Throughout the time of his presidency Franklin Roosevelt used many different means of communication to spread propaganda for his New Deal in the hope that it would encourage the American people to come on board with his plan. It started with his first ever fireside chat, which was a radio talk that all Americans wit radios in their homes could tune in to and listen to. In that first fireside chat he had it in the middle of one of the biggest economic crashes in American history. “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.” For 13 minutes Roosevelt patiently explained how the banking system worked, what had gone wrong and what the government planned to do about it.
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| Franklin Roosevelt talking at one of his Fireside Chats |
These chats were meant to be something that would make the American people feel more integrated into the decisions made in their government. However in reality, these weren't nearly as personal as he was leading the American people to believe. Roosevelts talks were scripted by his policy advisers and edited by a playwright to make it easier to relate to for the people. Through these homey “fireside chats” Roosevelt presented himself as an everyday common man that people could relate to. It is very impressive listening to these fireside chats today and seeing how he was able to make tiny technical details of financial policy and global trade explained in an easy to understand way. Through his radio addresses Roosevelt created a relationship between President and people that had never really existed prior to this. He asked his listeners to think about and apply their own experiences to the topic he was discussing and, in one instance, he even encouraged them to spread out a map on their dining room table as he laid out battle lines for World War II.
There really wasn't an official propaganda program during the New Deal, just a multitude of media efforts carried out by government agencies. Murals created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the walls of post offices and other public buildings depicted history as an accomplishment of everyday citizens not just of America as a whole. The Farm Security Administrations re-envisioned the face of America by commissioning tens of thousands of photographs of poor farmers and workers. However, arguably the best propaganda of the New Deal was in the construction projects: the parks built, roads constructed and young people put to work by the Civilian Conservation Corps; the integrated system of power; and the handcrafted Timberline Lodge, built on top of Mt. Hood by the WPA. These accomplishments were publicized to all the people. In one attempt, the Bonneville Power Administration even paid a famous musician to visit the Columbia River Gorge and write songs in about the land, the river and the new federally funded dams to make all of the progress of the New Deal something that people would like even more than they did before.Source: https://www.thenation.com/article/fdrs-democratic-propaganda/
I find FDR's use of propaganda extremely interesting! As we learned in a documentary, he used mainstream artists to further his political agenda, especially seen in his 1932 election, with his use of the song "Happy Day's Are Here Again". FDR used propaganda in a way that no other president had done before; he tried to forge an emotional connection with the everyday laborer through the radio. Americans were constantly reminded of his presidency-- through the posters that would line subway/metro stations and songs played on the radio. Something I also found interesting was that it wasn't just FDR that was utilizing propaganda, but by both allies and the axis powers. An interesting article I read about Nazi propaganda of FDR can be found here: http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/franklin-roosevelt.htm
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