More recently, in those dark times when there was no Internet and, even, TV, people sacredly believed in the printed word. If the newspaper is printed, then – the truth! And this is not the phenomenon of the Soviet era, when the propaganda is the rules of consciousness, there is no, and in past centuries people were naive and trusting. This can be understood – lack of information, life in isolated world, the unknownness of everything outside the native county. And newspapers and magazines are printed by literate and experienced people! It is simply impossible not to believe.
But today the world has changed simply revolutionary. The boundaries melted, thousands of kilometers are overcome in a couple of hours in a comfortable chair, and the amount of information is increased incredible! It must be thought that the number of simpletons decreased greatly, people had to learn how to separate the truth from fiction. It turned out – no, the human nature does not give up!
At the University of Connecticut for several years, observations of volunteer students were conducted, introducing them to obvious fables via the Internet. A vivid example is the “discovery” of a woody octopus that climbs trees and ruins bird nests. Students were invited to evaluate the truthfulness of information. To the surprise of American scientists, most young people did not feel any trick, everything that they learned from the network was perceived by them quite seriously.
It turned out that the point is not in the openness of the world and the number of information, but in the very nature of man. On the observation of psychologists, the gullibility of citizens today has only increased. And even the Internet does not help!
About what propaganda was during the First and Second World Wars, as well as what modern propaganda, read on the site