Media and the World War Ii
The media is a tool in which we represent the world, it is also a powerful tool in which the world is represented by us; the media has power and authority. Adolf Hitler, the brutal chancellor of Germany in the 1930s sought a drastic social change in Germany at that time. He claimed that Jews were the cause for their misfortune and planned to wipe them away for good. Apart from the brutal forces he used to obtain this, the media also played a huge role in the process. The media was used to inform as well as manipulate. According to Adolf Hitler, his motive was to ‘purify’ the German culture. Because books are ways to inform and educate a society about an issue, he started by burning books that did not conform to his ideology; he also banned production of such books. Freedom of speech and expression in Germany at that time was only limited to people and organizations that shared his beliefs. He started a propaganda campaign few months after his rise to power in 1933, which was led by the public enlightenment and propaganda minister, joseph Goebbels. He figured that in order for propaganda to be persuasive, you have to play to people’s emotions. His propaganda was simplistic for it to be understood quickly, emotional to capture their attention, repetitive for remembrance as well as uncompromising to forcefully get people to oblige. He used slogans such as “one people, one Reich, one leader” in order to unite them; this was more than a propaganda, this was a mass mind control. He also realized that in order for a reform to take place, you have to get to the sources of things. He then turned his attention from adults to children, maybe because it can be sometimes difficult to alter an adult’s belief, but children are much more vulnerable and ready to believe anything. He realized that shaping a child’s mind while growing up could maybe lead to a permanent belief about an issue at the adult’s stage. He supported children’s books that conform to his ideology, racist books