The Propaganda Revolution?

So with the former Soviet Union starting to take shape again and the possibility of a "depression" as the pundits say, are we looking at a possible era of new propaganda? I'm not talking about the propaganda we get everyday by watching network television, I'm talking about the design propaganda that took us through the depression and WWII. There was amazing work produced back then at the expense of the governments of the USSR and the USA. Work that I think you would be hard pressed to matched on such a scale again. I think the real question is, does the world the way it is today have a place for such propaganda.

Personally I think as a whole that with the wide access to the internet and television that printed propaganda has little chance of a revolution. Sure the pieces could be produced, but to what success? Designers and collectors would love to get their hands on political and social propaganda posters. This is a problem - well designed, graphically interested posters would immediately disappear from their place of post, thus not allowing the message to get out. That's why I think the evolution of propaganda has already happened. Examine the current presidential election - messages, videos and stories being disseminated on the internet. Supposed news organizations with an initiative for a specific candidate. Regardless of the truth of any of the items they are around the world in seconds. A successful YouTube video today is 100 times more effective than a great propaganda poster of the 1930's. The whole thing that's sad about this is that those posters of the 1930's and 1940's will always be cherish and have a place in history. But how long will the modern day videos and internet stories be remembered and cherished? That's the problem with the internet - there's no tangible element to remind history that it existed. Print will never be perfect, but it will always be part of history.

As a designer I say we start producing propaganda to halt the evolution of propaganda - let's see how that would workout. Of course we may need a government agency created to oversee the PATEOP (Propaganda Against The Evolution Of Propaganda).