PROPAGANDA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 6 May 1926, Page 12

PROPAGANDA

THE MODEEN WORLD-LEVER

A meeting of the Wellington local branch of the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy was held at Victoria University College on Monday night last. ' In spite of the bad weather there was a good attendance of members and visitors. Dr. I. L. G. Sutherland read a paper on "The Psychology "of Propaganda," illustrated with reproductions of war posters from various countries, Eussian revolutionary posters, advertisements, cartoons, and newspaper headlines. Dr. Sutherland pointed out that among the characteristics which mark off the complicated social life of to-day from earlier and simpler times one of the most important was that this age is an. age of publicity. On the human side the extension of popular education means that all can read, and on the mechanical side there has been the invention of the printing press, the cheap production of paper, the coming into being of the modern newspaper, periodical, and book, and also such inventions aa the telegraph, the cable, wireless, the cinema, etc. All these things make a profound difference between the mental conditions of the present time and those of any previous age. Further, democratic institutions mean that there are now millions of participants in the control of affairs which were once loft to a few. Hence the need for influencing the minds of great bodies of citizens in modern States and at hand for this purpose are all the modern means of publicity. By propaganda the psychologist understood the deliberate creation of opinion and belief for national, political, commercial, or other purposes. The existence of certain features of the human mind summed up under the general heading of suggestibility made this creation of uniform opinion possible. Illustrations were given of large scale propaganda methods in the various belligerent countries during thu last war, these methods aiming at building up the national morale. The Bolsheviks in Russia had secured power solely through .propaganda methods and held it by the same means. The rest of the world had adopted anti-Bolshevik propaganda on a large scale. The great growth in the advertising industry was also referred to; the many new forms of advertising which were appearing and the perfection of the technique of influencing human minds through advertisement. In regard to the newspaper the importance of the headline was stressed. Mechanically nnd psychologically it was the focus (/ attention and it gave the interpretative key according to which the news which followed was going to be read. It could be deliberately used for propaganda purposes. Illustrations were given from American papers. New possibilities in regard to propaganda were opening up, the most important being the cinema and especially broadcasting. The recent hoax on the wireless in England which deceived many people and created widespread consternation was evidence of the possibilities of wireless for mass suggestion. In the discussion which * followed the reading of the paper and the showing of the illustrations, Sir Eobort Stout, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, Eev. Dr. Gibb, Professor Hunter, and others took part.

A hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Sutherland for his interesting paper was passed.