What Is Propaganda? Definition of Propaganda, Propaganda Meaning and Concept

Advertising is a communication method whose objective is to publicize information with the intention of influencing the public to act in a certain way or use a certain service or product.

Unlike advertising , propaganda has as its primary objective to attract the public for a certain purpose, it does not necessarily have to be related to the sale of a product. Difference between advertising and propaganda .

Characteristics of the advertisement

Among the most outstanding features are the following:

• It is subjective and biased.
• Resources that attract the attention of the public and that are attractive to the masses are used.
• The graphic resources are loaded with colors, large letters and messages that appeal to the recipient's emotion to achieve the proposed objectives.

propaganda and politics

Propaganda is closely related to politics. When we talk about political propaganda, its objective is to link the citizen with a certain party, position, ideology or system.

This communication tool began to be used in systems such as the communist, the Nazi or even the US governments that carried out strong promotional campaigns to attract citizens to commit to the system and participate in the army.

Nowadays, these campaigns are still used to influence the opinion of the masses with the aim of obtaining votes and affiliates to political parties.

Propaganda is closely linked to politics and electoral campaigns largely depend on it. It is sought through the different media and supports to create a persuasive communication plan with proposals, speeches and resources to excite potential voters. The gestures, personality of the candidates and their families are also worked on with the intention of influencing citizens as much as possible and gaining their support at the polls. The US is perhaps the country that uses this strategy the most.

Origins of propaganda

The term propaganda comes from the Latin for "things to be propagated" and it was Pope Gregory XV in 1622, shortly after the Thirty Years' War, who formed the 'Congregatio de Propaganda Fide' or Congregation to propagate the faith. This, with the aim of supervising the spread of Christianity by missionaries to non-Christian countries. Its purpose was the conversion to Christianity of citizens who did not profess this religion.

In the modern era, propaganda is directly related to the rise of the state after the French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. Propaganda was implemented during the colonial governments of the 18th and 19th centuries, but it acquires much more force during the totalitarian political regimes of the 20th century when it is applied scientifically, aided by mass media in its task of persuading human beings to through more aggressive and destructive techniques such as Hitler's "The Final Solution" or Mao's "The Great Leap Forward".

It was in the Nazi era when Adolf Hitler established that the basis of propaganda is the constant repetition of a small number of ideas focused on a mass that is presumed to have little understanding and great lack of memory.