The Exploitation of Media

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The exploitation of media, with films such as “James Bond” relevant to the time, has allowed for messages of propaganda to be conveyed throughout the Cold War. Media was able to start movements such as “The Red Scare” and McCarthyism, where a new enemy was identified and pitted the Western world against the idea of Communism and the USSR. Films such as From Russia with love portrayed all Russian people as villains and helped reinforce the perception of the United States of America as being a superpower. Such films and ideas of propaganda played a role in British politics and allowed for the United Kingdom to show their involvement during the Cold War. As the Cold War tensions decreased and underwent a period of détente, the James Bond character adjusted and became friendlier towards Russia. However, the original storyline of James Bond, written by Ian Fleming did not have the intention of being a means to carry messages of propaganda and was purely a fictional story. Fleming got the name James Bond from a bird book “Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies” written by James Bond.
Governments exploited the role of media by using it to convey messages of propaganda, and in the process identify a new enemy, the Soviet Union and its policies of Communism. The Bond films were able to portray the threat of Communism to the public, emphasising the threat it posed, and allowing for it to no longer to be a political threat, but rather a social threat. The United States used this to increase a fear if Communism. “Almost directly after the World War II propaganda ended, Cold War propaganda started. This was mostly propaganda against the Soviet Union. This started the period we refer to as The Red Scare, when mass hysteria over communism reign...

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...aving alighted upon Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies by James Bond” (Source B). Insinuating that although taken by Hollywood and produced to be a form of propaganda, Fleming never had the intention of producing a theme so closely related to the Cold War and that they story is purely fictional, having used the name and including his book in later films. By referring to the original books written by Ian Fleming, as a form of media, there is no clear intention of it being a means of propaganda.
Thus, by referring the James Bond films, media was used as a form to convey propaganda to the public by identifying an enemy and creating an “us vs. them” situation. This had a significant impact as movements such as ‘The Red Scare’ or McCarthyism were started, and was able to involve other countries particularly NATO members to contain the threat of Communism spreading.

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