Psychology of Persuasion in the Mass Media: From Advertising to Propaganda

We human beings are essentially social beings that communicate with the people around us. Communication, therefore, constitutes the basic element without which society itself would not exist. In specific terms: the community arises as a result of the human capacity to communicate, while, at the same time, communication is a phenomenon that can only arise from within the framework of what is social.
The study of the interaction of human beings with each other and with the mass media (radio, cinema, TV, the press ...), together with the analysis of the technologies and strategies employed by these media, have become fundamental instruments by means of which our present-day reality, as well as the way in which we imagine the future, may be understood. Moreover, among the discourses that proliferate in the media, this Course understands that knowledge concerning the phenomenon of persuasive communication is of key interest, while, specifically, the kind that forms the basis of commercial advertising and propaganda.