By the time the World War I and 2 was at its peak, the main 2
participants namely United States of America and Germany, were engaged in the
different war altogether – it was the war of propaganda. One question which has
beguiled social scientists and war experts for years is – how can communication
be utilised to create a rift in the society? It was well-known back then that
once the society was weakened with propaganda it became much easier for enemies
to break it down. Through the use of propaganda, world powers have done many
good things but one cannot say that propaganda will always be used for good!
Very recently, we have seen propaganda being used in a very
negative way. It has hurt the sentiments of not just the normal Indian, it has
indeed broken down many by attacking their trust and love for a person whom
they had come to consider as their sole leader – in matters of the heart and
that of the soul.
In 1922, a famous expert on propaganda, Walter Lippman published his work
known as the Public Opinion.
In it he explains his theories on the formation of public opinion he uses the
example of a situation that occurred in 1914 which involved three nations
namely Germany, France and United Kingdom. His work covered various aspects of
how these three countries tried to enforce the law on an island where people
were living peacefully for several centuries. These three countries had
brainwashed the Islanders into fighting among themselves. The very premise of
conducting propaganda is creating some sort of barrier between the public and
the event. When this separation occurs, it becomes easy to manipulate and
present limited information to the public
. Lippman showed how individuals used
media to form their opinions. Media affected the judgement of the people and
their imagination and propagandists used this to change the perception of those
who accessed media on a regular basis. Now of course we need to understand that
the Islanders did not have Internet connections or newspapers but they had
access to something primitive but equally powerful as today's TV channels and
newspapers. Lippman recognised that by altering the flow of information and
limiting the truth in content the public can be forced into forming the wrong
perception of the world.