Propaganda is information disseminated to a target group of people in order to persuade them of an idea or a call to action through the use of incomplete or incorrect information. Propaganda was used for the first time on a global scale during the First World War. Unlike previous wars, this was the first war in which nations around the world were using propaganda as a technique to initiate hatred against enemy nations. Citizens were told by their governments of the evils and unjustness of enemy nations, and were thereby encouraged to enlist themselves in the fight against those nations. Germany employed one of the most successful propaganda campaigns: words and images were carefully curated in a manner that would maximize the effectiveness of the propaganda, seeding negative thoughts and emotions in the public and evoking fear and hatred of the enemy. During the Nazi era, one of Hitler’s first acts as Chancellor was to establish the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. He understood the importance of having control of the information presented to the people and believed that controlling information was as important as controlling the military and the economy.
Similarly, in George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother and the
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The Party reassures the citizens that Big Brother is their protector, which strengthens their loyalty, resulting in a controllable populace. Citizens of Airstrip One are not allowed to leave -- effectively slaves of the regime, they are “free” under Big Brother’s protection. Finally, the citizens’ ignorance is essentially Big Brother’s strength. The people of Oceania never questioned the party’s ideals or the oppression they were subjected