PROPAGANDA What is it?

DEFINITION: In general, a message designed to persuade its intended audience to think and behave in a certain manner. Thus, advertising is commercial propaganda. It can also refer to the institutionalized and systematic spreading of information and/or disinformation, usually to promote a narrow political or religious viewpoint.

Originally, propaganda was an arm of the Roman Catholic church responsible for 'de propaganda fidei,' propagation ‘spreading of the faith’. It acquired negative connotations in the 20 th century when totalitarian regimes (principally Nazi Germany) used every means to distort facts and spread falsehoods. I

In 1938 the Institute of Propaganda Analysis identified 7 major propaganda techniques, which are still considered highly influential in modern advertising and political campaigns.