![]() ![]() The result of modernity, according to Ellul, is a thirst among deracinated psyches for reassurance, leaving a wide-open field for exploitation by experts in opinion manipulation. Further nineteenth-century mass circulation media techniques continued the unsettling effects, with mass consciousness replacing a sense of rootedness in community (family, town, region, church). ![]() ![]() He traces this isolation back to the breakdown of the old order that came with the French Revolution, preceded by advances in printing technology a few centuries earlier. Central to his understanding of propaganda is his perception of an individual’s especially strong need in modern society for self-identity and self-validation. One respect in which Ellul differs from many theorists of propaganda relates to the attention and importance he attaches to understanding the target of propaganda, the propagandee. At other times, he is concerned with reshaping our views about the nature of propaganda, arguing that it is a much more pervasive phenomenon than is commonly realized and issuing a wake-up call to heed its impact on our lives. Ellul sometimes works within accepted definitions of propaganda, explicitly or implicitly. Crucial for understanding and appraising his work properly is to relate it to context. ![]()
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