patriotic feelings in the population of his empire (he was the first ruler who utilized one-sided battle reports – the early predecessors of modern newspapers or ''neue zeitungen'' – targeting the mass.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kunczic |first1=Michael |editor-last=Preußer |editor-first=Heinz-Peter |contribution=Public Relations in Kriegzeiten – Die Notwendigkeit von Lüge und Zensur |title=Krieg in den Medien |date=2016 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-94-012-0230-5 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3wfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kunczik |first1=Michael |title=Images of Nations and International Public Relations |date=6 May 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-68902-4 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hkfDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>) and influence the population of his enemies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Museum |first1=Cincinnati Art |last2=Becker |first2=David P. |title=Six Centuries of Master Prints: Treasures from the Herbert Greer French Collection |date=1993 |publisher=Cincinnati Art Museum |isbn=978-0-931537-15-8 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSjrAAAAMAAJ |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Silver |first1=Larry |title=Marketing Maximilian: The Visual Ideology of a Holy Roman Emperor |date=2008 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-13019-4 |page=235 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4o3rAAAAMAAJ |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Füssel|2020|pp=10-12}} Propaganda during the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], helped by the spread of the [[printing press]] throughout Europe, and in particular within Germany, caused new ideas, thoughts, and doctrine to be made available to the public in ways that had never been seen before the 16th century. During the era of the [[American Revolution]], the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]] had a flourishing network of newspapers and printers who specialized in the topic on behalf of the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]] (and to a lesser extent on behalf of the [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]]).<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.14315/arg-1975-jg07 |title=The Reformation in Print: German Pamphlets and Propaganda |journal=Archive for Reformation History |volume=66 |year=1975 |last1=Cole |first1=Richard G. |s2cid=163518886 |pages=93–102 |issn=0003-9381}}</ref> Academic Barbara Diggs-Brown conceives that the negative connotations of the term "propaganda" are associated with the earlier social and political transformations that occurred during the [[French Revolutionary period]] movement of 1789 to 1799 between the start and the middle portion of the 19th century, in a time when the word started to be used in a nonclerical and political context.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Diggs-Brown |first1=Barbara |title=Cengage Advantage Books: Strategic Public Relations: An Audience-Focused Approach |date=2011 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-534-63706-4 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7c0ycySng4YC&pg=PA48 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:LeafletToTampere1918.jpg|thumb|left|A 1918 Finnish propaganda leaflet signed by [[General Mannerheim]] circulated by the [[White Guard (Finland)|Whites]] urging the [[Red Guards (Finland)|Reds]] to surrender during the [[Finnish Civil War]]. [''To the residents and troops of [[Tampere]]! Resistance is futile. Raise the [[white flag]] and surrender. The blood of the citizen has been shed enough. We will not kill our prisoners as the Reds do. Send your representative with a white flag.]'']]
The first large-scale and organised propagation of government propaganda was occasioned by the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in 1914. After the defeat of Germany, military officials such as General [[Erich Ludendorff]] suggested that British propaganda had been instrumental in their defeat. [[Adolf Hitler]] came to echo this view, believing that it had been a primary cause of the [[Germany's defeat in World War I|collapse of morale and revolts]] in the [[German home front during World War I|German home front]] and [[Imperial German Navy#World War I|Navy]] in 1918 (see also: [[stab-in-the-back myth]]). In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' (1925) Hitler expounded his theory of propaganda, which provided a powerful base for his rise to power in 1933. Historian [[Robert Ensor]] explains that "Hitler...puts no limit on what can be done by propaganda; people will believe anything, provided they are told it often enough and emphatically enough, and that contradicters are either silenced or smothered in calumny."<ref>Robert Ensor in David Thomson, ed., ''The New Cambridge Modern History: volume XII The Era of Violence 1890–1945'' (1st edition 1960), p 84.</ref> This was to be true in Germany and backed up with their army making it difficult to allow other propaganda to flow in.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Yourman |first=Julius |date=November 1939 |title=Propaganda Techniques Within Nazi Germany |journal=Journal of Educational Sociology |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=148–163 |doi=10.2307/2262307 |jstor=2262307}}</ref> Most propaganda in [[Nazi Germany]] was produced by the [[Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]] under [[Joseph Goebbels]]. Goebbels mentions propaganda as a way to see through the masses. Symbols are used toward propaganda such as justice, liberty, and one's devotion to one's country.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cantril |first=Hadley |date=1938 |title=Propaganda Analysis |journal=The English Journal |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=217–221 |doi=10.2307/806063 |jstor=806063}}</ref> [[World War II]] saw continued use of propaganda as a weapon of war, building on the experience of [[Propaganda in World War I|WWI]], by Goebbels and the British [[Political Warfare Executive]], as well as the United States [[Office of War Information]].<ref>Fox, J. C., 2007, "Film propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany: World War II cinema.", Oxford:Berg.</ref>

In the early 20th century, the invention of motion pictures (as in movies, diafilms) gave propaganda-creators a powerful tool for advancing political and military interests when it came to reaching a broad segment of the population and creating consent or encouraging rejection of the real or imagined enemy. In the years following the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, the [[Soviet Russia|Soviet]] government sponsored the Russian film industry with the purpose of making propaganda films (e.g., the 1925 film ''[[The Battleship Potemkin]]'' glorifies [[Communist]] ideals). In WWII, Nazi filmmakers produced highly emotional films to create popular support for occupying the [[Sudetenland]] and attacking Poland. The 1930s and 1940s, which saw the rise of [[totalitarian]] states and the [[Second World War]], are arguably the "Golden Age of Propaganda". [[Leni Riefenstahl]], a filmmaker working in [[Nazi Germany]], created one of the best-known propaganda movies, ''[[Triumph of the Will]]''. In 1942, the propaganda song ''[[Niet Molotoff]]'' was made in [[Finland]] during the [[Continuation War]], making fun of the [[Red Army]]'s failure in the [[Winter War]], referring the song's name to the Soviet's [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fono.fi/KappaleenTiedot.aspx?kappale=niet+molotoff&ID=64fad317-515d-4153-832c-5744b443f28c |title=Fono.fi – Äänitetietokanta |website=fono.fi |language=fi |access-date=13 March 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221203822/https://www.musiikkikirjastot.fi/wp-content/themes/musabasaari/images/musiikkikirjastot-logo.png |url-status=live }}</ref> In the US, [[American Animation in World War II|animation]] became popular, especially for winning over youthful audiences and aiding the U.S. war effort, e.g., ''[[Der Fuehrer's Face]]'' (1942), which ridicules [[Hitler]] and advocates the value of freedom. Some American [[war film]]s in the early 1940s were designed to create a patriotic mindset and convince viewers that sacrifices needed to be made to defeat the [[Axis powers]].<ref>Philip M. Taylor, 1990, "Munitions of the mind: A history of propaganda", Pg. 170.</ref> Others were intended to help Americans understand their Allies in general, as in films like ''Know Your Ally: Britain'' and ''Our Greek Allies''. Apart from its war films, Hollywood did its part to boost American morale in a film intended to show how stars of stage and screen who remained on the home front were doing their part not just in their labors, but also in their understanding that a variety of peoples worked together against the Axis menace: ''[[Stage Door Canteen (film)|Stage Door Canteen]]'' (1943) features one segment meant to dispel Americans' mistrust of the Soviets, and another to dispel their bigotry against the Chinese. Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created the anti-Nazi color film ''[[Calling Mr. Smith]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1 |title=Calling Mr. Smith – LUX |access-date=30 January 2018 |archive-date=25 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425234317/https://lux.org.uk/work/calling-mr-smith1 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/id/cAXbMp/rqGRLe9/fr |title=Calling Mr Smith |website=Centre Pompidou |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221202910/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cAXbMp |url-status=live }}</ref> (1943) about Nazi crimes in [[German-occupied Europe]] and about lies of Nazi propaganda.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/ |title=Franciszka and Stefan Themerson: Calling Mr. Smith (1943) – artincinema |date=21 June 2015 |access-date=30 January 2018 |archive-date=31 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131024247/http://artincinema.com/franciszka-and-stefan-themerson-calling-mr-smith-1943/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[John Steinbeck]] novel ''[[The Moon Is Down]]'' (1942), about the [[Socrates]]-inspired spirit of resistance in an occupied village in [[Northern Europe]], was presumed to be about [[Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany|Norway's response to the German occupiers]]. In 1945, Steinbeck received the [[King Haakon VII Freedom Cross]] for his literary contributions to the [[Norwegian resistance movement]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sumnerandstillman.com/pages/books/13190/john-steinbeck/the-moon-is-down |title=THE MOON IS DOWN by John Steinbeck on Sumner & Stillman |website=Sumner & Stillman |access-date=January 13, 2019 |archive-date=January 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113062931/https://www.sumnerandstillman.com/pages/books/13190/john-steinbeck/the-moon-is-down |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Is this tomorrow.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Front cover of a US [[Red Scare|anti-communist propaganda]] comic book published in 1947]]

The [[Western Bloc|West]] and the [[Soviet Union]] both used propaganda extensively during the [[Cold War]]. Both sides [[Cold War propaganda films|used film]], television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, and [[Third World]] nations. Through a front organization called the Bedford Publishing Company, the CIA through a covert department called the [[Office of Policy Coordination]] disseminated over one million books to Soviet readers over the span of 15 years, including novels by George Orwell, Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, and Pasternak in an attempt to promote anti-communist sentiment and sympathy of Western values.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/why-the-cia-distributed-pocket-size-copies-of-doctor-zhivago-in-the-soviet-union/371369/ |title=Is Literature 'the Most Important Weapon of Propaganda'? |author=Nick Romeo |website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=17 June 2014 |access-date=28 February 2022 |archive-date=28 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228083535/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/why-the-cia-distributed-pocket-size-copies-of-doctor-zhivago-in-the-soviet-union/371369/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[George Orwell]]'s contemporaneous novels ''[[Animal Farm]]'' and ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' portray the use of propaganda in fictional dystopian societies. Propaganda was used extensively by Communist forces in the [[Vietnam War]] as means of controlling people's opinions.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/sophana2007vietnamese.pdf |title=Vietnamese propaganda reflections from 1945 to 2000 |author=Sophana Srichampa |journal=[[Mon-Khmer Studies]] |volume=37 |pages=87–116 |publisher=Mahidol University |location=Thailand |date=30 August 2007 |archive-date=2 April 2013 |access-date=30 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402215249/http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/sophana2007vietnamese.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[Yugoslav wars]], [[Propaganda during the Yugoslav Wars|propaganda was used]] as a [[military strategy]] by governments of [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] and [[Croatia]]. Propaganda was used to create fear and hatred, and particularly to incite the [[Serb]] population against the other ethnicities ([[Bosniaks]], [[Croats]], [[Albanians]], and other non-Serbs). Serb media made a great effort in justifying, revising, or denying mass [[war crimes]] committed by Serb forces during these wars.<ref name="Boston University">{{cite web |date=12 April 1999 |title=Serbian Propaganda: A Closer Look |url=http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/pubs/Pesic041299.html |quote=NOAH ADAMS: The European Center for War, Peace and the News Media, based in London, has received word from Belgrade that no pictures of mass Albanian refugees have been shown at all, and that the Kosovo humanitarian catastrophe is only referred to as the one made up or over-emphasised by Western propaganda. |access-date=21 December 2007 |archive-date=4 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604064124/http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/pubs/Pesic041299.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Public perceptions==

In the early 20th century, the term propaganda was used by the founders of the nascent [[public relations]] industry to refer to their people. Literally translated from the [[Latin]] [[gerundive]] as "things that must be disseminated", in some cultures the term is neutral or even positive, while in others the term has acquired a strong negative connotation. The connotations of the term "propaganda" can also vary over time. For example, in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]- and some Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in the [[Southern Cone]], the word "propaganda" usually refers to the most common manipulative media in business terms&nbsp;– "advertising".<ref>{{cite web |title=English translation of Portuguese 'propaganda' |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/portuguese-english/propaganda |website=collinsdictionary.com |date=30 October 2020 |access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Skandinavism.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Poster of the 19th-century [[Scandinavism|Scandinavist]] movement]]
In English, ''propaganda'' was originally a neutral term for the dissemination of information in favor of any given cause. During the 20th century, however, the term acquired a thoroughly negative meaning in western countries, representing the intentional dissemination of often false, but certainly "compelling" claims to support or justify political actions or ideologies. According to [[Harold Lasswell]], the term began to fall out of favor due to growing public suspicion of propaganda in the wake of its use during World War I by the [[Committee on Public Information|Creel Committee]] in the United States and the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] in Britain: Writing in 1928, Lasswell observed, "In democratic countries the official propaganda bureau was looked upon with genuine alarm, for fear that it might be suborned to party and personal ends. The outcry in the United States against Mr. [[George Creel|Creel]]'s famous Bureau of Public Information (or 'Inflammation') helped to din into the public mind the fact that propaganda existed. ... The public's discovery of propaganda has led to a great of lamentation over it. Propaganda has become an epithet of contempt and hate, and the propagandists have sought protective coloration in such names as 'public relations council,' 'specialist in public education,' 'public relations adviser.' "<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=2378152 |last1=Lasswell |first1=Harold D. |title=The Function of the Propagandist |journal=International Journal of Ethics |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=258–268 |year=1928 |doi=10.1086/intejethi.38.3.2378152 |s2cid=145021449}} pp. 260–261</ref> In 1949, political science professor Dayton David McKean wrote, "After World War I the word came to be applied to 'what you don't like of the other fellow's publicity,' as Edward L. Bernays said...."<ref>p. 113, ''Party and Pressure Politics'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1949.</ref>

===Contestation===

The term is essentially contested and some have argued for a neutral definition,<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/14616700220145641 |title=Strategic Communications or Democratic Propaganda? |journal=Journalism Studies |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=437–441 |year=2002 |last1=Taylor |first1=Philip M. |s2cid=144546254}}</ref><ref name="Briant2015">{{cite book |jstor=j.ctt18mvn1n |title=Propaganda and Counter-terrorism |last1=Briant |first1=Emma Louise |year=2015 |isbn=9780719091056 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester}}</ref>{{rp|page=9}} arguing that ethics depend on intent and context,<ref name="Briant2015"/> while others define it as necessarily unethical and negative.<ref>Doob, L.W. (1949), Public Opinion and Propaganda, London: Cresset Press p 240</ref> [[Emma Briant]] defines it as "the deliberate manipulation of representations (including text, pictures, video, speech etc.) with the intention of producing any effect in the audience (e.g. action or inaction; reinforcement or transformation of feelings, ideas, attitudes, or behaviours) that is desired by the propagandist."<ref name="Briant2015"/>{{rp|page=9}} The same author explains the importance of consistent terminology across history, particularly as contemporary euphemistic synonyms are used in governments' continual efforts to rebrand their operations such as 'information support' and [[strategic communication]].<ref name="Briant2015"/>{{rp|page=9}} Other scholars also see benefits to acknowledging that propaganda can be interpreted as beneficial or harmful, depending on the message sender, target audience, message, and context.<ref name="Hobbs2020"/>

David Goodman argues that the 1936 [[League of Nations]] "Convention on the Use of Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace" tried to create the standards for a liberal international public sphere. The Convention encouraged empathetic and neighborly radio broadcasts to other nations. It called for League prohibitions on international broadcast containing hostile speech and false claims. It tried to define the line between liberal and illiberal policies in communications, and emphasized the dangers of nationalist chauvinism. With Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia active on the radio, its liberal goals were ignored, while free speech advocates warned that the code represented restraints on free speech.<ref>David Goodman, "Liberal and Illiberal Internationalism in the Making of the League of Nations Convention on Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace." ''Journal of World History'' 31.1 (2020): 165–193. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/750118/pdf excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616085607/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/750118/pdf |date=16 June 2022 }}</ref>

==Types==
[[File:Propaganda poster in a primary school - DPRK (2604154887).jpg|thumb|left|230px|Poster in a North Korean primary school targeting the United States military. The Korean text reads: "Are you playing the game of catching these guys?"]]

The main difficulties have involved differentiating propaganda from other types of [[persuasion]], and avoiding a [[bias]]ed approach. Richard Alan Nelson provides a definition of the term: "Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for [[ideology|ideological]], political or commercial purposes<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/wwii-propaganda-private-snafu-flashback |title=This WWII Cartoon Taught Soldiers How to Avoid Certain Death |last=McNearney |first=Allison |website=HISTORY |date=29 August 2018 |language=en |access-date=2020-03-29 |archive-date=1 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001012733/https://www.history.com/news/wwii-propaganda-private-snafu-flashback |url-status=live }}</ref> through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels."<ref>Richard Alan Nelson, ''A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States'' (1996) pp. 232–233</ref> 

Propaganda can often be recognized by the rhetorical strategies used in its design. In the 1930s, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis identified a variety of propaganda techniques that were commonly used in newspapers and on the radio, which were the mass media of the time period. Propaganda techniques include "name calling" (using derogatory labels), "bandwagon" (expressing the social appeal of a message), or "glittering generalities" (using positive but imprecise language).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hobbs |first=Renee |date=2014-11-09 |title=Teaching about Propaganda: An Examination of the Historical Roots of Media Literacy |journal=Journal of Media Literacy Education |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=56–67 |doi=10.23860/jmle-2016-06-02-5 |issn=2167-8715 |doi-access=free}}</ref> With the rise of the internet and social media, Renee Hobbs identified four characteristic design features of many forms of contemporary propaganda: (1) it activates strong emotions; (2) it simplifies information; (3) it appeals to the hopes, fears, and dreams of a targeted audience; and (4) it attacks opponents.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Renee |title=Mind Over Media |publisher=Norton |year=2020}}</ref>

Propaganda is sometimes evaluated based on the intention and goals of the individual or institution who created it. According to historian [[Zbyněk Zeman]], propaganda is defined as either white, grey, or black. [[White propaganda]] openly discloses its source and intent.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Briant | first1=Emma L. | last2=Bakir | first2=Vian | title=Routledge Handbook of the Influence Industry | date=15 October 2024 | publisher=Taylor & Francis | isbn=978-1-040-12198-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q24bEQAAQBAJ&dq=white%20propaganda%20meaning&pg=RA1-PA1988 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=White propaganda | work=About.com Careers | url=http://usmilitary.about.com/od/glossarytermsw/g/w6811.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055343/http://usmilitary.about.com/od/glossarytermsw/g/w6811.htm | archive-date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> [[Grey propaganda]] has an ambiguous or non-disclosed source or intent. [[Black propaganda]] purports to be published by the enemy or some organization besides its actual origins<ref name="new">{{cite book |title=Selling the War |publisher=Orbis Publishing |first=Zbynek |last=Zeman |date=1978 |isbn=978-0-85613-312-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sellingwarartpro0000zema}}</ref> 

[[File:C. 1916 Edith Cavell propaganda stamp.JPG|thumb|left|The execution of British nurse [[Edith Cavell#Role in World War I propaganda|Edith Cavell]] by the German Army in 1915 was a major theme of [[World War I]] anti-German propaganda.]]

[[File:Papal Belvedere High Res.jpg|thumb|212x212px|Woodcuts (1545) known as the ''Papstspotbilder'' or ''Depictions of the Papacy'' in English,<ref name="Oberman">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_leG5ztYoZwC&pg=PA61 |title=The Impact of the Reformation: Essays |first=Heiko Augustinus |last=Oberman |date=1 January 1994 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |via=Google Books |isbn=9780802807328 |archive-date=24 December 2024 |access-date=18 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241224185431/https://books.google.com/books?id=_leG5ztYoZwC&pg=PA61 |url-status=live }}</ref> by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder|Lucas Cranach]], commissioned by [[Martin Luther]].<ref name="Edwards-1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=kYbupalP98kC&pg=PA4 ''Luther's Last Battles: Politics And Polemics 1531-46'' By Mark U. Edwards, Jr.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241220045336/https://books.google.com/books?id=kYbupalP98kC&pg=PA4 |date=20 December 2024 }} Fortress Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-8006-3735-4}}</ref> Title: Kissing the Pope's Feet.<ref>In Latin, the title reads "Hic oscula pedibus papae figuntur"</ref> German peasants respond to a papal bull of [[Pope Paul III]]. Caption reads: "Don't frighten us Pope, with your ban, and don't be such a furious man. Otherwise we shall turn around and show you our rears."<ref>"Nicht Bapst: nicht schreck uns mit deim ban, Und sey nicht so zorniger man. Wir thun sonst ein gegen wehre, Und zeigen dirs Bel vedere"</ref><ref name="Edwards-2">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYbupalP98kC&pg=PA198 |title=Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics 1531–46 |first=Mark U. |last=Edwards |year=2004 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=9781451413984 |page=199 |via=Google Books}}</ref>]]

===Religious===
{{Further|International propagation of the Salafi movement and Wahhabism|American imperialism|Arab Cold War}}
Propaganda has often been used to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues, particularly during the split between the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and the [[Protestantism|Protestant churches]] or during the [[Crusades]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=Lane |url=https://www.truvere.com/trouvre-poets-reflectors-of-societal-zeal |title=Trouvère Poets: Reflectors of Societal Zeal |work=Truvere |publisher=Truvere |date=2022-07-07 |access-date=2022-09-13 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405005245/https://www.truvere.com/trouvre-poets-reflectors-of-societal-zeal |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The sociologist [[Jeffrey K. Hadden]] has argued that members of the [[anti-cult movement]] and [[Christian counter-cult movement]] accuse the leaders of what they consider cults of using propaganda extensively to recruit followers and keep them. Hadden argued that ex-members of cults and the anti-cult movement are committed to making these movements look bad.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Religious Movements Page: Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" |url=http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/cultsect/concult.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207042448/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/cultsect/concult.htm |archive-date=7 February 2006 |access-date=4 December 2005}}</ref>

Propaganda against other religions in the same community or propaganda intended to keep political power in the hands of a religious elite can incite religious hate on a global or national scale. It could make use of many propaganda mediums. War, terrorism, riots, and other violent acts can result from it. It can also conceal injustices, inequities, exploitation, and atrocities, leading to ignorance-based indifference and alienation.<ref name="Religiuos propaganda definition">{{cite web |title=Religious propaganda |url=http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/problem/religious-propaganda |website=Encyclopedia.uia.org |publisher=Union of International Associations |access-date=9 November 2023}}{{Dead link|date=April 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot}}</ref>

During the [[Cold War]], the United States and the United Kingdom, launched covert and overt campaigns to encourage and strengthen [[Islamism|Islamists]] in the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Asia. These [[Islamism|Islamists]] were seen as a hedge against potential expansion by the [[Soviet Union]], and as counterweight against [[Nationalism|nationalists]] and [[Socialism|socialists]] that were seen as a threat to the interests of the Western nations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dreyfuss |first=Robert |title=Devil's game: how the United States helped unleash fundamentalist Islam |date=2005 |publisher=A Holt Paperback |isbn=978-0-8050-7652-3 |series=The American empire project |location=New York |pages=1–4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Christopher M. |title=Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East |date=2016 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=978-1-78607-002-9 |location=La Vergne |pages=43–45}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Khalidi |first=Rashid |title=Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East |date=2009 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-0311-4 |location=Boston |pages=20–21}}</ref> In 1957, President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] gave approval to a policy that included doing "everything possible to stress the 'holy war' aspect", and sending weapons to the Saudi-led conservative monarchies to counteract socialist [[Arab nationalism|Arab nationalists]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v13/d388 |website=history.state.gov |access-date=2026-01-30 |archive-date=8 February 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260208222912/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v13/d388 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Rashid Khalidi]] observes that during the [[Arab Cold War]], the wave of the [[Socialism|socialist]] [[Arab nationalism|Arab Nationalists]] "seemed to place the United States and its allies in a highly unfavorable position. To this apparently unbalanced situation, [[Saudi Arabia]] brought the powerful ideological weapon of Islam."<ref>{{cite book |last=Khalidi |first=Rashid |title=Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East |date=2009 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-0311-4 |location=Boston |pages=19}}</ref> According to some estimates, between the 1960s and 2016, Saudi Arabia funnelled over US$100 billion into funding schools and mosques all over the world with the mission of spreading puritanical [[Wahhabism|Wahhabi Islam]].<ref>{{cite news |date=2016-01-30 |title='Tsunami of money' from Saudi Arabia funding 24,000 Pakistan madrassas |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/tsunami-of-money-from-saudi-arabia-funding-24000-pakistan-madrassas/articleshow/50781972.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2026-01-26 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389 |archive-date=12 March 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260312104731/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/tsunami-of-money-from-saudi-arabia-funding-24000-pakistan-madrassas/articleshow/50781972.cms?from=mdr |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[Political science|political scientist]] Alex Alexiev, the impetus for the [[International propagation of the Salafi movement and Wahhabism|international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism]] by Saudi Arabia was "the largest worldwide propaganda campaign ever mounted".<ref>{{cite web |last=Jr |first=Frank Gaffney |date=2003-12-08 |title=Waging the 'War of Ideas' |url=https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/waging-the-war-of-ideas-2/ |access-date=2026-01-24 |website=Center for Security Policy |language=en-US |archive-date=6 March 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260306024758/https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/waging-the-war-of-ideas-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[David A. Kaplan]] described it as "dwarfing the [[active measures|Soviets' propaganda efforts]] at the height of the Cold War."<ref>{{cite web |last=Jr |first=Frank Gaffney |date=2003-12-08 |title=Waging the 'War of Ideas' |url=https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/waging-the-war-of-ideas-2/ |access-date=2026-01-24 |website=Center for Security Policy |language=en-US |archive-date=6 March 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260306024758/https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/waging-the-war-of-ideas-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Wartime===
[[File:The Boston Massacre MET DT2086.jpg|thumb|A famous example of propaganda, this poster made by [[Paul Revere]] portrays the [[Boston Massacre]] in a way that he hoped would make Americans angry and support the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]].]]In the [[Peloponnesian War]], the Athenians exploited the figures from stories about [[Troy]] as well as other mythical images to incite feelings against [[Sparta]]. For example, [[Helen of Troy]] was even portrayed as an Athenian, whose mother [[Nemesis]] would avenge Troy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Magill |first1=Frank Northen |title=Dictionary of World Biography |date=23 January 2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-57958-040-7 |page=422 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyKaVFZqbdUC&pg=PA422 |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rutter |first1=Keith |title=Word And Image In Ancient Greece |date=31 March 2020 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-7985-0 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q28xEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> During the [[Punic Wars]], extensive campaigns of propaganda were carried out by both sides. To dissolve the Roman system of [[socii]] and the Greek [[poleis]], [[Hannibal]] released without conditions Latin prisoners that he had treated generously to their native cities, where they helped to disseminate his propaganda.<ref name="Stepper">{{cite journal |last1=Stepper |first1=R. |title=Politische parolen und propaganda im Hannibalkrieg |journal=Klio |date=2006 |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=397–407 |doi=10.1524/klio.2006.88.2.397 |s2cid=190002621 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/298534203 |access-date=7 February 2022}}</ref> The Romans on the other hand tried to portray Hannibal as a person devoid of humanity and would soon lose the favour of gods. At the same time, led by [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus|Q. Fabius Maximus]], they organized elaborate religious rituals to protect Roman morale.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoyos |first1=Dexter |title=A Companion to the Punic Wars |date=26 May 2015 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-02550-4 |page=275 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UzJ3BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA275 |access-date=7 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Stepper"/>

In the early sixteenth century, [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] invented one kind of psychological warfare targeting the enemies. During his war against [[Venice]], he attached pamphlets to balloons that his archers would shoot down. The content spoke of freedom and equality and provoked the populace to rebel against the tyrants (their Signoria).{{sfn|Füssel|2020|pp=10–12}}

[[File:Harry R. Hopps, Destroy this mad brute Enlist - U.S. Army, 03216u edit.jpg|alt=Propaganda poster shows a terrifying gorilla with a helmet labeled "militarism" holding a bloody club labeled "kultur" and a half-naked woman as he stomps onto the shore of America.|thumb|292x292px|''Destroy this Mad Brute: Enlist—'' propaganda poster encouraging men in the United States to enlist and fight Germany as part of [[World War I|WWI]], by [[Harry Ryle Hopps|Harry R. Hopps]], {{Circa|1917}}]]
[[File:The Secret Soviet Bunker (14360593542).jpg|thumb|Soviet "Ne Boltai" poster. Translates to "Don't Chatter". Similar to American "[[Loose lips sink ships|Loose Lips Sink Ships]]" posters, this iconic piece of propaganda tries to warn citizens against giving out secrets.]]
Propaganda is a powerful weapon in war; in certain cases, it is used to [[dehumanization|dehumanize]] and create hatred toward a supposed enemy, either internal or external, by creating a false image in the mind of soldiers and citizens. This can be done by using derogatory or racist terms (e.g., the racist terms "[[Jap]]" and "[[gook]]" used during World War II and the Vietnam War, respectively), avoiding some words or language or by making allegations of enemy atrocities. The goal of this was to demoralize the opponent into thinking what was being projected was actually true.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williamson |first1=Samuel R. |last2=Balfour |first2=Michael |date=Winter 1980 |title=Propaganda in War, 1939–1945: Organisations, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany. |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=715 |doi=10.2307/2150639 |jstor=2150639}}</ref> Most propaganda efforts in wartime require the home population to feel the enemy has inflicted an injustice, which may be fictitious or may be based on facts (e.g., the sinking of the passenger ship {{RMS|Lusitania}} by the German Navy in World War I). The home population must also believe that the cause of their nation in the war is just. In these efforts it was difficult to determine the accuracy of how propaganda truly impacted the war.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eksteins |first1=Modris |last2=Balfour |first2=Michael |date=October 1980 |title=Propaganda in War, 1939–1945: Organisations, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany. |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=876 |doi=10.2307/1868905 |jstor=1868905}}</ref> In NATO doctrine, propaganda is defined as "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view."<ref>North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO Standardization Agency AAP-6 – Glossary of terms and definitions, 2-P-9.</ref> Within this perspective, the information provided does not need to be necessarily false but must be instead relevant to specific goals of the "actor" or "system" that performs it.

Propaganda is also one of the methods used in [[psychological warfare]], which may also involve [[false flag]] operations in which the identity of the operatives is depicted as those of an enemy nation (e.g., The [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] used [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] planes painted in [[Cuban Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force|Cuban Air Force]] markings). The term propaganda may also refer to false information meant to reinforce the mindsets of people who already believe as the propagandist wishes (e.g., During the First World War, the main purpose of British propaganda was to encourage men to join the army, and women to work in the country's industry. Propaganda posters were used because regular general radio broadcasting was yet to commence and TV technology was still under development).<ref>Callanan, James D. The Evolution of The CIA's Covert Action Mission, 1947–1963. Durham University. 1999.</ref> 

{{Multiple image
| align    = right
| image1   = Vecernje-novosti-propaganda.jpg
| width1   = 150
| alt1     = 
| caption1 = 
| image2   = Uroš Predić - Siroče.jpg
| width2   = 225
| alt2     = 
| caption2 = 
| footer   = Serbian propaganda from the [[Bosnian War]] (1992–95) presented as an actual photograph from the scene of, as stated in report below the image, a ''"Serbian boy whose whole family was killed by Bosnian Muslims"''. The image is derived from an 1879 "Orphan on mother's grave" painting by [[Uroš Predić]] (alongside).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-novine.com/entertainment/entertainment-tema/31106-Pravda-Uroa-Predia.html |publisher=e-novine.com |title=Pravda za Uroša Predića! |access-date=5 May 2015 |archive-date=28 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028203841/http://www.e-novine.com/entertainment/entertainment-tema/31106-Pravda-Uroa-Predia.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

[[File:Britannia.jpg|thumb|[[Britannia (emblem)|Britannia]] arm-in-arm with [[Uncle Sam]] symbolizes the British-American alliance in World War I.]]
[[File:English WW2 Propaganda poster depicting Winston Churchill as a bulldog with title Holding the line!.jpg|thumb|Poster depicting [[Winston Churchill]] as a "[[Bulldog|British Bulldog"]]]]

[[File:Mobilizing Movies! The U.S. Signal Corps Goes to War, 1917-1919.webm|thumb|Documentary on the official American film cameramen in World War I]]

In the Soviet Union during the Second World War, the propaganda designed to encourage civilians was controlled by Stalin, who insisted on a heavy-handed style that educated audiences easily saw was inauthentic. On the other hand, the unofficial rumors about German atrocities were well founded and convincing.<ref>Karel C. Berkhoff, ''Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II'' (2012)</ref> Stalin was a Georgian who spoke Russian with a heavy accent. That would not do for a national hero so starting in the 1930s all new visual portraits of Stalin were retouched to erase his Georgian facial characteristics.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/07/30/10-facts-you-didnt-know-about-stalin/ |title=10 Facts You Didn't Know About Stalin |last=Smithfield |first=Brad |date=30 July 2015 |website=The Vintage News |publisher=Timera Media |access-date=23 April 2021 |quote=had his likeness softened on propaganda posters to reduce his Georgian facial characteristics. |archive-date=23 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423102246/https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/07/30/10-facts-you-didnt-know-about-stalin/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and make him a more generalized Soviet hero. Only his eyes and famous moustache remained unaltered. [[Zhores Medvedev]] and [[Roy Medvedev]] say his "majestic new image was devised appropriately to depict the leader of all times and of all peoples."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Zhores A. Medvedev |author2=Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev |title=The Unknown Stalin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3BrNF80AzUC&pg=PA248 |year=2003 |page=248 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=9781860647680}}</ref>

Article 20 of the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]] prohibits any propaganda for war as well as any advocacy of national or religious hatred that constitutes [[incitement]] to discrimination, hostility, or violence by law.<ref>{{cite web |title=International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights |url=http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx |website=United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights |publisher=United Nations |access-date=2 September 2015 |archive-date=12 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512032053/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.|[[Hermann Göring]]<ref>[[Gustave Gilbert]]'s ''Nuremberg Diary''(1947). In an interview with Gilbert in Göring's jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)</ref>}}Simply enough the covenant specifically is not defining the content of propaganda. In simplest terms, an act of propaganda if used in a reply to a wartime act is not prohibited.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Snow |first=Nancy |title=US Propaganda |journal=American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century |pages=97–98}}</ref>

===Advertising===
Propaganda shares techniques with advertising and [[public relations]], each of which can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person, or brand. For example, after claiming victory in the [[2006 Lebanon War]], [[Hezbollah]] campaigned for broader popularity among Arabs by organizing mass rallies where Hezbollah leader [[Hassan Nasrallah]] combined elements of the local [[dialects of Arabic|dialect]] with [[classical Arabic]] to reach audiences outside Lebanon. Banners and billboards were commissioned in commemoration of the war, along with various merchandise items with Hezbollah's logo, flag color (yellow), and images of Nasrallah. T-shirts, baseball caps, and other war memorabilia were marketed for all ages. The uniformity of messaging helped define Hezbollah's brand.<ref>{{cite book |last=Khatib |first=Lina |author-link=Lina Khatib |title=The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |page=84}}</ref>

Edmund McGarry illustrates that advertising is more than selling to an audience but a type of propaganda that is trying to persuade the public and not to be balanced in judgement.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McGarry |first=Edmund D. |date=1958 |title=The Propaganda Function in Marketing |journal=Journal of Marketing |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=131–132 |doi=10.2307/1247829 |jstor=1247829}}</ref>

===Politics===
[[File:Kozera DTV.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Propaganda and [[manipulation (psychology)|manipulation]] can be found in television, and in [[news programs]] that influence mass audiences. An example was the ''[[Dziennik Telewizyjny|Dziennik]]'' (Journal) news cast, which criticised [[capitalism]] in the then-communist [[Polish People's Republic]] using [[loaded language|emotive and loaded language]].]]

Propaganda has become more common in political contexts, in particular, to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments, political groups, but also often covert interests. In the early 20th century, propaganda was exemplified in the form of party slogans. Propaganda also has much in common with [[public information]] campaigns by governments, which are intended to encourage or discourage certain forms of behavior (such as wearing seat belts, not smoking, not littering, and so forth). Again, the emphasis is more political in propaganda. Propaganda can take the form of [[leaflet (information)|leaflets]], posters, TV, and radio broadcasts and can also extend to any other [[mass media|medium]]. In the case of the United States, there is also an important legal (imposed by law) distinction between advertising (a type of overt propaganda) and what the [[Government Accountability Office]] (GAO), an arm of the United States Congress, refers to as "covert propaganda." Propaganda is divided into two in political situations, they are preparation, meaning to create a new frame of mind or view of things, and operational, meaning they instigate actions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_03PpagDaUsC |title=How to Be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual |publisher=Dundurn Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-55002-505-7 |location=Toronto |pages=192 |language=en}}</ref>

Roderick Hindery argues<ref>{{cite web |url=https://propagandaandcriticalthought.com/author/rhindery/ |title=About Roderick Hindery |website=Propaganda and Critical Thought Blog |access-date=4 December 2019 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202221732/https://propagandaandcriticalthought.com/author/rhindery/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hindery |first=Roderick |title=Indoctrination and self-deception or free and critical thought |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |location=[[Lewiston, New York]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-7734-7407-2 |oclc=45784333}}</ref> that propaganda exists on the political left, and right, and in mainstream centrist parties. Hindery further argues that debates about most social issues can be productively revisited in the context of asking "what is or is not propaganda?" Not to be overlooked is the link between propaganda, indoctrination, and terrorism/[[counterterrorism]]. He argues that threats to destroy are often as socially disruptive as physical devastation itself.

Since [[9/11]] and the appearance of greater media fluidity, propaganda institutions, practices, and legal frameworks have been evolving in the US and Britain. Briant shows how this included expansion and integration of the apparatus cross-government and details attempts to coordinate the forms of propaganda for foreign and domestic audiences, with new efforts in [[strategic communication]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Emma Louise |last1=Briant |title=Allies and Audiences Evolving Strategies in Defense and Intelligence Propaganda |journal=The International Journal of Press/Politics |date=April 2015 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=145–165 |doi=10.1177/1940161214552031 |s2cid=145697213}}</ref> These were subject to contestation within the [[US Government]], resisted by [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] [[public affairs (military)|Public Affairs]] and critiqued by some scholars.<ref name=Briant2015/> The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (section 1078 (a)) amended the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (popularly referred to as the [[Smith-Mundt Act]]) and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, allowing for materials produced by the State Department and the [[Broadcasting Board of Governors]] (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders for the Archivist of the United States. The Smith-Mundt Act, as amended, provided that "the Secretary and the Broadcasting Board of Governors shall make available to the Archivist of the United States, for domestic distribution, motion pictures, films, videotapes, and other material 12 years after the initial dissemination of the material abroad (...) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors from engaging in any medium or form of communication, either directly or indirectly, because a United States domestic audience is or may be thereby exposed to program material, or based on a presumption of such exposure." Public concerns were raised upon passage due to the relaxation of prohibitions of domestic propaganda in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=Smith-Mundt Act |url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-propaganda-ban-repealed-freeing-state-dept-to-direct-its-broadcasting-arm-American-citizens.shtml |website='Anti-Propaganda' Ban Repealed, Freeing State Dept. To Direct Its Broadcasting Arm at American Citizens |date=15 July 2013 |publisher=Techdirt |access-date=1 June 2016 |archive-date=17 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217013523/https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-propaganda-ban-repealed-freeing-state-dept-to-direct-its-broadcasting-arm-american-citizens.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the wake of this, the internet has become a prolific method of distributing political propaganda, benefiting from an evolution in coding called bots. [[Software agent]]s or [[Internet bot|bots]] can be used for many things, including populating social media with [[media manipulation|automated messages]] and posts with a range of sophistication. During the [[2016 United States elections|2016 U.S. election]] a cyber-strategy was implemented using bots to direct US voters to Russian political news and information sources, and to spread politically motivated rumors and false news stories. At this point it is considered commonplace contemporary political strategy around the world to implement bots in achieving political goals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Howard |first1=Philip N. |last2=Woolley |first2=Samuel |last3=Calo |first3=Ryan |date=3 April 2018 |title=Algorithms, bots, and political communication in the US 2016 election: The challenge of automated political communication for election law and administration |journal=Journal of Information Technology & Politics |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=81–93 |doi=10.1080/19331681.2018.1448735 |issn=1933-1681 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Techniques==
{{Further|Propaganda techniques}}
[[File:Anti-capitalism color Restored.jpg|right|upright|thumb|[[Anti-capitalist]] propaganda (1911 [[Industrial Workers of the World]] poster)]]

Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, [[junk science]], books, leaflets, [[propaganda film|movies]], radio, television, posters, and social media. Some propaganda campaigns follow a strategic transmission pattern to [[indoctrinate]] the target group. This may begin with a simple transmission, such as a leaflet or advertisement dropped from a plane or an advertisement. Generally, these messages will contain directions on how to obtain more information, via a website, hotline, radio program, etc. (as it is seen also for selling purposes among other goals). The strategy intends to initiate the individual from information recipient to information seeker through reinforcement, and then from information seeker to [[opinion leader]] through indoctrination.<ref>Garth S. Jowett and Victoria J.: O'Donnell, ''Propaganda & Persuasion'' (5th ed. 2011)</ref>

A number of techniques based in [[social psychology|social psychological]] research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be found under [[fallacy|logical fallacies]], since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid.

[[Theodor W. Adorno]] wrote that fascist propaganda encourages identification with an [[authoritarian personality]] characterized by traits such as obedience and extreme aggression.<ref name="Tu2025">{{cite book |last=Tu |first=Hang |title=Sentimental Republic: Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |year=2025 |isbn=9780674297579}}</ref>{{Rp|page=17}} In ''The Myth of the State,'' [[Ernst Cassirer]] wrote that while fascist propaganda mythmaking flagrantly contradicted empirical reality, it provided a simple and direct answer to the anxieties of the secular present.<ref name="Tu2025"/>{{Rp|page=63}}

Propaganda can also be turned on its makers. For example, postage stamps have frequently been tools for government advertising, such as [[North Korea]]'s extensive issues.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://qz.com/1017141/north-koreas-america-hating-postage-stamps-are-mini-masterpieces-of-anti-imperialist-propaganda/ |title=North Korea's America-hating postage stamps are mini-masterpieces of anti-imperialist propaganda |first=Anne |last=Quito |date=30 June 2017 |website=Quartz |access-date=1 July 2019 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109004744/https://qz.com/1017141/north-koreas-america-hating-postage-stamps-are-mini-masterpieces-of-anti-imperialist-propaganda/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The presence of [[Stalin]] on numerous Soviet stamps is another example.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/184/199 |title=Stalin on Stamps and other Philatelic Materials: Design, Propaganda, Politics |year=2013 |doi=10.5195/cbp.2013.184 |last1=Kolchinsky |first1=Alexander |journal=The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies |issue=2301 |doi-access=free |archive-date=21 October 2020 |access-date=1 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021192057/https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/184/199 |url-status=live }}</ref> In [[Nazi Germany]], [[Hitler]] frequently appeared on postage stamps in Germany and some of the occupied nations. A British program to parody these, and other Nazi-inspired stamps, involved airdropping them into Germany on letters containing anti-Nazi literature.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.psywar.org/stamps.php |title=Propaganda & Espionage Philately – Part I |first=Herbert A. |last=Friedman |website=PsyWar.Org |access-date=1 July 2019 |archive-date=7 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207193700/https://www.psywar.org/stamps.php |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bestmastersinpsychology.com/10-wwii-stamp-forgeries-used-as-psychological-warfare/ |title=10 WWII Stamp Forgeries Used as Psychological Warfare |website=Best Masters in Psychology |access-date=1 July 2019 |archive-date=4 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204020312/http://www.bestmastersinpsychology.com/10-wwii-stamp-forgeries-used-as-psychological-warfare/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2018 a scandal broke in which the journalist [[Carole Cadwalladr]], several [[whistleblower]]s, and the academic [[Emma Briant]] revealed advances in digital propaganda techniques showing that online human intelligence techniques used in [[psychological warfare]] had been coupled with psychological profiling using illegally obtained social media data for political campaigns in the United States in 2016 to aid [[Donald Trump]] by the firm [[Cambridge Analytica]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theguardian.com/membership/2018/sep/29/cambridge-analytica-cadwalladr-observer-facebook-zuckerberg-wylie |title=Exposing Cambridge Analytica: 'It's been exhausting, exhilarating, and slightly terrifying' |date=29 September 2018 |author=Carole Cadwalladr, as told to Lee Glendinning |newspaper=The Guardian |archive-date=9 November 2020 |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109011618/https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2018/sep/29/cambridge-analytica-cadwalladr-observer-facebook-zuckerberg-wylie |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://old.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/fake-news-briant-evidence-17-19// |last=Briant |first=Emma |date=16 April 2018 |title=Research on Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica strategy published |website=UK Parliamentary Committee on Digital, Culture Media and Sport |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111121552/https://old.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/fake-news-briant-evidence-17-19/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://qz.com/1231643/cambridge-analytica-illegally-obtained-data-from-50-million-facebook-users-to-run-trump-ads/ |title=Facebook knew Cambridge Analytica was misusing users' data three years ago and only banned the company this week |first=Annalisa |last=Merelli |date=17 March 2018 |website=Quartz |access-date=21 April 2020 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207014829/https://qz.com/1231643/cambridge-analytica-illegally-obtained-data-from-50-million-facebook-users-to-run-trump-ads/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The company initially denied breaking laws<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/cambridge-analytica-denies-breaking-any-laws-in-data-scandal/ |title=Cambridge Analytica denies breaking any laws in Facebook data scandal |first=Steven |last=Musil |date=9 April 2018 |website=CNET |access-date=21 April 2020 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109034144/https://www.cnet.com/news/cambridge-analytica-denies-breaking-any-laws-in-data-scandal/ |url-status=live }}</ref> but later admitted breaking UK law, the scandal provoking a worldwide debate on acceptable use of data for propaganda and influence.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/cambridge-analyticas-parent-pleads-guilty-to-breaking-uk-data-law/ |title=Cambridge Analytica's parent pleads guilty to breaking UK data law |first=Natasha |last=Lomas |date=9 January 2019 |website=TechCrunch |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221204104/https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/09/cambridge-analyticas-parent-pleads-guilty-to-breaking-uk-data-law/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Models==

===Persuasion in social psychology===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 133-075, Worms, Antisemitische Presse, "Stürmerkasten".jpg|thumb|Public reading of the antisemitic newspaper ''[[Der Stürmer]]'', [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], Germany, 1935]]

According to [[William W. Biddle]]'s 1931 article "A psychological definition of propaganda", "[t]he four principles followed in propaganda are: (1) rely on emotions, never argue; (2) cast propaganda into the pattern of "we" versus an "enemy"; (3) reach groups as well as individuals; (4) hide the propagandist as much as possible."<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1037/h0074944 |title=A psychological definition of propaganda |journal=The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=283–295 |year=1931 |last1=Biddle |first1=W. W.}}</ref>

More recently, studies from [[behavioral science]] have become significant in understanding and planning propaganda campaigns, these include for example [[nudge theory]] which was used by the [[Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign|Obama Campaign in 2008]] then adopted by the UK Government [[Behavioural Insights Team]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Wright |first=Oliver |date=16 September 2015 |title=Barack Obama to bring Whitehall's 'nudge' theory to the White House |newspaper=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-to-bring-whitehalls-nudge-theory-to-the-white-house-10504616.html |archive-date=18 June 2019 |access-date=29 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618190717/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-to-bring-whitehalls-nudge-theory-to-the-white-house-10504616.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Behavioural methodologies then became subject to great controversy in 2016 after the company [[Cambridge Analytica]] was revealed to have applied them with millions of people's breached Facebook data to encourage them to vote for [[Donald Trump]].<ref>{{cite news |first1=Carole |last1=Cadwalladr |first2=Emma |last2=Graham-Harrison |date=19 March 2018 |title=Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face mounting pressure over data scandal |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/cambridge-analytica-and-facebook-accused-of-misleading-mps-over-data-breach |archive-date=28 June 2018 |access-date=29 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628153309/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/cambridge-analytica-and-facebook-accused-of-misleading-mps-over-data-breach |url-status=live }}</ref>

Haifeng Huang argues that propaganda is not always necessarily about convincing a populace of its message (and may actually fail to do this) but instead can also function as a means of intimidating the citizenry and signalling the regime's strength and ability to maintain its control and power over society; by investing significant resources into propaganda, the regime can forewarn its citizens of its strength and deterring them from attempting to challenge it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Haifeng |title=Propaganda as Signaling |journal=Comparative Politics |date=1 July 2015 |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=419–444 |doi=10.5129/001041515816103220 |jstor=43664158}}</ref>

===Propaganda theory and education===
During the 1930s, educators in the United States and around the world became concerned about the rise of antisemitism and other forms of violent extremism. The [[Institute for Propaganda Analysis]] was formed to introduce methods of instruction for high school and college students, helping learners to recognize and desist propaganda by identifying persuasive techniques. This work built upon classical rhetoric and it was informed by [[suggestion theory]] and social scientific studies of propaganda and persuasion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lasswell |first=Harold |title=Propaganda Technique in World War I. |publisher=M.I.T. Press. |year=1927}}</ref> In the 1950s, propaganda theory and education examined the rise of American consumer culture, and this work was popularized by [[Vance Packard]] in his 1957 book, ''The Hidden Persuaders''. European theologian [[Jacques Ellul]]'s landmark work, ''[[Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes]]'' framed propaganda in relation to larger themes about the relationship between humans and technology. Media messages did not serve to enlighten or inspire, he argued. They merely overwhelm by arousing emotions and oversimplifying ideas, limiting human reasoning and judgement.

In the 1980s, academics recognized that news and journalism could function as propaganda when business and government interests were amplified by mass media. The [[propaganda model]] is a theory advanced by [[Edward S. Herman]] and [[Noam Chomsky]] which argues [[systemic bias]]es exist in mass media that are shaped by structural economic [[cause]]s. It argues that the way in which commercial media institutions are structured and operate (e.g. through advertising revenue, concentration of media ownership, or [[Access journalism|access to sources]]) creates an inherent [[conflict of interest]] that make them act as propaganda for powerful political and commercial interests:<blockquote>The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of [[corporate power]], and the growth of [[corporate propaganda]] as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter from Noam Chomsky |url=http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54chmky.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060205070329/http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54chmky.html |archive-date=2006-02-05 |access-date=2026-06-02 |website=mediafilter.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Review of Alex Carey, Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Propaganda in the US and Australia |url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/25/006.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205051419/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/25/006.html |archive-date=2005-02-05 |access-date=2026-06-02 |website=www.hartford-hwp.com}}</ref></blockquote>First presented in their book ''[[Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media]]'' (1988), the [[propaganda model]] analyses commercial mass media as businesses that sell a product&nbsp;– access to readers and [[audiences]]&nbsp;– to other businesses (advertisers) and that benefit from access to information from government and corporate sources to produce their content. The theory postulates five general classes of "filters" that shape the content that is presented in news media: [[ownership]] of the medium, reliance on advertising revenue, access to news sources, threat of litigation and commercial backlash ([[propaganda model#Flak|flak]]), and [[anti-communism]] and "fear ideology". The first three (ownership, funding, and sourcing) are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important. Although the model was based mainly on the characterization of United States media, Chomsky and Herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic [[political economy|political economic]] structure, and the model has subsequently been applied by other scholars to study [[media bias]] in other countries.<ref name="propaganda_model_today">{{cite book |editor1-last=Pedro-Carañana |editor1-first=Joan |editor2-last=Broudy |editor2-first=Daniel |editor3-last=Klaehn |editor3-first=Jeffery |title=The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness |date=2018 |volume=8 |publisher=University of Westminster Press |jstor=j.ctv7h0ts6 |isbn=9781912656172 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0ts6 |archive-date=31 October 2021 |access-date=31 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031114839/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0ts6 |url-status=live }}</ref>

By the 1990s, the topic of propaganda was no longer a part of public education, having been relegated to a specialist subject. Secondary English educators grew fearful of the study of propaganda genres, choosing to focus on argumentation and reasoning instead of the highly emotional forms of propaganda found in advertising and political campaigns.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fleming |first=David |date=2019 |title=Fear of persuasion in the English language arts. |journal=College English |volume=81 |issue=6 |pages=508–541 |doi=10.58680/ce201930223 |s2cid=201379873}}</ref> In 2015, the European Commission funded [[Mind Over Media]], a digital learning platform for teaching and learning about contemporary propaganda. The study of contemporary propaganda is growing in secondary education, where it is seen as a part of language arts and social studies education.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Renee |title=Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2020}}</ref>

===Self-propaganda===
[[Self-propaganda]] is a form of propaganda that refers to the act of an individual convincing themself of something, no matter how irrational that idea may be.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQE9rD5X0m4C&q=%22self%20propaganda%22&pg=PA242 |title=A Mask for Privilege: Anti-Semitism in America |year=1999 |orig-date=1948 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-1615-1 |language=en}}</ref> Self propaganda makes it easier for individuals to justify their own actions as well as the actions of others. Self-propaganda often works to lessen the [[cognitive dissonance]] felt by individuals when their personal actions or the actions of their government do not line up with their moral beliefs.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNuxnFq76WMC&q=%22Self-propaganda%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA335 |title=Propaganda in the Helping Professions |last=Gambrill |first=Eileen |date=20 February 2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-532500-3 |language=en}}</ref> Self-propaganda is a type of [[Self-deception|self deception]].<ref name=Gambrill2006>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8Hils1vn4kC&q=%22self%20propaganda%22&pg=PA522 |title=Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice: Improving the Quality of Judgments and Decisions |last=Gambrill |first=Eileen |date=6 March 2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-471-78112-7 |language=en}}</ref> Self-propaganda can have a negative impact on those who perpetuate the beliefs created by using self-propaganda.<ref name=Gambrill2006/>

==Children==
[[File:Propaganda do Estado Novo (Brasil).jpg|thumb|upright|A 1938 propaganda of the ''[[Estado Novo (Brazil)|Estado Novo]]'' (New State) regime depicting Brazilian president [[Getúlio Vargas]] flanked by children. The text reads: "Children! Learning, at home and in school, the worship of the Fatherland, you will bring all chances of success to life. Only love builds and, strongly loving Brazil, you will lead it to the greatest of destinies among Nations, fulfilling the desires of exaltation nestled in every Brazilian heart."]]

===Antisemitic propaganda for children===
In [[Nazi Germany]], the education system was thoroughly co-opted to indoctrinate the German youth with [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] ideology. From the 1920s on, the Nazi Party [[children's propaganda in Nazi Germany|targeted German youth]] as one of their special audience for its propaganda messages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goutam |first1=Urvashi |title=Pedagogical Nazi Propaganda (1939–1945) |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |date=2014 |volume=75 |pages=1018–1026 |jstor=44158487 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref> Schools and texts mirrored what the Nazis aimed of instilling in German youth through the use and promotion of racial theory. [[Julius Streicher]], the editor of ''[[Der Stürmer]]'', headed a publishing house that disseminated antisemitic propaganda picture books in schools during the Nazi dictatorship. This was accomplished through the [[National Socialist Teachers League]], of which 97% of all German teachers were members in 1937.<ref name="nizkor">{{cite journal |last=Corelli |first=Marie |date=May–June 2002 |title=Poisoning young minds in Nazi Germany: children and propaganda in the Third Reich |url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-87508010 |journal=Social Education |volume=66 |issue=4 |page=228 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221202910/https://www.gale.com/subject-matter |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The League encouraged the teaching of racial theory. Picture books for children such as ''[[Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath]]'', ''[[Der Giftpilz]]'' (translated into English as ''The Poisonous Mushroom''), and ''The Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pinscher'' were widely circulated (over 100,000 copies of ''Trust No Fox''...were circulated during the late 1930s) and contained depictions of Jews as devils, child molesters, and other morally charged figures. Slogans such as "Judas the Jew betrayed Jesus the German to the Jews" were recited in class. During the Nuremberg Trial, ''Trust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath'', and ''Der Giftpilz'' were received as documents in evidence because they document the practices of the Nazis<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mills |first1=Mary |title=Propaganda and Children during the Hitler Years |url=http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/people/m/mills-mary/mills-00.html |work=The [[Nizkor Project]] |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926140907/http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/people/m/mills-mary/mills-00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The following is an example of a propagandistic math problem recommended by the National Socialist Essence of Education: "The Jews are aliens in Germany—in 1933 there were 66,606,000 inhabitants in the German Reich, of whom 499,682 (0.75%) were Jews."<ref>Hirsch, Herbert. ''Genocide and the Politics of Memory''. Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. p. 119.</ref>

==Comparisons with disinformation==
{{Excerpt|Disinformation#Comparisons with propaganda}}

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=35em}}
* [[Agitprop]]
* [[Big lie]]
* [[Brainwashing]]
* [[Cartographic propaganda]]
* [[Firehose of falsehood]]
* [[Imagocracy]]
* [[Misinformation]]
* [[Overview of 21st century propaganda]]
* [[Political warfare]]
* [[Propaganda model]]
* [[Psychological warfare]]
* [[Smear campaign]]
* [[Spin (propaganda)]]
* [[The Basic Principles of War Propaganda]]{{Div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |title=Psychological Operations Field Manual No. 33-1 |date=31 August 1979 |publisher=Department of the Army |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm33-1/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010524094112/https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm33-1/ |archive-date=24 May 2001 }}
* {{cite book |title=Psychological Operations Field Manual No. 3-05.30 |date=April 2005 |publisher=Department of the Army |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-30.pdf |archive-date=29 December 2025 |access-date=23 May 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251229233816/https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-30.pdf |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Bytwerk |first=Randall L. |title=Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic |year=2004 |publisher=Michigan State University Press |location=East Lansing |isbn=978-0-87013-710-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=John Carver |title=Berlin Calling: American Broadcasters in Service to the Third Reich |year=1991 |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |isbn=978-0-275-93905-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/berlincallingame00edwa }}
* {{cite book |last1=Füssel |first1=Stephan |title=Gutenberg and the Impact of Printing |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-93187-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TPNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46-IA11 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Hindery |first=Roderick |title=The Anatomy of Propaganda within Religious Terrorism |journal=Humanist |issue=March–April 2003 |pages=16–19}}
* {{cite book |last=Howe |first=Ellic |title=The Black Game: British Subversive Operations Against the German During the Second World War |year=1982 |publisher=Futura |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Huxley |first=Aldous |author-link=Aldous Huxley |title=Brave New World Revisited |year=1989 |orig-date=1958 |publisher=Harper |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-080984-3 |title-link=Brave New World Revisited}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jowett |first1=Garth S. |last2=O'Donnell |first2=Victoria |title=Propaganda and Persuasion |year=2006 |edition=4th |publisher=Sage Publications, Inc |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=978-1-4129-0897-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Le Bon |first=Gustave |author-link=Gustave Le Bon |title=The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind |year=1977 |orig-date=1895 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-004531-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Linebarger |first=Paul M. A. |author-link=Cordwainer Smith |title=Psychological Warfare |year=1972 |orig-date=1948 |publisher=Infantry Journal Press |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0-405-04755-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Richard Alan |title=A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States |year=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0-313-29261-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Shirer |first=William L. |title=Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941 |year=2002 |orig-date=1941 |publisher=Albert A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-5-9524-0081-8}}
* {{cite news |title=Psychological warfare waged in Afghanistan |last=Young |first=Emma |date=10 October 2001 |work=[[New Scientist]] |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1404-psychological-warfare-waged-in-afghanistan/ |access-date=15 May 2026 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020213080242/http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991404 |archive-date=13 February 2002 }}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box}}
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}

===Books===
* Altheide, David L. & John M. Johnson. ''Bureaucratic Propaganda''. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1980.
* [[Edward Bernays|Bernays, Edward]]. ''Propaganda''. New York: [[H. Liveright]], 1928.
::(See also version of text at website ''www.historyisaweapon.com'': "Propaganda.")
* Borgies, Loïc. ''Le conflit propagandiste entre Octavien et Marc Antoine: De l'usage politique de la uituperatio entre 44 et 30 a. C. n.''. Brussels: Latomus, 2016.
* Brown, J.A.C. ''Techniques of Persuasion: From Propaganda to Brainwashing''. Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1963.
* [[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky, Noam]] & Herman Edward S. ''Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media''. New York: [[Pantheon Books]]. (1988)
* Chomsky, Noam. ''Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda''. Seven Stories Press, 1997.
* Cole, Robert. ''Propaganda in Twentieth Century War and Politics: An Annotated Bibliography''. London: Scarecrow, 1996.
* Cole, Robert, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Propaganda''. 3 vols. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998.
* Combs James E. & Nimmo Dan, ''The New Propaganda: The Dictatorship of Palaver in Contemporary Politics''. White Plains, N.Y. Longman. (1993)
* [[Nicholas J. Cull|Cull, Nicholas John]], Culbert, and Welch, eds. '' Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present'' (2003)
* Cunningham Stanley B. ''The Idea of Propaganda: A Reconstruction''. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002.
* Cunningham Stanley B. "Reflections on the Interface Between Propaganda and Religion", in ''The Future of Religion'', eds. P. Rennick, S. Cunningham, & R.H. Johnson. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2010, pp.&nbsp;83–96.
* {{cite book |last=De Lange |first=William |title=A History of Japanese Journalism: State of Affairs and Affairs of State |publisher=Toyo Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-94-92722-393}}
* DelHagen, Jacob M. ''Modern Propaganda: The art of influencing society, individuals, and the news media through digital communication.'' 2016 {{ISBN|9780998315607}}
* [[Dimitri Kitsikis]], ''Propagande et pressions en politique internationale'', Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1963, 537 pages.
* [[Jacques Ellul|Ellul, Jacques]], ''Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes''. (1965).
* Hamilton, John M. (2020) ''Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda''. [[Louisiana State University Press]].
* Hale, Oron James. ''Publicity and Diplomacy: With Special Reference to England and Germany, 1890–1914'' (1940) [https://www.questia.com/library/1023289/publicity-and-diplomacy-with-special-reference-to online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204172729/https://www.questia.com/library/1023289/publicity-and-diplomacy-with-special-reference-to |date=4 December 2020}}
* Hench, John B. ''Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II.'' Cornell University Press, 2010.
* {{cite book |last=Hirschberger |first=Bernd |title=External Communication in Social Media During Asymmetric Conflicts A Theoretical Model and Empirical Case Study of the Conflict in Israel and Palestine |date=2021 |publisher=transcript Verlag |location=[[Bielefeld]] |isbn=978-3-8394-5509-8 |url=https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5509-4/external-communication-in-social-media-during-asymmetric-conflicts/?number=978-3-8394-5509-8 |access-date=11 October 2021}}
* Jowett, Garth S. & Victoria O'Donnell. ''Propaganda and Persuasion'', 6th edn. California: Sage Publications, 2014. A detailed overview of the history, function, and analyses of propaganda.
* Lasswell, Harold. Propaganda Technique in the World War. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company, Limited, 1927.
* Lohrey, Andrew, ed. ''Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty''. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1997.
* [[Randal Marlin|Marlin, Randal]]. ''Propaganda & The Ethics of Persuasion''. Orchard Park, New York: Broadview Press, 2002.
* McCombs, M. E. & D. L. Shaw. "The agenda-setting function of mass media", ''Public Opinion Quarterly'' 36, no. 2 (1972): 176–187.
* [[A. J. Mackenzie|Mackenzie, A. J.]], ''Propaganda Boom'' (London: John Gifford, 1938)
* Moran, T. "Propaganda as Pseudocommunication", ''Et Cetera'' 2 (1979): 181–197.
* Nelson, Richard Alan. ''A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
* Oddo, J. (2018). ''The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the 'War on Terror'''. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
* Pratkanis, Anthony & Elliot Aronson. ''Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion''. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1992.
* Rutherford, Paul, ''Endless Propaganda: The Advertising of Public Goods''. Toronto: [[University of Toronto Press]]. (2000)
* Rutherford, Paul, ''Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Marketing the War Against Iraq''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
* Shanahan, James, ed. ''Propaganda without Propagandists? Six Case Studies in U.S. Propaganda''. Hampton Press, 2001.
* Shaw Jeffrey M., ''Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition''. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. {{ISBN|978-1625640581}} (2014)
* {{cite book |last=Snow |first=Nancy |author-link=Nancy Snow (academic) |title=Propaganda and American Democracy |date=10 March 2014 |location=Baton Rouge |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-5415-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOjYAgAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Snow |first=Nancy |title=Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America's Culture to the World |date=4 January 2011 |location=New York |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=978-1-60980-082-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfYPpXW9Bf4C}}
* Sproule J. Michael, ''Channels of Propaganda''. Bloomington, IN: EDINFO Press. (1994)
* {{cite book |last=Stanley |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Stanley |title=How Propaganda Works |year=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691173429}}
* [[John Steinbeck]], [[The Moon is Down]], Viking, NY, 1942
* Stauber, John & Sheldon Rampton. ''Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry''. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995.

===Essays and articles===
* Rosenfeld, Bryn; Wallace, Jeremy (2024). "[[doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-041322-035951|Information Politics and Propaganda in Authoritarian Societies]]". ''Annual Review of Political Science'' 27(1).
* [[John H. Brown (scholar)|Brown, John H.]] "Two Ways of Looking at Propaganda" (2006)
* Garcia, Hugo. "Reluctant liars? Public debates on propaganda and democracy in twentieth-century Britain (ca. 1914–1950)", ''[[Contemporary British History]]'', vol. 33, no. 3 (2019), pp.&nbsp;383–404.
* Kosar, Kevin R., Public Relations and Propaganda: Restrictions on Executive Branch Activities, CRS Report RL32750, February 2005.
* Auerbach, Jonathan, and Russ Castronovo: "Thirteen Propositions about Propaganda." The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies, December 2013.
[[File:How does propaganda change our beliefs.webm|thumb|start=10.5|end=671|How does propaganda change our beliefs? Lecture by Etienne Augé ([[Erasmus University Rotterdam]])]]

{{Propaganda}}
{{Navboxes
|list=
{{Misinformation}}
{{Philosophical logic}}
{{Conformity}}
{{Media and human factors}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Propaganda| ]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Barriers to critical thinking]]
[[Category:Deception]]
[[Category:Political communication]]
[[Category:Public opinion]]