I explore nationalism within popular United States' history and analyze the nationalistic rhetoric within a popular novel, film, television documentary, and computer game that use the Battle of Gettysburg as their subject. With these examples I argue that popular history and entertainment cultivate social conditions amenable to war. Rather than strictly focusing on overtly and officially sanctioned political arguments, I interrogate recurring defenses of United States' nationalism within popular history and entertainment using the concepts of sociological propaganda and collective memory to further my argument. By focusing on popular representations of a seminal event in United States' history, I contend that such an event has been used to affirm nationalistic hegemony in the present.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of China (the Cultural Revolution)from 1966 to 1976 is considered an unprecedented political and social upheaval in Chinese modern history. Model Plays were produced as the core of the Cultural Revolutionary propaganda in an effort to promote a new discourse of political and cultural ideology of and for the worker-farmer-soldier class. As images of heroic proletarian revolutionary women were expansively represented onstage, conventional gender norms and boundaries were challenged. This paper assesses the "woman" messages carried by Model Plays and the vision of Chinese women's liberation they depicted on the Cultural Revolutionary theatric stage. By analyzing images of Model woman characters in Model Plays, the author argues that these model plays and operas offer an idealized vision of Chinese women's emancipation and to certain extent serve as an empowering influence on women's social practice in real life during the Cultural Revolution; on the other hand, however, they reveal a central tension in the Chinese revolutionary discourse with respect to gender: women could be re-conceived as heroes, public actors fighting fearlessly for collective goals, yet these women heroes seemly could only take form in the absence of private ties: family bonds, marriage, and motherhood. So while there is something "new" and, perhaps, even liberating in these newly imagined women characters, the form they take falls short of truly reconfiguring gender relations in Chinese society.

This thesis examines the influences on and evolution of the Irish Republican Army‘s guerrilla war strategy between 1917 and 1921. Utilizing newspapers, government documents, and memoirs of participants, this study highlights the role of propaganda and political concerns in waging an insurgency. It argues that while tactical innovation took place in the field, IRA General Headquarters imposed policy and directed the conflict with a concern for the political results of military action. While implementing strategies necessary to effective conflict of the war, this Headquarters staff was unable to reconcile a disjointed and overburdened command structure, leading its disintegration after the conflict.

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This thesis will examine the ways in which anti-Semitic and more generalized racial theories were powerfully and effectively mobilized under Hitler and his Nazi regime. In the establishment of Nazi ideology and the practice of its principles, Hitler drew upon an old, extensive and specific genre of animalizing language. Hitler's regime skillfully employed contemporary and diverse modes of discourse to dehumanize and devastate the Jewish people. By juxtaposing traditional anti-Semitic beliefs with ideals of Aryan superiority, the Nazis were able to expand and strengthen pre-existing anti-Semitism whilst reaffirming Germany as the ultimate example of evolutionary progression. Integral to Hitler's success was the use of animal imagery and its respective connotations, associations and evocations. Throughout Hitler's regime, the term "animal" remained without an exact or precise definition; the ambiguous definition of "animal" allowed for multiple applications – both destructive and constructive. When used in reference to the Jews, the term "animal" was loaded with a barrage of degrading references, images and emotions. The Jews were described as dirty, disease-ridden rats: weak, despoiling animals that needed to be exterminated and bloodsucking parasites that presented an imminent threat to German bloodlines, culture, morality and economy. These images all stirred feelings of disgust, abhorrence and fear especially when linked to ideas of unpredictable and overwhelming plagues and swarms. The concept of human "animals" was also applied to the Germans but with completely different consequences. The German "animal" was a natural predator, a super wolf, a noble and loyal dog. This wolf/dog was upheld for its prowess, its commitment to the pack and its virile bloodline. This image of animalism was not a degradation or an admission of German inferiority; rather, it was a declaration of evolutionary achievement and innate superiority. The flexibility of the term "animal" was always loaded with emotive connotations and representations whilst remaining fluid in its applicability – only to be temporarily fixed as and when it suited Nazi ends. Hitler utilized the ascribed authority of scientific and pseudo-scientific theories to reinforce a sense of legitimacy and add a compelling rationality to Nazi ideology. Modern media were efficiently employed to spread Nazi beliefs: emotive speeches and new legislative measures were broadcast on the radio; propaganda was printed and circulated whilst cinematography captured the imaginations of many Germans and represented the Jews' "animal" nature. With a wealth of resources available to his purposes, Hitler was able to form and strengthen an ideology that had every appearance of being credible, necessary, righteous and legitimate. Innovative concepts and practices of industrialism were important in the mobilization of Hitler's racial campaign; the employment of new technologies appealed to a sense of progress and national self-improvement as well as providing effective and detached methods of removing the Jewish presence from Germany. When placed within multiple modes of discourse, images of animalism became increasingly pervasive and the dehumanization of the Jews was well underway.

Despite the ubiquity of the First World War as a key moment in the development of New Zealand’s national identity in scholarship and public memory, key aspects remain under explored. This thesis addresses a particularly noticeable gap – the operation and contents of New Zealand’s official First World War propaganda campaign. Through this focus, this thesis particularly explores how such propaganda reflected New Zealand’s place within, and engagement with, the concept of the ‘British world’. Propaganda is an ideal window into the workings of the British world during the war, illustrating both the operation of the practical connections, and the ideological reflections of national, imperial, and ‘British’ identities in the British world. Therefore, New Zealand and Britain’s First World War propaganda demonstrates the nature of the British world, particularly through exploration of the ways that New Zealand’s official campaign connected to and interacted with Britain’s official wartime propaganda campaign. Specifically, the thesis argues that a gap existed between the rhetorical ‘British world’, as constructed in the content of New Zealand’s wartime propaganda, and the practical realities of how the British world operated and interacted during the war. While New Zealand was comfortable rhetorically identifying itself as ‘British’ and part of the British world, practical limitations of communication and interaction with Britain often inhibited this theoretical community. The concept of ‘Dominion perspective’ is crucial to this interpretation. New Zealand’s Dominion status was central to the operation of propaganda in and between New Zealand and Britain during the war, and to New Zealand’s identification of itself within its propaganda. This interpretation reflects a wider view of New Zealand’s experience of the British world. Though concepts of Dominion status and the British world were centrally important to New Zealand during the war, they were not unproblematic. These concepts were frequently reshaped both theoretically and practically. The First World War was crucial to this development, as the closer interaction and cooperation within the British world it demanded, laid bare both the practical shortcomings of the British world, and the contested nature of concepts of Dominion status and the British world itself. The operation of official wartime propaganda in the British world reflects this wider process, and its significance to New Zealand.

The word "propaganda" was coined by the Roman Catholic Church in 1622 when it established the "Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide" in an effort to promote Christianity. In that era, propaganda was viewed simply as a means of spreading the Christian faith. However, 20th century conceptualizations of propaganda depict propaganda in various fashions. For example, some scholars view propaganda as a manipulative and deceptive campaign, as a means to achieve social control, and simply as a tool used to disseminate information.This study provides a foundation for creating a more unified conceptualization of propaganda. This appears particularly important given the resurgence of interest in propaganda research and recent technological innovations that provide for more widespread dissemination of propaganda. This study analyzes 20th century definitions of propaganda via the use of the constant comparative method of analysis. Through this method, key characteristics of these definitions are discerned, thereby providing scholars with a better understanding of the nature of propaganda and enhancing future propaganda research and theory construction. / Department of Speech Communication

This paper will explore the intersections of gender, sexuality and revolution in contemporary Chinese art through the lens of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As an integral part in the process of narrative reconstruction, the propaganda imagery from the Cultural Revolution provides important insights into societal expectations for the masses. This paper will also analyze how contemporary artists seek to appropriate and respond to the events of the Cultural Revolution through their artwork, and describe the processes by which the I interpreted this information in order to create my own artwork.

This thesis employs a social constructionist perspective to analyze constructions of the International Criminal Court (ICC), specifically (1) the notion of impunity; (2) the presence of a critical analysis; and (3) the connection between state support/opposition and favourable/negative portrayals of the Court. The theory chapter focuses on the propaganda model’s main premise that “media serve the interests of that state … framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate accordingly” (Herman & Chomsky, 1998, p.32). A thematic qualitative content analysis and several tools of grounded theory deconstructed 1,982 articles collected from The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Overall, the newspapers contained a high level of support for the propaganda model’s main assertions. Some of these conversations were quite limited and/or biased; specifically, American newspapers manipulated debates to justify American opposition to the Court.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, the United States (the Union) already had international diplomatic status, whereas the Confederate States of America wanted foreign recognition of its independence. The two governments sent agents and propagandists across the Atlantic, in particular to Great Britain to support their objectives. The Confederacy and the Union used various avenues, including rallies, talking with members of Parliament, and publications to convince the British that supporting the Confederacy was the correct action to take. The Union’s most well-known weapon emerged in January 1863: the Emancipation Proclamation. From the moment President Abraham Lincoln announced in September 1862 that he would emancipate slaves in the rebelling states, the nature of the American Civil War as viewed by the British changed. It could no longer be viewed simply as a war for southern independence, for it became more explicitly about the maintenance or abolition of slavery. For the British, slavery was a moral issue that they would never countenance. <br>The propagandists battled not just over slavery and its moral implications but also over supplies, and the propaganda battle climaxed over a material issue, that of the 1862 Florida and Alabama incidents when the Confederacy sneaked the ships out of Britain. The Union had tried desperately to convince the British government to stop the ships from sailing, but the British government allowed them to sail. Union outrage over the ships, subsequent military victories and the Emancipation Proclamation ultimately outweighed the efforts of Confederate diplomats and propagandists to gain open international recognition and support. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / History / MA / Thesis