The Roman Catholic Church responded to the rise of Protestantism with its own campaign known as the Counter-Reformation. “As a study in propaganda, the Reformation, particularly the role played by Martin Luther and his followers, is a perfect example of how the channeling of the message, couched in an empathic emotional context and provided with an effective means of delivery, can bring about mass changes in attitudes.”Īfter the development of the printing press and its judicious use in the Reformation, the adoption of propaganda techniques became a normal part of the strategies devised by those seeking to control or manipulate others.” According to Jowett and O’Donnell, the techniques used during the Reformation provided something of a prototype for future propaganda campaigns: Aided by the invention of the printing press and a convergence of historical factors, Martin Luther and others were able to quickly spread a message that aroused the sympathies of the people and effectively divided Europe in two. And there are periodic examples in the Church’s history-such as the Crusades-of using propaganda to drum up support for a mass movement.īut the real watershed moment for the Christian use of propaganda was the Protestant Reformation. The images on them have served well to establish in people’s minds the quasi-divine status of a leader, empire, or nation.Ĭhristians, of course, have always used visual symbols and rhetorical flourish to persuade people of the truth of the Gospel.

In fact, coins have been one of the most effective mass propaganda techniques to be used throughout human history.

Leaders such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar utilized art, architecture, literature, public displays, and coinage to maintain control over their vast empires. The concept of persuasion is an integral part of human nature, and the use of specific techniques to bring about large-scale shifts in ideas can be traced back to the ancient world.” “The use of propaganda as a means of controlling information flow, managing public opinion, or manipulating behavior is as old as recorded history. In their widely referenced text Propaganda and Persuasion, Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell write: This is the charge leveled by French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul in his 1964 book The Technological Society, which now has the infamous distinction of being Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s favorite book.Īs you might expect, propaganda has been used in one form or another for thousands of years.

Ellul propaganda