Good morning fellow students and welcome to the global youth forum. Today we'll address the impact of the digital age and consider whether it is possible for traditional propaganda techniques to be effective in a digital world with the comparison of the propagandist Nazi regime of Germany within World War 2 and the modern day dictatorship of Kim Jong Un in North Korea. The three sources to be considered in the forum are: the documentary- Triumph of the Will (1935), education in North Korea compared to education in Nazi Germany and wartime posters. But where did the commonly chosen war weapon of propaganda originate from and why was it so successful in accomplishing country wide persuasion? .
"Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea" (Nazi Propaganda, 2013). Adolf Hitler transcribed these words in his book Mein Kampf (1926), in which he first advocated and encouraged the use of propaganda to spread the ideals of National Socialism – among the racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Bolshevism. Following the Nazi seizure to power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Nazi Propaganda, 2013). The Ministry's objective was to ensure that the Nazi ideology was successfully communicated through art, music, theatre, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press. Although these traditional propaganda techniques of total coaxing within the reign of Hitler were significantly successful, would they still be effective and operational in todays digitally reliant world? Through the overuse of technology, social media sites and everyday subtle propagandist advertising campaigns, traditional propaganda techniques would be effective in our technologically driven society. This is caused by the overall easier and rapid dissemination of the propaganda message as a result of quicker communication through the use of the internet, social media sites and also radio and television.
