A Retrospective on Early Studies of Propaganda and Suggestions for Reviving the Paradigm

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the findings of early propaganda analyses, trace and explain the decline in propaganda studies, and offer potential applications of these early findings to modern mass communication research. These early studies, conducted from the 1920s to the 1960s, were the foundation upon which the field of communication studies was built. A paradigm shift in the late 1940s, which firmly took hold in the 1960s, led to the abandonment of this field and the valuable results it yielded. However, propaganda studies could be examined using current theories of mass communication effects.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 convention of the National Communication Association in Chicago, IL.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 convention of the National Communication Association in Chicago, IL.

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 convention of the National Communication Association in Chicago, IL.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca M.L. Curnalia

Rebecca Curnalia (MA, Northern Illinois University, 2003) is a Doctoral Student in the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University