After receiving the title for this exam project I decided it would be best to break down all three of these concepts into their basic definitions

These three can be defined as the following …….

TRUTH = something which can be considered true/in accordance with fact or reality

FANTASY = something which is described, but is made up and never happened, usually seen as something impossible or improbable

FICTION = something which is described, but is made up and never happened

 

My Initial Thoughts ….

The Exam Project Handout gives a few paragraphs outlining different ways these topics can be interpreted. Straight away I was drawn to the final paragraph ……

“Written propaganda has been used to influence and steer public opinion with many political and religious movements claiming to possess the only true path or philosophy. Each movement has commissioned artists to embellish texts and illustrate their beliefs for public consumption and maximum impact. The communist and fascist posters of the early 20th century exemplify the power of this form of communication”

I find the theme of propaganda to be very interesting because I enjoy history a lot and have studied a bit about the role propaganda has had in shaping the course of the 20th and 21st Century. For instance political Propaganda throughout the 20th Century has proven to be an extremely powerful and manipulative tool that various Governments, ranging from the brutal autocratic regimes of Soviet Russia + Nazi Germany to supposedly free democratic nations such as U.S.A (particularly during the cold war) have used to their advantage to incite feelings of patriotism, loyalty, hatred and fear, among many other powerful emotions.

 

In is not an exaggeration to claim that effective Propaganda programmes have been effective to the extent of brainwashing masses of people in buying into the ideology of evil and hateful regimes which oppose standard moral standards of morality.

Propaganda has not  just been used to aid political ideology. Companies large and small, have used manipulative propaganda techniques within advertisement – drawing consumers into buying/subscribing to a certain product through repetitive commercials, subliminal messages within advertising  and celebrity endorsement, among many other ploys to draw masses of consumers in.

I find the role of propaganda therefore to be extremely interesting. Exploring this theme will enable me to explore how ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’ overlap. I will investigate whether propaganda really is just a really effective way of emphasising the truth? or in itself a mechanism for twisting the truth? or both?

Because propaganda is so hard to define and pinpoint I believe it will be a really effective theme to explore in this exam theme. The excess of propaganda which exists everywhere – both historically as well as present day will allow for an extensive exploration into its important and often overlooked role in society.

To emphasise the importance of propaganda I will ask the following questions . Some of these questions are largely open for debate, but make one think quite how scary the concept of propaganda actually is ……..

• Is it really a coincidence MacDonalds is the largest restaurant chain in the world and has some of the most sophisticated methods of advertising within the last 50 years?
• Is advertising in any way moral, especially advertising aimed at children?
• Would the Cold War even have existed without propaganda to support the masses?
• To what extent did the likes of Moa, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin use propaganda as a way of continuing their suppressive, murderous and terrifying regimes?
• Did millions of people who volunteered and then died in various wars of the last century go into war through their own free choice/or were they lied to and deceived by Government Propaganda?
• Should major religious organisation be held accountable for their use of propaganda to influence the minds of billions of people throughout the course of history ?
• How may the 20th Century have been different without advances in propaganda/advertisement?
• Is propaganda/advertising really that bad at all and in fact exaggerated by statistics + can it even be a force for good?
• How has propaganda changed overtime and how will it be different in the future?

 

Summary

I have decided to go along the lines of this paragraph because I believe propaganda is an incredibly important theme to look into. It has undoubtedly shaped the course of the last 100 years because of its ability to ‘steer public opinion’. I want to use this exam time to challenge and break down the fundamentals of propaganda, looking in particular at how photography has been used as part of this trend, and particular how captions and slogans alongside images have influenced how the image is views and thus the audience impression of the intended information.

I believe that marketing of propaganda is in itself was of the most significant and important art forms of the last 100 years. Propaganda MUST be credited as a legitimate form of art because it is a creative way of expressing an ideal and leaves a powerful impact on the viewer. It is also evidence of the power art has not just as a form of expression but as a ploy for commercial manipulation.

My aim is to both embrace the techniques of propaganda but at the same time challenge its ethical and moral standing.

Over the course of my research I will begin to gather ideas of how I can respond, photographically to this theme. I don’t want to commit to an idea straight-away but instead develop a few clear concepts before deciding for sure.

 

Malcom X talking about the power Governments have in using media to “propagandise the nation”