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There are many images throughout history that have been successful in affecting the public's perception of an event. The German propaganda poster from World War II reads, 'The enemy sees your light, Blackout!'. Somewhat disturbing imagery of a menacing skeleton flying a spitfire throwing a bomb down on civilian housing is the focal point of the poster, aiming at one house in particular that has left a light on. Distributing physical copies of this kind of imagery was successful in instilling a sense of fear into the public and manipulating their views on what the intentions of Britain 'the enemy' were, as well as warning them of the dangers of ignoring protocol during the blackout.
Similarly, the poster reading 'Children, what do you know of the leader?' features Hitler as a fatherly figure to the children of Germany. Projecting a false impression of the kindness of the 'leader' suggested to the people of Germany that it was necessary for their children to look up to Hitler and learn more about him, as they would their own family members. The use of this kind of imagery would have been an easy way to influence people to believe that Hitler was a benevolent person and one to be trusted, even with their own children, masking the brutality of what the reality of the situation was. Along with the use of threatening imagery to portray Britain, this type of mass production was very effective in persuading a population to believe in this false representation of Hitler, in their eyes they would have had no choice but to follow what was seen as acceptable to the majority.
In contrast to use of printed imagery to influence the masses is the notion of viewing imagery using technology. An example of this can be seen in Jean Jullien's 'Peace for Paris' symbol. This simply designed representation of support for a country was spread much more quickly than any printed media could have done during the war, mostly through social media where it was shared over 64,000 times. Within 24 hours of the Paris terrorist attacks, people were printing the symbol onto t shirts and other items as an expression of global solidarity. Therefore, this demonstrates that print media does still have a place in the digital age to an extent, though perhaps not initially.
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