Propaganda

Upon the development of different media having an increased usage and being able to reach a wider audience, people began to use different mediums such as animation, games, films, adverts etc as a method to politically influence people. As an example, during the First World War Germany used film as part of their propaganda to get their citizens on board with the war effort. Britain also made efforts in political film partially to persuade America to join the war on the Allied side. During this time Soviet film was also being used to further spread the idea of communism. The usage of political film would continue and be a big part of the reason that the Nazi’s would be so successful in getting Germany to unify with them and begin the 2nd World War. Anti-Semitic films would convince the general public into Nazism. Again during the war many countries turned to political films, often to convince their general populace that they should patriotically serve their countries so that the country could become a stronger force in the war. For a long time governments would stretch the truth and show other countries as worse and their own country as superior with political media, and many still do it today. However political media could now also be used as a tool by individuals to criticise governments, potentially not out in the open as this could cause repercussions but subtly with metaphors.

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Advertising would also begin to be used politically, to the disgust of many who initially believed that it was akin to “selling” the politician like any other product instead of simply being convinced to vote of your own will. Dwight D. Eisenhower would begin this trend in 1952, using his status as a war veteran to promote himself as something of a celebrity politician. His rival Democrat opponent would not opt to compete with his own advert, although the advert would prove successful with Eisenhower winning. Being able to promote a politician as a likeable, down-to-earth man would prove to be fairly easy, with many people simply accepting it based on the adverts. Eventually, JFK would run for the Democrats and begin advertising, as it became such an important method of persuading people to vote for your candidate that it was deemed necessary to compete politically. This is still used today, with candidates still being able to convince people that they should vote for them as they are a “better person”.

Usage by government/against government

Animation was often dismissed early on as a less serious art form than other motion media. This was in part due to how it was often only used for children’s cartoons, but during the 50’s and 60’s this meant that animation was able to be less censored than other mediums in Eastern and Central Europe. Animation was used by governments too, for public services and educational productions. A Hungarian short film, “The Monologue” was banned a week after it was released. The film contained a subjective satirical view of Hungarian history from the animators perspective, which was not acceptable to the Soviet regime that was dominant at the time. However political animation would continue to grow as methods for distribution and production began to become more accessible. Often political animation would poke fun at countries.

Social Media

Social media in modern times is a massive source of political media that people utilise, whilst also seeming like a less “serious” source as compared to the news. A lot of people often cannot even tell when something may be influencing them politically, especially when they are just scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc. browsing memes, posts, and generally media that often gets dismissed as less serious, however still has the capability to massively influence how someone may think politically, as there is so much content that can be absorbed in such a short time the messages do not have to be as strong compared to something like a political candidate’s advert, but can arguably be far more influential.