Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Propaganda during the Revolutionary conflict.....

America survived the Revolution and with that came freedom of the press and the journalists. "It seemed self-evident to the Revolutionary generation that a free press had played a vital role in the struggle, even as they came to disagree about what freedom of the press ought to mean" William Cushing wrote a letter to John Adams that spoke about the free press clause of the Massachusetts stating " Without this liberty of the press could we have supported our liberties against British administration? or could our revolution have taken place? In normal circumstances it definitely could not but guess what? It did! The most important and major role that the press played was called "Propaganda". "Propaganda" in the simplest terms means "those who initiate communication shape others' attitudes and knowledge, but communication did not simply flow from top to bottom, from elites to masses, from center to periphery". So, in 1803 there was a book published by a man named Samuel Miller who instead of writing facts, and information in newspapers  they gave themselves a leg up and became " the vehicles of discussion". By this occurring it made the society "deeply involving both its peace and prosperity". 

1 Comments:

At 10:27 PM, Blogger A. Mattson said...

A good post and discussion of the material.

Having experienced the attempts by the British empire to censor the press, the revolutionary generation understood the importance of a free press in the fight againt tyranny.

You have raised a key point: the pamphleteers and newspaper writers were propagandists for and against the revolution. They were also a place for the expression of opinions and public debate. The circualation of pamphlets and newspapers created a public sphere of political debate that spread the ideology of democracy and republicanism.

 

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