Abstract of a paper titled "‘Conducting his own Campaigns’: Evelyn Waugh and Propaganda":
"This essay examines Evelyn Waugh as practitioner and critic in the field of wartime propaganda. In 1941, Waugh produced a fictitious account of a British Commando raid on German territory in North Africa for publication in Britain and the United States, an episode which reveals his skill as a propagandist, but also prompts scrutiny of his contacts with British propaganda agencies and agents and of the effect of propaganda on his writings. Waugh’s interwar fiction exhibits a sophisticated understanding of the evolving and growing power of modern propaganda, but the novels also anticipate the public relations and psychological warfare campaigns of the Second World War, specifically those carried out by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), a secret service established in 1941 to produce and coordinate propaganda to enemy and occupied Europe. Waugh’s proximity to the PWE is suggested by a dense network of social and professional connections, and is further indicated by a series of references to the PWE and its work which I have uncovered in his fiction. Allusions to covert propaganda in Put Out More Flags and the Sword of Honour trilogy betray Waugh’s understanding of the PWE’s operations, but also provide a critique of the corrosive and unforeseen effects of information warfare waged by the secret state and offer a productive means of re-examining his much-noted anxieties regarding modernity and mid-century political change."
‘Conducting his own Campaigns’: Evelyn Waugh and Propaganda (Woodward)
Abstract of a doctoral dissertation titles "Contagious Discourse: Germs, Mass Media, and the Shaping of Reality":
"Over the past two decades, mass media coverage of certain infectious diseases has become more abundant. News reports of many of these contagious illnesses invoke fear in many people, such as Ebola and pandemic influenza; multidrug-resistant strains of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis; and agents of biological warfare, a concern that is now at the forefront with many Americans due to the most recent act of bioterrorism on American soil following the events of September 11th. This dissertation focuses on the American public’s perception of infectious diseases, particularly as portrayed in the cultural science curriculum. I examine the cyclic nature of the discourse of contagion and its consequences. In doing so, I present a critical analysis of who controls what is included in the discourse, how agendas contribute to what is considered important, and how various threads of the discourse intertwine to create a gestalt-like complex. With this controlled discourse in mind, I discuss how experiencing the conversation contributes to what people believe about the threat of contagion and present how these assumptions shape our perception of reality. Lastly, I demonstrate how our altered perception of reality leads to behavioral changes that alter our world. To illustrate this, I provide examples of two types of reality shifts that occurred over the past few decades: the increase in commercial antibacterial products and antibiotic use contributed to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains (a biological shift), and the fear of weapons of mass destruction lead to increased support for a war against Iraq (a sociological shift)."
Contagious Discourse: Germs, Mass Media, and the Shaping of Reality
Second paragraph of the Introduction of a book titled "Engraved Gems and Propaganda in the Roman Republic and under Augustus":
"The specific characteristics of engraved gems, their strictly private character and the whole array of devices appearing on them are examined in this book with respect to their potential propagandistic value and usefulness in social life. The broad scope of this analysis provides the first comprehensive picture covering many aspects of Roman propaganda and a critical survey of overinterpretations of this term in regard to glyptic art. The ultimate purpose of the study is to incorporate this class of archaeological artefacts into the well-established studies of Roman propaganda as well as Roman society in general. Gems turn out to be not merely another channel used by propagandists but also a very sensitive barometer of social moods and behaviours. It remains disputable to what extent they were helpful in creating propaganda communications by Roman political leaders, but in some respects they certainly offered unique possibilities for propagandists to advertise themselves. It is clear that their role in the evolution of Roman propaganda should be taken into account in further studies of this phenomenon because intaglios and cameos like any other archaeological artefacts prove that all people were engaged in politics one way or another and that propaganda campaigns were largely successful in ancient Rome."
[Note: Chapter 4 of the book has a discussion of "self-presentation" and "propaganda"]
Engraved Gems and Propaganda in the Roman Republic and under Augustus (file size: about 25 MB)