Propaganda. Have the Propaganda Techniques Evolved?

The following thesis is an attempt to test a hypothesis which states that the techniques of propaganda barely have changed over time. It also claims that the few adjustments that can be distinguished have occurred as a result of the fact that propaganda is considered dependent upon the medium in which it is conveyed, and changes in accordance to this and not because of a development of the techniques. We believe that the hypothesis is the result of an old and outdated propaganda framework, and consequently seek to construct a new and contemporary one. In order to do so we combine the techniques of propaganda along with the ones within the advertising domain. The relevance and applicability of the framework is then tested on the propaganda techniques of the US Army, and an additional question is hence if the propaganda techniques used by the empirical source have changed over time. Our results conclude that the techniques of propaganda have not changed significantly over time, and we also discover that our attempt to modify the propagandistic framework is somewhat problematic, and hence require further efforts. Another conclusion is that the US Army's use of propaganda has changed, mainly in order to comply with shifting circumstances. Key words: propaganda, advertising, techniques, propaganda framework, US Arm