PowerMedia

Today we saw "the Triump of Will", a German movie from 1933 by Leni Riefenstahl.

The film presented the Nuremburg Rally where Hitler addresses the Hitler Youth. In class we discussed the audience size, the role of peer pressure, the emotional appeal of the national flag, and Hitler's use of rhetoric.

In addition we discussed the relatively limited role of advertising in the first part of the 20th century. The fact that the Nazi "spectacle" at Nuremburg, and Josef Goebbels' use of Riefenstahl's film, showed the world the first powerful example of a combined mass media campaign to win public opinion decades before American network commercials. In 1933-34, Goebbels considered the medium Radio obsolete, envisioning the power of television.

Further discussion elaborated the development of propagangandized communication, beginning with British Propaganda bureau headed by Masterman and including famous British novelists, journalista and scholars that crafted a strategic information flow culled from in-coming and out-going information in WW1, Goebbles' development of the National Socialists mass media, the Rowe letter of 1948, and vernacular of the present US presidential campaign. Terms used today include, the Echo Chamber, Staying On Message, and Talking Points.

My email is now posted upper right, first line, all should email me so that I can begin inviting you to add your work to the Blog.