Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion

✍ Scribed by Fredrik Norén (editor), Emil Stjernholm (editor), C. Claire Thomson (editor)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 330
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This open access edited volume shines new light on the history of propaganda and persuasion during the Nordic welfare epoch. A common analytical framework is developed that highlights transnational and transmedial perspectives rather than national or monomedial histories. The return of propaganda in contemporary debate underlines the need to historically contextualize the role and function of persuasive communication activities in the Nordic region and beyond. Building on an empirically situated approach, the chapters in this volume break new ground by covering a range of themes, from cultural diplomacy and nation branding to media materiality and information infrastructures. In doing so, the book stresses that the Nordic welfare epoch, with its associated epithet the “Nordic Model”, was built not only on governance, social security and economic productivity, but also on propaganda and persuasion.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
List of Figures
Part I: Introduction
Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion: An Introduction
Why the Nordics?
Breaking with Mono-medial Media History
An Empirically Situated Approach to Studying Propaganda and Persuasion
Outline of the Book
Part II: Cultural Diplomacy and Public Information
Promoting Norden and Nordic Cooperation in the 1930s: Social Democratic Visions and Transmedial Manifestations
Region-Building and the Development of Nordic Cooperation
Nordic Conflicts, Old and New: anti-Scandinavianist Agitation
Scandinavian Social Democracy, Labour Scandinavianism and Nordic Cooperation
Nordic Cohesion and Unity: Propagating Nordic Cooperation in 1934
Nordic Day 1936: A Day of Nordic Propaganda
Conclusion
“It All Comes from Beer”: Tuborg, Carlsberg, and the Role of Film in Danish Cultural Diplomacy
“Nuestra material de propaganda”: Marketing Tuborg
The Carlsberg Model: Beer, Science, and Philanthropy
Images from the Carlsberg Fund’s Global Oceanographic Expedition
The Film About Denmark, and the Danmarksfilm Tradition
It All Comes from Beer
Conclusion
Nordic Public Information: An Epistemic Community of Experiences and Ideas in the 1970s
Epistemic Community and Circulation of Knowledge
Public Information in the 1960s and 1970s
The Swedish Board for Civic Information and Its Transnational Forums
Public Information in the Intersection Between Different Sectors and Interests
A Nordic Model for Public Information? Towards Some Concluding Remarks
Contested Pictures of Persuasion: American Images of Foetuses in Swedish Antiabortion Campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s
Visualized Foetuses in the Public Domain
Foetal Images in Swedish Antiabortion Campaigns Before 1975
Swedish Right to Life Groups and the “Yes to life” Campaign
The Silent Scream in Sweden
Conclusion
Part III: Politics and Security
A Rain of Propaganda: The Media Production of the Office of War Information in Stockholm, 1942–1945
Approaching US Propaganda
News from America
The Circulation of Forbidden Films
America Builds
Conclusions
Mobilized for Propaganda: Danish Journalists in British Exile, 1940–1945
For Britain and for Denmark
“Richard Stone” the Propagandist
A Triangular Trade of News and Intelligence
Conclusion
Norwegian Defence and Security Policy: The Struggle for Hearts and Minds in the 1950s
Sources and Methodological Challenges
Propaganda and the Struggle for Public Opinion After World War II
The Establishment of People and Defence in Norway
The Norwegian Atlantic Committee
Conclusion
Slow Media Under Cross Pressures: US Educational Diplomacy in the Nordic Countries During the Cold War
Promoting World Peace in the Service of Society
The Exchange Programmes and the Nordic Social Scientists
Cross Pressures in a Modern Society
Conclusion: Chasing the Human Factor Through Vernacularization
Part IV: Internationalism and Environmentalism
Creating Information Infrastructure for Transnational Co-operation in Television: Nordvision in the 1960s–1970s
“Practical Nordism”
A Complicated Machinery
Developing Paper Documents
Media for the Fast Exchange of Information
Tensions Between Bureaucracy and Creative Work
Conclusion
Mobilizing Scandinavian Children and Youth for the Environment: Launching a Transnational Campaign 1968–1971
Bringing Attention to Environmentalism
From Attention to Organization
From Organization to Action
Campaign Export
Concluding Discussion
Green States in a Dirty World: 1975 and the Performance of Nordic Green Modern
Images and Imaginaries of Nordic Modernity
Staging Regional Solutions and Global Responsibilities
Frostavallen and the Performance of Green Nordic Modernity
Nordic Green Modern as Strategic Messaging
Conclusion
The Nordic Mobilization of Public Opinion on Foreign Aid in the UN’s Second Development Decade
Transnational Media Histories of Nordic Foreign Aid Information Policy
The 1 Per Cent Target and the Nordic Like-Minded Frontrunners
Nordic Foreign Aid Co-operation: From Field Projects to Information Strategies
The Escalation of Domestic Information and Transnational Exchange
Nordic Information Collaborations and the Common Pursuit of Films on Development
Concluding Remarks
The Diversity Principle Taken to Its Extreme: East Asian Propaganda on Finnish Television
Film Education Through Television
From Hollywood Classics to European Art House
The Worlds of World Cinema
New Films from China
Economically Motivated North Korea
Conclusion
Part V: Afterwords
Afterword 1
Afterword 2
Notes on Contributors
Select Bibliography
Index