The United States weaponized information to secure Latin American support during World War II. What can those strategies tell us about the nature of propaganda campaigns in the age of “fake news”?

A poster was created about this topic.

The Center for US-Latin America Initiatives is analyzing trends in historical persuasive messaging and the visibility of this same messaging in the current environment of “fake news”.

Dr. Monica Rankin and her team are:

• Discovering “propaganda devices” in all facets of 1941-1945 issues of En Guardia magazine—a publication that was targeted to a Latin American audience.
• Analyzing messaging strategies used in the periodicals to clarify what propaganda is and how it is crafted.
• Researching communication strategies used as “propaganda tactics”.
• Identifying devices and tactics that correlate to each other and specific types of messaging strategies.
• Postulating trends in historical persuasive messaging that can be compared with the current environment of “fake news”.

Find out more about Dr. Rankin, her team, and the Center for U.S.-Latin America Initiatives here.

To find out more about this topic tune in to Research 411 Talk Show: Propaganda Then and Fake News Now on Wednesday, March 24th from 3 to 4 PM.