Propaganda In Mesch's Art And Politics: A Small History Of Art

Propaganda Have you ever watched a film and felt like there was an underlying message behind the real message, which the producers were trying to hint to you? And because of that underlying message, you find that your opinions have been influenced and that your behaviors have changed? Therefore, because of that deep message and subjective content, that could be intentionally misleading, you find yourself on a political spectrum. This is what we call today as propaganda.

In her essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled”, author Donna Woolfolk Cross explains the different types of propaganda and how it is used in the United States. The essay was first published in Speaking of Words: A Language Reader (1977). Cross defines propaganda as “simply a means of persuasion and so it can be put to work for good causes as well as bad” (247). In her article she discusses how propaganda works and explains how propaganda is used with thirteen different devices to manipulate people’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas. She uses this essay as an informative piece, giving advice on how not to be manipulated by propaganda.

Propaganda is used everywhere in life and books. It has such a complex meaning under what the people or it is saying. In Animal Farm, The Wave, and Night propaganda is used to describe what life was like for all the people in that time and how crucial survival was and how to not get outcasted.

The spreading of information is the mold to which society’s viewpoints are created. Depending on who or how this information is spread, it may be phrased to garner a specific meaning or arouse a specific reaction. W.E.B. DuBois once hinted towards this manipulation of information in his statement, “Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists… I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” DuBois hints towards the fact that forms of expression, are when a specific thought or emotion is brought to reality to cause viewers to feel a specific way. Art would serve no purpose if it had no message to convey. Fahrenheit: 451 by Ray Bradbury depicts this message of propaganda as throughout

Propaganda tends to be known as someone or something that’s publicized to state or show someone’s point of view (Dictionary). A novella called Animal Farm by George Orwell is about animals getting upset from the harsh treatment and realizing they deserve better. Where they have Napoleon and Snowball , who are representing Stalin and Trotsky step up and begin a Rebellion along with the rest of the animals with the humans. Which tends to get them freedom for a couple of months and just fails and leads them back to how they started. Orwell displays propaganda has both a positive and negative effect to whom it’s coming from. This theme is revealed throughout the climax

In Chapter 3 of his book, “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger argues that in western nude art and present day media, that women are largely shown and treated as objects upon whom power is asserted by men either as figures in the canvas or as spectators. Berger’s purpose is to make readers aware of how the perception of women in the art so that they will recognize the evolution of western cultured art.

Cartoons have been a prominent and interesting apparatus for politics throughout the ages. Political movements, parties, and groups using propaganda to further their beliefs dates back to the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Though America faces an austere history, lighthearted propaganda colors its decades and gives them life. Political cartoons are so widely used in America that they have become a significant piece of pop culture. Moreover, because of their ability to capture the reader’s attention, propaganda is exploited throughout politics.The cartoons are wonders of the human imagination; illustrators create comical images and intertwine profound political opinions to influence their viewer’s mind. For example, one movement that abundantly grew from propaganda was the women’s rights movement. The artists of the seemingly despised cause drew controversial cartoons that set a fire in the hearts of women all over the world. Consequently, the same cartoons ignited a passionate war between women who wanted freedom, and those who believed that women could not handle that freedom. Through the use of colorful concepts and daring expressions, political cartoons display the influence of the women’s rights movement throughout history, while the cartoons of Anti-Feminists demonstrates the world’s reaction to the movement.

Propaganda is defined by Merriam-Webster as “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause” and throughout the 20th and 21st Century in the United States, artwork on posters, has been used to promote or protest a political or social idea. This exploration will focus on posters created by American artists, analyzing the design of the artwork to establish the historical context and messages surrounding the piece. World War One. April 6th, 1917, President Wilson (Trotter & Fegley) declared the United States would join in the war against Germany by announcing the beginning of the U.S involvement in the First World War with the target set on Germany. April 13th, 1917, President Wilson formed

"Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." ( Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1926).

We live in a world of technological innovation where mass media is a major part of us today. People make assumptions on what they hear. They do not try to analyze the situation to see who is right and who is wrong, and mass media is the main source of manipulating one's mind. The concept of propaganda has changed over time. Propagandists create ideas stereotypically through the use of propaganda and use media to promote it and target people's minds to have influence on their views towards a certain group of people. These ideas create negative or positive images in the intended audience's minds. However, it is notable that the information is only the one that is exemplified through media and therefore, can be

Propaganda has an effective psychological influence that works to promote a particular, political view-point. The government of Oceania uses propaganda to their advantage to gain support of the Party’s ideology. Similarly, Adolf Hitler used propaganda during the Nazi reign on Germany to support the Nazi ideology. The sole purpose of propaganda is to encourage a biased belief. For example in 1984 the way in which the Party has spread propaganda is through the use of posters: “A new poster had suddenly appeared all over London. It had no caption, and represented the monstrous figure of a Eurasian soldier.. a submachine gun pointed from his hip. From whatever angle you looked at the poster, the muzzle of the gun magnified by the foreshortening, seemed to be pointed straight at you” (Orwell, 149). These posters were displayed throughout Airstrip One to depict the Eurasian soldier as an antagonistic threat. The configuration of the poster “pointing” a gun at the viewer is to encourage a negative response, thus promoting the goal of the Party. In history, one can see how Hitler used propaganda to his

Propaganda is used in controversial matters, but it is also used to promote things that are generally acceptable. For both those purposes propaganda can be expressed in different forms such as, exhibits, drawings, goal-pictures, graphs, parades, songs and many more. Propaganda can be found concealed or open, emotional or containing logical appeals to reason, or in combination (Casey,

I believe what Sassower and Cicotello claim is that any art is political in nature whether intentional or not. This is because each artist was raised and socialized to have certain ideologies about the world they live in. Even as attempts are made to make images that are unique and with new ideas they play off of old ideas. The question after this is then, are there any universal images that would be read in the same way? A popular phrase that can be heard is, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”, but in the book Political Blind Spots the argument is more that an idea is worth

First, one must define propaganda and since many have done so already, I shall use the Sheryl Ross model. Her model defines propaganda as “an epistemically defective message designed with the intention to persuade a socially significant group of people on behalf of a political institution, organization, or cause.”

I plan to answer the following essential question: how can art be used to depict political views? I also hope to address these other questions that follow the essential one: Do “political art” and “propaganda art” mean the same thing? How can I make meaningful art from political perspectives that are not my own? Why do certain political symbols and images spread (the pink “pussy hats”,