Prosperity and Paranoia. Engineering Atomic Fear with Cold War Images
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7203/qfia.9.1.21849
Abstract
Prosperidad y paranoia. Diseñando miedo atómico con imágenes de la Guerra Fría
Abstract: This paper reflects on the way in which certain moving images were used to engineer atomic fear into a manageable emotion in the U.S. during the early Cold War Era. A time of political, technological, economic, and social transformations, which were met with an extensive public relations campaign that relied heavily on the creation and dissemination of tightly controlled images of nuclear tests and models of civic virtue. It focuses on a selection of ephemeral productions to offer a view of the different ideologies at work in early Cold War American propaganda and its dialectic of prosperity and paranoia.
Resumen: Este texto reflexiona sobre cómo ciertas imágenes en movimiento se usaron para transformar el pánico provocado por la bomba atómica en una emoción manejable en Estados Unidos durante los primeros años de la Guerra Fría. Una época de cambios políticos, tecnológicos, económicos y sociales en la que tuvo lugar una intensa campaña de relaciones pública basada, en gran medida, en la creación, distribución y control riguroso de imágenes de pruebas nucleares y modelos de virtud ciudadana. El artículo analiza una pequeña selección de producciones audiovisuales efímeras, en las que se pueden observar distintas ideologías implicadas en la propaganda de los primeros años de la Guerra Fría, así como la dialéctica de prosperidad y paranoia que permeaba estos discursos visuales.
Keywords: atomic fear, propaganda, Cold War, television, prosperity, paranoia.
Palabras clave: miedo atómico, propaganda, Guerra Fría, televisión, prosperidad, paranoia.
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Author Biography
Sibley Anne Labandeira Moran, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
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