Political Propaganda, A Powerful Instrument Since Its Origins

Political propaganda, a powerful instrument since its origins

Political propaganda has evolved with society throughout history.

Political propaganda plays a fundamental role in the development of political communication strategies but when it originated and how it has evolved throughout history? We tell you in this post.

Since ancient times, political communication has evolved while society did, thus becoming the different regimes that have emerged throughout history. In the same way, current political propagand.

After many centuries of development, political communication begins to professionalize from the twentieth century, and in it, precisely, it has a lot to do with the role of propaganda. This new way of communicating became evident during World War I (1914-1918), when it became a very powerful instrument, both to encourage the population to the hardships they suffered, and to demoralize the enemy.

One of the most outstanding campaigns was that of the so -called Creel Committee, which under the commanders of the journalist George Creel, wanted to influence American public opinion to support the United States participation in the great war with the famous poster of “I Want You for u.S. Army ".

However, the first signs of this political propaganda arose in previous conflicts such as the War of Cuba and the Philippines (1898), in which the American yellow press tried to discredit Spain in their periodic publications and thus convince Americans that the United States intervention in Cuba was justified.

Later, in the interwar period, this propaganda increased considerably due to the rise of totalitarianism, especially in the case of Italy and Germany with Mussolini and Hitler, respectively. Something similar had already occurred in the development of the Russian Revolution (1917), during which the press was at the service of authoritarian powers.

In World War II (1939-1945), persuade citizens to support the effort of the conflict became an issue as important as arms production and army preparation. Therefore, political propaganda charged all the prominence when many participating countries tried to convince the population to be part of the war was the only way out of the international situation that was being lived.

These messages were directed, in large part, those who were not directly involved in war like women and children. For example, campaigns were launched from the United States War Office, such as the famous "Rosie, La Reacachadora", who represented those women who began working in US factories at the beginning of the war confrontation.

Already in the 21st century, with the development of technologies, communication and marketing strategies began to be much more complex and necessary. Therefore, candidates continue today allocating large amounts of money to political campaigns, also adapting to the possibilities offered by social networks.

Currently, political communication is a discipline for which more and more political parties ask for a qualified personnel, and the training of the same responds to the official master’s degree in advanced political communication of CES Next, a center assigned to the University of Lleida.