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When I was learning about the World Wars in high school and middle school, I remember being shown propaganda posters. A lot of them featured red, black and white graphics along with a quotation or two. I remember learning about the harmful propaganda the most, but in COM416 I have learned how else it was used. Hitler and the Nazis made propaganda on all different levels. Yes, there was the type that put down other countries and nationalities, but there was also some that positively won Germans to be on their side.
-Erin Maher

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One of the first things I remember doing in COM416 was look at definitions of propaganda. This specific definition has been one that has stuck with me through the semester that I still agree is a great definition.

“A deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist”

- Jenna McNamara

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The first time I learned about propaganda was in middle school during the 2008 campaigns. We looked at each candidate and their teams uses of propaganda and compared them. We then learned about it again in high school talking about world war I. It wasn't until this semester that I really realized how many things fall under the category of propaganda. Almost anything now can serve as propaganda from gofundme accounts after natural disasters to our favorite late night talk show host promoting the guests new book release.

- Jenna McNamara

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When I was in 5th grade, we had a day where we had to reenact the Civil War. This taught us about the propaganda that was used to put the North and the South at ends with each other. This was a creative way of showing the students what war time was like and how it lead to this out of control war within our country.

-Toni Balboni

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Propaganda of different governments in college classes

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Propaganda of different governments in college classes

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I haven't learned anything about propaganda as a defined word before. I cannot understand the word better without relating it with many things and affairs in my life. Up until this semester, I realized how presidential elections uses different forms of propaganda to win votes, and how our minds and decisions are changes unconsciously by the propaganda around us.

Abby Zhang

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Propaganda in middle school and high school

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Propaganda in middle school and high school

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I can remember like it was yesterday learning about WWII propaganda. At that age we did not learn about Hitler's ideas and reasons behind the propaganda that was used. I have been learning about this type of propaganda for sometime now. But when it comes to COM 416 this year it was amazing to learn why the propaganda was used, whither it was targeting the youth, or the military, there was a reason why the propaganda was made, and it was awesome to learn, and breakdown the reasons why.

-Dom Grillo

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In 11th grade, I took a genocide class as an elective and we talked about the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and others. While I don't explicitly remember talking about propaganda, I'm sure it was included to help explain how these genocides were justified to the people in those countries at the time.
-Kelly Falco

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The first time I encountered the term propaganda was in a middle school world history class (grade 6). We were studying WWII and the rise of the Nazi party. We saw examples of propaganda and since I do not recall being given a firm definition of propaganda I thought for a long time it was synonymous to being brainwashed. In high school we again studied propaganda in the context of World Wars, created by European countries like Germany and Russia. It was not until college that I was able to study American created propaganda!

~Kristen Beatty

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The first time that I really remember learning about propaganda was in Junior year of High School when in History class. We were on the subject of WWII and how the governments of both sides were attempting to recruit people to join the cause, whether on the battlefield or through donating money to the cause. Most of the propaganda was print ads that tried to glorify the war and make it seem like a patriots heroic duty, but it was actually just the governments attempting to get a leg up on the competition by having more money and or soldiers.
-Connor Fogelstrom

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WWII propaganda poster created by the United States government in 1942.

~Kristen Beatty

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In 5th grade my class my teacher split us into groups and made us "families." We represented different families heading out on the Western Expansion. Every few days something would happen like a broken wagon wheel or someone breaking their leg. It was how we learned of how hard this expansion really was. Along with this, we learned all about how Thomas Jefferson convinced people to go on this long journey moving across the country. He used propaganda to inform the public how they could secure land for themselves and become prosperous. Who wouldn't want to claim more land for their family and become richer? This was very affective considering 7 million Americans made the move.

-Justine Mirek

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I learned Nazi Propaganda from my communication class, I vividly remember an example:
Der Stürmer, a Nazi propaganda newspaper, told Germans that Jews kidnapped small children before Passover because "Jews need the blood of a Christian child, maybe, to mix in with their Matzah." Posters, films, cartoons, and fliers were seen throughout Germany which attacked the Jewish community.

-Wenhua Huang

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I remember first reading about American WWII propaganda in books by American Girl, a doll company. One of the dolls was Molly, a US girl from the 1940s whose dad was in the army. The book talked about propaganda in relation to war bonds and saving scrap metal. I was further introduced to US WWII propaganda in high school history classes. I don't recall any specific pieces of WWII propaganda from other nations, though. I also was shown a lot of political cartoons in my history classes, from various time periods.
-Jenna Ziegelmayer

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2008 campaign poster designed by Shepard Fairey.
-Jenna Ziegelmayer

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This is a page from one of the American Girl books about Molly that I mentioned in the first column. I recall that she and her friends had to sew quilts for soldiers as a part of a school-wide effort to aid the US in the war. Books like these taught me about the US during WWII, but are pieces of propaganda in and of themselves. They really glorify the US during WWII, when in reality, it was a time of struggle for many families.
-Jenna

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As a child learning about propaganda personally stemmed from my parents. I don't remember learning as much about it in school as much as I did from my parents at home. I remember as a kid I would ask them for things sold in TV ad's that played between cartoons. The commercials would seem interesting to me because they would only show people having fun and playing around with great things happening. They would also show me some examples of political propaganda but not much as I was probably 13 or 14 years old and wasn't very interested in those things. Looking back my family taught me lots about propaganda and peoples desire to persuade minds.
-Eric Melaragno

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When I first started COM 416, I thought propaganda was really only associated with wars and/or political/ideological persuasion. Now, I see that propaganda can be advertisements, children's books and games, memes, etc. Realistically, propaganda is anything that tries to persuade you to think or behave in a certain way.
-Jenna Ziegelmayer

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In the fifth grade I studied the holocaust at my school. throughout a semester we read three different books (ie. Number the stars) and wrote reports on them. As a fifth grader this influenced my perception on Germany as a whole. This material being taught at that young age can be very harmful!!

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What I learned, was how truly powerful hitler was. How he was able to use the power of propaganda and fake news to help take over and control a nation. From the fake news on Polands attacks, to infiltrating the school system to teach that Jews were physically different. Hitler was able to gain control of a nation simply by gaining control of the press and media. The ability to rule a nation simply by perception is what i learned from this class. It also scares me because, you can see it happening now with how easily social media influences peoples minds

-Michael Palagonia

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In both middle school and hight school I can remember learning mostly about American history. Yet with all the time we spent on the subject there were a lot of topics kept vague. In most schools you do not learn about the violence Christopher Columbus committed yet he's still regarded as this great explore who discovered America. Topics such as the Trail of Tears, Japanese Internment Camps, and even the real complexeties of slavery are skimmed over or never touched. Being vague or not covering these topics in school is a form of propaganda. Even omitted information can be dangerous and influential. It creates ignorance in young students about their own countries history. This helps people buy into propaganda for American Nationalism because people won't know the truth.
- Rachel Steele

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I remember learning about this type of propaganda the most. The two films we watched around this time were "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas" and "Schindler's List."
Sometimes I will rewatch Schindler's List to remind myself about the difference one person can make in the world to encourage me when I am feeling low.
I cannot remember the specifics of what and how I learned about this time but it also connected with me the best because both my grandfather's served in WWII so I would be able to connect where there were based on certain things we learned in history class.
-Candice Mason

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My first experience with Nazi propaganda was in elementary school, where we read "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry. I remember a extremely watered down discussion of the Holocaust, due to the fact that I was about 10 years old. At the time, I didn't see this book as a form of propaganda.

-Ardriana Solitro

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In high school I was involved in a specialized art program where all of our classes were based on art. In history class when we were learning about Propaganda we were assigned to create some form of propaganda for the art program we were in. If we were visual artists we created a poster, if we were musicians we created a song. It was a very interesting assignment and really did a great job teaching us about what propaganda was and how effective it could be.

-Eric Cohen