(Untangling) The History Of PR: Propaganda Relations

For a bit of background, I had the honor of taking an elective with one of our most distinguished teachers, Dr. Wesley Kirkpatrick, during my senior year of high school. This course was simply titled, Shoah, which is translated to The Holocaust in Hebrew. This course was one of the most eye-opening and rewarding experiences of my life since it strengthened my fervor for studying history. Dr. Kirkpatrick made it a strict point that we were to watch the Shoah documentary in its entirety, which is roughly nine hours long. When advisors and family members asked me about my thesis sophomore year, I knew that I wanted to combine my public relations major with my interest in World War II. This is how (Untangling) The History of PR: Propaganda Relations was born; although it did not happen overnight, I knew that discussing propaganda history and how it ties into modern times with social media was a solid first step. The remainder of this paper will showcase the creative process I took while creating this podcast and its website. I decided to take the creative route regarding this thesis since history and propaganda deserve to be discussed in public, accessibly, and with the potential to reach a wider audience, rather than merely written in an Honors thesis downloaded by very few. This artist statement is meant to contextualize and clarify the process, intentions, and goals of this Honors thesis, which is represented in the voices, conversations, references, and reflections of myself and the experts I interviewed. It points to the artistic creation that resulted from this project, which is the interactive podcast and website that I will discuss in great length below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FirfB4jSK8Y&feature=youtu.be