War Propaganda

The book focuses on the breakup of the Yugoslav Federation and wars that followed viewed through the comic art in the local and international press. War propaganda and political discourse are examined and placed in the larger historical context of this conflict. The study reveals that Yugoslav cartoonists anticipated, as early as 1984, the disintegration of the country and were forecasting armed conflict in 1989. Using print media and comic art as a primary source of investigation, the author has presented the mental representation of the war as seen in press cartoons, both chronologically and thematically. A representative sampling of some 400 cartoons (out of a database of almost 7’500) and dozens of interviews undertaken with political cartoonists in the 1990s are quoted in the book as a primary source.

Before the former Yugoslavia was divided by wars, its inhabitants successfully lived side by side in peace. This collection seeks to explain how former neighbors became enemies, with the hope that understanding what drove these peoples apart will help us discover ways for them to coexist in peace again.Contributors analyze political cartoons, psychiatry, the arts, visual media, and law to present a diversity of views on the conflicts in Yugoslavia. While the chapters in this book deal with regional developments, they are not so much focused on politics as they are concerned with how values and attitudes are altered and new identities formed. Thus, this volume goes beyond recent journalistic accounts and should remain relevant for years to come.This book began as a special issue of the journal Anthropology of East Europe Review. Most of the contributors to that issue have revised their chapters for this collection, and new chapters have been added, including one on the recent war in Kosovo. Essays range across all of former Yugoslavia, emphasizing the variability and diversity of ethnic relations throughout its history: Joel M. Halpern & David A. Kideckel (eds.)

На архивных материалах рассказывается о подготовке в Челябинском областном краеведческом музее выставки, посвящённой столетней годовщине битвы на Чудском озере. Подготовка проводилась в 1942 году в условиях полного отсутствия средневековых артефактов в музейных запасниках.

Following the events of 9/11, the Bush Administration launched the Global War on Terror. Abroad, U.S. Forces aggressively pursued alleged terrorist organizations and supporters in Central Asia and the Middle East – beginning with Afghanistan and Iraq. These military operations coincided with a rise in anti-privacy legislation and government surveillance operations at home – see, for example, the Combating Terrorism Act, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA PATRIOT Act), the Cyber Security Enhancement Act, Operation Terrorist Information and Prevention System, and the Total Information Awareness (TIA) tracking system – as well as a resurgence of wartime propaganda. News programs and television series covered the Global War on Terror in both domestic and international settings, bombarding the American public with images of war in the form of information and entertainment. Media thus performed a propagandistic function: limiting, censoring, and presenting war content in both fiction and non-fiction programs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine propaganda, in particular wartime propaganda, in a post-9/11 context in order to understand the complex role that television plays as a tool of social control and mass persuasion. In doing so, this paper begins with an in-depth study of propaganda which explores the target audience and scope of propagandistic campaigns, the functions and objectives of propaganda, and, finally, the techniques and features employed in such campaigns. In order to distinguish between propaganda and other forms of promotional discourse, a discussion on the ethics of propaganda is conducted.

After establishing a solid definition of the concept and techniques of propaganda, it is further examined in the context of wartime operations. An emphasis is placed upon the techniques and objectives of wartime communication campaigns in order to determine how war propaganda can be employed to influence attitudes and beliefs. In doing so, this paper will also explore how ideologies and values can be employed to promote particular agendas.

Finally, a case study focusing on the television series 24 is conducted to illustrate how patriotic and idealistic images can be used to mobilize support for the American military establishment and its strategic operations, including the acceptance of morally questionable conduct. This case study demonstrates the influential role that television can play in the context of wartime operations by encouraging support for the military and law enforcement agencies.

The purpose of this chapter is to review Russian Information Operations as exercised in recent years and analyze their significance as part of a broader grand strategy scheme. In order to do that, we will first analyze the way information war/operations are conceptualized by the Russian political and military elite. There is a distinction between the Russian approach to information warfare, which is employed during both peacetime and wartime, and the Western approach, which is limited to tactical information operations carried out during a military campaign. The Russian approach is broader, and the recent evidence from Ukraine demonstrates that the Russian state and Russian nonstate actors have exploited the Internet, social media and cyber tools in order to conduct a
type of warfare that largely avoids using traditional military force. Instead, it is focused on influencing the populations and decision-making processes of targeted countries. Though the direct results of such operations are hard to measure, there is speculation that they have had some effect in both operational terms (e.g., the case of the Ukraine-Crimea crisis) and strategic terms (e.g., eroding liberal democracy in Europe and weakening NATO’s cohesion). Having conceptualized a theoretical framework for how Russia perceives and utilizes information operations, we will make some suggestions on how to counter this new challenge.

This paper analyses de visual construction of the Francois's myth of Crusade, Holy War and Reconquest beside its application to the Spanish Civil War. After revising the national catholic historiography and the ideology of those groups that supported the military coup, it is possible to conclude that these myths were used without a scientific orientation but always presenting the war as a Holy Crusade against Bolshevism. After the conflict, this myth remained strongly alive with for the justification of the complete destruction of the Marxist enemies as a part of the historical mission traditionally assumed by the Spanish nation

What is hybrid warfare?  And what role does information play in today's conflicts? In the context of the technological/information revolution of the last two decades--which has greatly amplified the danger posed by nonmilitary means of political struggle--Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare addresses these questions from the perspectives of both Western and Russian experts. Incorporating both theory and contemporary realities, including the case of the Islamic State, the authors offer a unique dialogue on the nature of conflict in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

The amount of new semantic content circulated in a society is limited by implicit norms and explicit rules. Belonging to a community means knowing, mastering, and even interiorizing such restrictions. Some of them are imposed by economy, as in the case of copyright, some by moral, as with pornography, and some for political reasons. In times of international tension such restrictions are tightened, giving rise to state ideologies and rhetorics of taciturnity. The essay explores those that came about in Italy, German, and Japan during World War II but also those that were circulated in their democratic opposers, USA and UK. The study seeks to show the relevance of a semiotic analysis of this corpus of propaganda materials not only for the sake of historical knowledge but also so as to cast new light on urgent present-day issues concerning both private and public conversation.

The German invasion of the Netherlands on the 10th of May 1940 was not only a tragedy for the Dutch people; it was also a tragedy for Dutch literature. In a few weeks time, the intellectual leaders of an entire generation would disappear. In the chaos of the battle of Rotterdam, Doeke Zijlstra, editor in chief of the publishing house Nijgh & Van Ditmar, was killed by a stray bullet. Publisher Robert Leopold, who feared German revenge for his publication of Hermann Rauschning’s critical work Hitler Speaks, shot himself. The promising Jewish writer Jacob Hiegentlich took poison and died. The young poet Tom de Bruin was accidentally shot by a nervous Dutch sentry. Hendrik Marsman, the most celebrated Dutch poet of his time, was among the few who found a place on a ship that would bring him to England. Within sight of the coast, however, they were hit by a German torpedo and he drowned. By then, two of the most prominent essayists, Edgar Du Perron and Menno ter Braak, had already died; Du Perron collapsed with a heart attack during the bombardment of an airport near his home in Bergen and ter Braak committed suicide upon the news of the Dutch surrender to the Germans. None of them ever knew about the death of the others.
What might seem as the last chapter of a Greek tragedy was only the beginning. During the occupation, at least 700 men and women of the underground press would lose their lives. The punishment for participation in the clandestine press was equivalent to that for acts of sabotage. Propaganda had been an essential element in the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and, as such, a strict control over the press in the occupied Netherlands was considered of paramount importance. Literature was given a totally new purpose in the occupied Netherlands; it became propaganda in support of the Nazification of Dutch society and the tightening of links between the “Germanic” Dutch and their German “brothers.”
Hence, Dutch authors were suddenly confronted with a tough challenge. For decades, most of them had preferred the loftiness of the ivory tower over the squabbling of daily politics. In 1937, the celebrated novelist Simon Vestdijk still wrote: “The creative artist faces war like a toddler: utterly helpless.”  Only a couple of years later, his publishing house was bombed and he himself was taken hostage. The same author, who didn’t want to have anything to do with war, had ended up in its clutches.
In fact, after the German invasion, participation in political debates was no longer an option. It had become a necessity. Even keeping quiet was now considered a political statement. In this context, a simple poem could have a huge impact.

Art historians have almost invariably focused on the seeming ideological contradictions in Antoine-Jean Gros’s Battle of Eylau, pointing consistently to the “shocking” display of wounded and dead Russian soldiers in the foreground of the picture.  All evidence suggests, however, that the canvas functioned quite effectively as propaganda for its historical audience at the Paris Salon of 1808.  The resolution of this interpretative paradox is the central task of this article.  Through an analysis of salon criticism and the application of recent theoretical approaches to the representation of war, it seeks to demonstrate how the painting’s focus on national identity in fact produced a compelling and ideologically coherent portrait of Napoleonic war.

Tras casi medio siglo la proyección histórica de Marcos Pérez Jiménez ha sobrevivido en el imaginario venezolano con benévola nostalgia. De hecho, dentro de la cultura política criolla, en teoría sensiblemente democrática, el perezjimenato se reivindica continuamente, refrendando peligrosamente las bases ideológicas del Estado Cuartel. Para comprender este fenómeno hemos tratado documentación sobre un complejo sistema de proyección ideológica pensada por las mentes más brillantes de la dic-tadura militar. La cuestión de por qué el Estado Cuartel se interesa más que los actores políticos no militares en la cosa histórica, telúrica, filosófi-ca de la nación, queda planteada en este artículo. Abstract: After almost half a century the historical projection of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Venezuela survived with benevolent nostalgia. In fact, within the Venezuelan political culture, the Marcos Perez Jimenez government still is feeling with benevolence and nostalgia of better times, endorsing dangerously the ideology of the " Estado Cuartel ". To understand this phenomenon we sought information about a complex system of ideological projection carefully designed by the brightest minds of the military

Descrizione del fondo archivistico del generale Tullio Marchetti (1871-1955), uno dei più importanti conservati nell'archivio storico del Museo della Guerra, in quanto comprende documentazione di grande rilevanza nazionale sia sull'attività di raccolta di notizie sul sistema difensivo e sul dispiegamento di forze militari dell'esercito austro-ungarico svolta dall'Ufficio informazioni della I Armata del Regio Esercito Italiano nel corso della guerra italo-austriaca, sia sul ruolo di primo piano svolto dall'Ufficio P del Comando Supremo nella diffusione della propaganda di guerra rivolta tanto alle proprie truppe e alla popolazione quanto alle unità militari avversarie.

Although Disney was making animated defense films with an instructional meaning for the Canadian government, it wasn’t until the attack on Pearl Harbor (McEvoy 1942; Grainge, Jancovich and Monteith 2012) that Walt began to employ his popular friends such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (McEvoy 1942). Hollywood was constantly producing propagandist motion-pictures during the Second World War with the intention of supporting the Allies in their fight against the Axis Powers and protect the American ideology of freedom (Grainge, Jancovich and Monteith 2012). Disney, a man who is proud of his country, wants to protect it and instead of joining the army, he did what he was best at: producing (McEvoy 1942). He was asked by the U.S. Navy to produce ‘films for training Navy personnel on airplane and warship identification’ (McEvoy 1942, p.H8).

The usage of art as propaganda is a long-established endeavor.  For example, propaganda was without a doubt an important goal of the art of ancient Rome.  Roman rulers manipulated art in order to entertain, to revive traditional values, to gain support for military campaigns and adventures, to encourage unity, and above all, to portray the emperor and the imperial family as strong, moral leaders who were devoted to the masses in order to gain their love and support.  From sculpture to architecture, the Romans left behind a legacy of art both intricate and monumental, peaceful, courageous and victorious such as the triumphal arches in Rome.  Most notable is the Arch of Constantine that was erected between 312 and 315 CE by the Senate in honor of his military triumph over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.  Arriving in the modern time, art was used to spread a propagandist message in the statues of leaders to portray power and greatness such as Jacque Louis David’s iconic portrait of Napoleon, Bonaparte Crossing the Alps.  Nazi films and Soviet socialist realist painting are examples of more recent exploitation of artistic mediums by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

Every war is not only the fight of the armies but also a war of the ideologies. One of the forms of the ideological war is propaganda posters. Over forty posters presented and analyzed in this article come from the Polish-Soviet war in 1919-1921. The research work is based on grounded theory procedures adopted for visual data analyses. Particularly useful was a method of coding families worked out by Barney Glaser and modified to the visual data analysis by Krzysztof Konecki. The author reconstructed several basic motifs, formal solutions, and Communications strategies (i.e., continuity and continuation versus avant-garde and revolution, image of the enemy and “one’s own” imagination, strategic conversion) used by artists-ideologists from both sides of the conflict.

This book offers a unique account of British and United States government's attempts to adapt their propaganda strategies to global terrorist threats in a post-9/11 media environment. It discusses Anglo-American coordination and domestic struggles that brought in far-reaching changes to propaganda. These changes had implications for the structures of legitimacy yet occurred largely in isolation from public debate and raise questions regarding their governance. The author argues that independent and public reexamination of continuing strategy development is essential for government accountability and the formation of systems and policies that both respect citizens and build constructive foreign relations. The book's themes will appeal to a wide readership including scholars and professionals. It draws on illuminating interviews with high-profile British/US sources including journalists, PR professionals and key foreign policy, defence and intelligence personnel.

У раду је дат приказ акције прикупљања и враћања књига немачком писцу Гинтеру Грасу, коју су током бомбардовања СР Југославије 1999. године као вид протеста покренуле и спровеле Вечерње новости. Рад садржи анализу узрока покретања акције, те наводи учеснике и разноврсне примере негодовања против подршке коју је Грас дао бомбардовању. Такође, описује место ове акције у ратној пропаганди у време НАТО агресије.

Resumen: La trilogía original de Rambo muestra una clara finalidad propagandística, marcada por su afinidad con la política estatal estadounidense o, más específicamente, con la línea seguida por el Presidente Ronald Reagan. Estas tres películas, con todas sus semejanzas y diferencias, exhiben una gran unidad y reflejan una tendencia en la sociedad estadounidense o, al menos, en la gestión política del país a partir de la llegada de Reagan.

Palabras clave: Rambo, cine, propaganda, Ronald Reagan, guerra, comunicación, persuasión.

Abstract: Rambo's original trilogy has a clear propagandistic purpose, with an affinity with American politics or, more specifically, with the line followed by President Ronald Reagan. With their similarities and differences, the three movies show a great unity and reflect a tendency in American society or, at least, in Reagan’s political administration.

Keywords: Rambo, cinema, propaganda, Ronald Reagan, war, communication, persuasion.

Our approach offers a view of the “Propaganda Model” developed by the linguist and American political activist Noam Chomsky 25 years ago and its current validity, with special emphasis on the five elements or filters. In this analysis, we tried to deconstruct the process and reflect on other components that filter the information. We also demonstrate how promoting this kind of analysis against the interests of the power groups in the ‘democratic societies’, tends to be marginalized institutionally.

(il video riguarda l'intera terza sessione dell'Ottavo seminario "Dalla mappa al GIS" coordinata da Paola Pressenda; il mio intervento va da 1:23:00 a 1:47:30)

Negli anni della prima guerra mondiale la produzione cartografica in Italia fu particolarmente abbondante, grazie soprattutto alla frenetica attività di alcune piccole case editrici e di associazioni sorte per condurre attività a favore della causa interventista. La cartografia risultava un idoneo strumento di promozione del discorso nazional-patriottico in quanto sfruttava il fatto che quella guerra esaltava due caratteri dello Stato moderno ben espressi attraverso le carte: 1) lo Stato è un soggetto politico a base territoriale (e durante una guerra si combatte per acquisire o non perdere territori) 2) lo Stato si fonda sull’esistenza della nazione, che possiede un preciso radicamento geografico (il principio per il quale si combatte è la difesa della nazione). Il «Sacro suolo» fu dunque un simbolo della retorica di propaganda con la sua mistica della guerra e la carta geografica ne permetteva una diretta e ben comprensibile visualizzazione.
Anche se la carta geografica è per sua stessa natura rivestita di significati politici in quanto riflette una specifica visione del territorio prodotta da uno specifico assetto socio-politico, è solo in quegli anni che essa assunse per la prima volta una dimensione autenticamente pubblica prendendo parte a quel fenomeno di politicizzazione dei cittadini che è tuttora il principale tratto distintivo della vita politica delle società contemporanee.
L’intervento al seminario intende esplorare l’uso che si fece della cartografia come strumento di comunicazione politica nell’Italia della Grande Guerra. L’analisi delle sue logiche e delle sue implicazioni servirà a mettere in luce i meccanismi della costruzione dell’identità nazionale in un ambito tematico finora poco indagato.

Parole-chiave: cartografia, interventismo, nazione, irredentismo, nazionalismo, propaganda

Dans les imaginaires collectifs, la marionnette est tour à tour assimilée à un emblème des rapports de domination et de manipulation. à une créature essentiellement frondeuse et irrévérencieuse, ou bien à un divertissement parfaitement inoffensif et tout juste bon pour les enfants.
En mettant ces clichés à l'épreuve des faits, sur une période qui s'étend du début du XXe siècle à aujourd'hui. cet ouvrage examine la diversité des rapports de pouvoir dans lesquels marionnettes et marionnettistes se trouvent pris. auxquels ils prennent part, qu'ils influencent ou qu'ils génèrent.
D'une étude à l'autre, le lecteur sera amené à traverser des contextes et des espaces très divers (marionnettes en temps de guerre, dans les usines, dans la rue, sur le Web). Il retrouvera des repères de la grande Histoire qui lui sont familiers (Hitler, Franco, Suharto, la révolution culturelle chinoise, la Marche pour le climat, la Syrie de Bachar el-Assad), mais dont le prisme de la marionnette lui permettra de découvrir un aspect tantôt glaçant, tantôt dynamisant par sa créativité.
Au fil des quatre focus qui structurent l'ouvrage (« Appareils d'Etat»; « Profession»; « Dramaturgies»; « Espaces alternatifs»), c'est in fine une histoire culturelle des arts de la marionnette qui se dessine, à la faveur d'un travail approfondi et historicisé sur les répertoires, les techniques. les esthétiques et les pratiques.

More : http://www.marionnette.com/fr/Edition/Catalogue/64

Directed by Raphaèle Fleury and Julie Sermon.
With the participation of scholars and artists: Sarah Anais Andrieu, Sylvie Baillon, Hélène Beauchamp, John Bell, Jaroslav Blecha, Lucile Bodson, Patrick Boutigny, Élodie Chamauret, Karim Oakroub, Raphaèle Fleury, Kathy Foley, Rachel Fourmentin, Alexander Gref, Juraj Hamar, Gabriel Hermand-Priquet, Ida Hledikovô, Annie Katsura Rollins, Anthony Liébault, Salma Mohseni Ardehali, Olivier Neveux, Julie Sermon, Elena Slonimskaya, Cheryl Stephenson, Daniel Urrutiaguer.

Coinciding with the centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I, this exhibition catalog examines the lives of four individuals from Montana or closely tied to the western state who served their country proudly and whose lives were significantly shaped by the Great War. They are: Glasgow-born William Belzer, celebrated aviator and among America’s first flying aces; Great Falls widow Josephine Hale who served as a Red Cross nurse and became a notable painter in France; doughboy Sidney F. Smith, survivor and hero of the infamous “Lost Battalion;” and James Watson Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin until the U.S. declaration of war and husband to Mary Daly of the famous mining family. The catalog essay  by UM Professor of Art History and Criticism H. Rafael Chacón addresses the abstract concept of the enemy, both abroad and within.

Selon le témoignage d'Anthony Cordesman, analyste du Centre d'Etudes Stratégiques et Internationales : « peu importe si nous l'avouons publiquement ou non, nous irons en guerre parce que Sadam Hussein est assis au centre d'une aire régionale contenant plus de 60% des réserves pétrolières mondiales ». Cette analyse conforte largement la grille de lecture mercantiliste, proche du réalisme, selon laquelle l'accès aux ressources naturelles constitue le moteur des relations internationales. Elle vient aussi supporter l'explication de Dario Battistella, selon laquelle la guerre en Irak répond à des motivations impérialistes. Pour autant, le travail de justification et de légitimation de l'opération « Liberté en Irak » fut immense et conféra toute sa vigueur à un débat controversé qu'il s'agit d'examiner : existe t-il une guerre juste ?

Media plays an important role in keeping people informed about the events in the border areas. In this paper, news related to the border areas in the Indian Express national newspaper daily is analyzed for the period of August 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016. The research study tried to study patterns of news about the border state of Jammu and Kashmir in the newspaper daily based on subject of the stories appeared and sources quoted in the news. The data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The findings of the study demonstrated the Indian State centric approach to the news reporting for the border state. Indian officials and military have quoted in 78% of the news stories during the study period. Defense and politics related news makes up to 70% of the whole coverage given to the border state of the Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Express. The Hurriyat Conference's (the coalition of parties formed for the cause of Jammu and Kashmir independence) members were quoted in just 17 % of the stories. The Quotes from Pakistani officials, documentary sources and international sources are very less (10%). The civilian perspective is also missing in the news as they are quoted in only 19% on the stories. Only 3 percent stories of the security forces excesses on civilians were reported in the Indian Express during the period of the research study.

У раду се анализира извештавање, у то време, најтиражнијег београдског дневног листа "Вечерњих новости" о ратном учинку Војске Југославије током НАТО агресије 1999. године, а које је било део информационог рата. Посебан акценат је стављен на анализу навода о обореним ваздухопловима Северноатлантске алијансе.

"According to the just determination A.V. Fateev, "enemy image is an ideological expression of social antag-onism, dynamic character hostile to the state and the citizen forces, a policy tool of the ruling groups of the society. ... The enemy image is a crucial element of psychological warfare, which is a deliberate and planned use of propaganda by political opponents, among other means of pressure for the direct or indirect influence on the opinions, moods, feelings and behavior of the enemy, allies and their populations in order to force them to act in pleasing to the government directions" //  Alexander Fedorov. Soviet Cartoons Media Texts in Cold War Times: Hermeneutic Analysis/ Russian Journal of Sociology, 2016, Vol. (3), Is. 1.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

The Internet has been a counter-public space for Palestinian liberation politics for over a decade, and digital technologies have become an increasingly important tool for solidarity groups
across the world. However, the Israeli state and Zionist supporters worldwide are harnessing the same technologies and platforms to mobilize technology primarily to increase pro-Israel sentiments.
The aims of this article are to examine hasbara [Israeli public diplomacy] through an exploration of similar diplomacy programmes; to illustrate how social media have affected the basic algorithms of hasbara; and to probe the assertions of hasbara in the light of pro-Palestinian solidarity. Through
a study of public diplomacy, this article critically analyzes hasbara as a site of contestation and a method that is hampered by contradictions. On the one hand, there has been a massive growth in hasbara in recent years—indicated by the increase in funding for it and by its professionalized and centralized character; and on the other hand, hasbara has attracted sharp critiques in Israel for
its reputed failures. To understand this contradiction, hasbara must be placed within the context of Israel’s settler-colonialism, which sets the state apart from other ‘post-conflict’ states. This article reviews the methods utilized in hasbara, as well as their readjustment in the context of recent wars. Events in 2014 illustrate that hasbara actually destabilizes Israel’s diplomacy. Online journalism and the suppression of solidarity for Palestine together stimulate more criticism and, in turn, help to shift
public opinion. Paradoxically, therefore, adjustments (‘hasbara 2.0’) have underlined the image of Israel as a colonial power engaged in violent occupation.
KEY WORDS: BDS; Gaza; Internet; Israel; Palestinian Liberation; Propaganda; Public diplomacy; Zionism

Among the many mythologized events surrounding Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony no. 7 ("Leningrad"), op. 60, perhaps the last to be thoroughly investigated is the dramatic microfilm transfer of the piece through the Middle East, across the Atlantic, and to the shores of the United States. There, the symphony was performed as part of a broader propagandizing effort to interest American citizens in the Soviet cause.

This paper charts for the first time the circumstances of that transfer, identifying the organizations key to the piece's North American dissemination and its subsequent use as a showpiece for the unity of the Grand Alliance, and narrating several near-disasters along the route which were suppressed in the reportage of the time. Using several archival sources that have not previously been mined by Shostakovich scholarship – including the papers of the All-Union Society of Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS) and the correspondence of Eugene Weintraub, agent for the Am-Rus Music Company – this paper clarifies and to some extent demythologizes the narrative of the delivery, performance, and reception of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony in the United States. In particular, it touches on: (1) the administrative and bureaucratic source of the so-called “Battle of the Conductors” over who would receive the rights to the first Western premiere; (2) the attendant arrangements for the transportation and reproduction of the score; (3) the effect of the symphony on American attitudes toward Russia – particularly in light of the fact that the members of Stalin’s propaganda team clearly intended to use the piece to raise American awareness of the efforts of the Soviet peoples in the fight against the common enemy; and (4) the immediate dissemination of rumors that Shostakovich had begun composing the symphony before Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa, bringing into question its oft-stated programmatic content. In each case, I hope to trace not only the logistical realities, but also the means by which information about those logistics circulated until it was transformed into the stuff of heroic legend. Ultimately, this leads us to ask how Shostakovich’s symphony might be understood without these legendary accretions – and whether it should be understood without them at all.

Although the existence of propaganda in liberal democratic states is frequently denied it continues to play a central role especially with respect to war and conflict. Propaganda, understood as a non-consensual approach to influencing beliefs and behaviour, involves a variety of manipulative techniques including deception through lying, omission and distortion as well as incentivization and coercion. Also, it is generated across multiple sites including government, media, academia, think tanks, NGOs and popular culture. A preliminary analysis of the 2011-present Syrian War and UK propaganda indicates how a range of non-governmental and civil society actors, purportedly independent but many with links to Western governments, have been involved in promoting Western government narratives regarding the war and underpinned a misleading impression that Western governments are bystanders to the conflict. As such, the role of the UK in fostering ‘regime-change’ in Syria has remained obfuscated with serious consequences for democratic control over foreign policy.

Los trabajos críticos que han abordado el estudio de las novelas y cuentos de María Teresa León en claves política, testimonial y feminista se han precipitado al desdeñar sus artículos periodísticos, considerándolos nimios y anacrónicos. Esto responde a que no se ha superado una primera impresión prejuiciosa sobre su contenido propagandístico, cuando, en realidad, son igual de representativos, y más combativos si cabe, que el resto de su narrativa. Por esta razón, la presente investigación se dispone a rescatar “Gato por liebre” y “A las mujeres españolas”, dos artículos publicados en El Mono Azul (1936-1939), cuyas estrategias retóricas y propagandísticas merecen ser objeto de minucioso análisis por formar parte del claro plan de empoderamiento femenino que León capitaneó durante la guerra civil española.

"In an age of proliferating media and news sources, who has the power to define reality? When the dominant media declared the existence of WMDs in Iraq, did that make it a fact? Today, the "social web" (sometimes known as Web 2.0, groupware, or the participatory Web)—epitomized by blogs, viral videos, and YouTube—creates new pathways for truths to emerge and makes possible new tactics for media activism. In Digital Media and Democracy, leading scholars in media and communication studies, media activists, journalists, and artists explore the contradiction at the heart of the relationship between truth and power today: the fact that the radical democratization of knowledge and multiplication of sources and voices made possible by digital media coexists with the blatant falsification of information by political and corporate powers.

The book maps a new digital media landscape that features citizen journalism, The Daily Show, blogging, and alternative media. The contributors discuss broad questions of media and politics, offer nuanced analyses of change in journalism, and undertake detailed examinations of the use of Web-based media in shaping political and social movements. The chapters include not only essays by noted media scholars but also interviews with such journalists and media activists as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Media Matters host Robert McChesney, and Hassan Ibrahim of Al Jazeera.

Contributors and Interviewees:
Shaina Anand, Chris Atton, Megan Boler, Axel Bruns, Jodi Dean, Ron J. Deibert, Deepa Fernandes, Amy Goodman, Brian Holmes, Hassan Ibrahim, Geert Lovink, Nathalie Magnan, Robert McChesney, Graham Meikle, Susan D. Moeller, Alessandra Renzi, Ricardo Rosas, Andréa Schmidt, Trebor Scholz, D. Travers Scott, R. Sophie Statzel, Stephen Turpin.

About the Editor

Megan Boler is a Professor in Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto and a graduate of the History of Consciouness Program, University of California, Santa Cruz. Her other books include Feeling Power: Emotions and Education and Democratic Dialogue in Education: Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silence. Her essays are published in such journals as New Media and Society, Cultural Studies, and Women's Studies Quarterly."

The relationship between the US State’s military propaganda agencies, the entertainment industries, media products, and public opinion is of interest to researchers, and the alliance of the military and the entertainment industries is often conceptualized as a “military-entertainment complex” (MEC). This entry focuses on some relevant concepts for studying the MEC (the military-industrial complex, the military-industrial-communications complex, the military-industrial-media-entertainment network, the media war/virtuous war, and interactive militainment), identifies the political and economic institutions that make up the MEC (the Department of Defense’s public affairs office and US media and entertainment corporations), and highlights synergies between the DoD and specific sectors of the entertainment industries that underlie the production of militainment (the DoD-news complex; the DoD-Hollywood complex; the DoD-sports complex; the DoD-digital games complex; and the DoD-social media complex).

"This article examines the songs that Japanese schoolchildren learned during World War II and their impact on children’s lives. These songs were filled with propaganda such as Japan’s superiority over other nations, the glory of dying for the country, and the joys of working in weapons factories. The study addresses questions such as: what values were these songs reinforcing? What behaviors were being encouraged? What legacy did they leave in the minds of the children who sang them, after the war had ended? Personal stories were obtained from individuals who attended elementary school during World War II. It is shown that the children who grew up during the war internalized the values promoted by these wartime songs and acted upon them as adults; they also passed it on to their own children.
"

Art at war! The Belgium state as patron of combatting artists: benevolent politics or imperious necessity?
With the invasion of Belgium by German troops in August 1914, the Kingdom's artistic community was forcefully dispersed. Young men were mobilised, others joined the army on a voluntary basis, some remained in Belgium and yet others sought refuge in the neirbouring countries.
Starting in the autumn of 1914, The Belgian State set up relief funds for artists, at the beginning mainly for those exiled, trying to rebuild their lives abroad. In London, a committee was created, which would organise charity exhibitions as well as lecturers on Belgian art and literature throughout the country. In 1915, Queen Elisabeth eventually granted a large subsidy of which 80% would go to the artists who remained in Belgium.
Meanwhile at the front, artists often grabbed their pencil or brush in order to capture what they saw and felt. Furthermore, artistic practices were being utilised in a more pragmatic way by the military (artillery and camouflage). Exhibitions and contests by artists at war were also taking place. In May or June of 1916 the importance and utility of artists at the front was officially recognised and the "section artistique de l'armée belge en campagne (artistic section of the Belgian Army on the Field) was founded. Its goal was to document the war but also to shake off the image of "Poor Little Belgium" and reinforces the propaganda.