Visual Propaganda During World War II: A Key Element of Communication
and Persuasion on the Societies of Germany and the United States
Our first impressions on
communication came as political cartoons, but we found that there were not
enough sources in this area and political cartoons didn’t have as large of an
impact on the society during World War II as other forms of visual propaganda
did. We were able to gain access to the library at Fresno State and thoroughly
research about visual propaganda and its effects. We were able to find many
examples off of the Internet and pictures from our books, which we were able to
scan and add to our website. The process of researching took us the longest, we
read many books and looked at many examples of visual propaganda which we
filtered and chose only the most significant examples.
With the proper resources such as books and web pages of accounts of
visual propaganda and its influence on the war efforts, it was easier to see how
the societies of both Germany and America were persuaded. With the sources that
we found we were able to learn about the “eight types of propaganda” and how
both sides used them. Both the Nazis and the Americans appeared to use the
concept of “bandwagon propaganda” the most often. Both would try to make it
seem like everyone else was doing something for the war effort so they would
make the target feel that he or she should pull some of their share in the war.
This has been an enjoyable experience for the both of us. It was a
learning experience to the end and we learned a significant amount of
information about visual propaganda and its influences. We feel that this
project has opened our eyes to visual propaganda and other persuasive arts used
on all societies. We found that propaganda idealism hasn't changed much from the
past, after looking into some modern visual propaganda examples. Another
discovery we made was that many of the persuasive articles would unconsciously
be filtered into our own thoughts as well. With the familiarity of a computer,
the process was more exciting and enjoyable. It was fun to find the music that
could go along with the website. Visual propaganda during World War II has
proven to be an interesting and prominent idea to study.
