Propaganda research · media · film
Manipulation and propaganda, and how to spot them
I am a historian and media scholar, and my doctorate was on propaganda. In 2008 I examined how the Nazi films “Der ewige Jude” and “Jud Süß” were built to produce hatred through light, sound and music. In 2023 came “Kriegspropaganda und Medienmanipulation” with 75 techniques, from antiquity to the information wars of the present. Its expanded English edition, “War Propaganda & Media Manipulation”, is due in mid-October 2026; my 2008 study is available in German only.
On this page you will find the encyclopedias, books and analyses that came out of that work. Next to it stands a second field that has nothing to do with propaganda and still works in a similar way: films and stories that mislead their audience on purpose.
The Key to Mulholland Drive · film analysis in English
- Dr. phil.
- Doctorate in propaganda research
- 102
- Techniques in the OUTSMARTED encyclopedia
- 180+
- Films in the mindfuck movie encyclopedia
- 75
- Techniques in “Kriegspropaganda” (German)
Two ways of leading people astray
Propaganda and a good plot twist use the same means: they select, they leave out, they set a frame and they steer expectation. Their purpose, though, is different. That is why I keep the two apart.
Propaganda and media manipulation
Deliberate influence on what a society holds to be true: pretexts for war, enemy images, framing, agenda setting, disinformation and digital campaigns.
- techniques from antiquity to social media
- political language, images and enemy images
- source criticism as the antidote
Narrative deception and mindfuck
A film that deceives its audience does not want to change their opinion, it wants to surprise them. It works with unreliable narrators, omissions, changes of perspective, dream logic and late revelations.
- unreliable narration and point of view
- hidden clues and breaks in the story
- plot twists and how they resolve
The difference in one sentence: propaganda wants you never to notice the deception. A mindfuck film wants you to notice it at the end, and to watch the whole film again in your head.
What I look at in an analysis
Not every convincing message is propaganda. What counts is context, intent, selection and method. So I ask not only what is being said, but also what is missing and what reaction the presentation is meant to produce.
Source
Who is speaking, when, with what evidence – and how did the information reach us?
Language
Frames, euphemisms, slogans, repetition and moral judgement.
Image
Which section, which montage, which symbols – and what lies outside the frame?
Selection
Which facts come first, which are missing, which alternatives never appear at all?
Emotion
Fear, outrage, pride or pity steer attention and cut short the checking.
Effect
Recognising a technique is not the same as knowing its effect. Audience, situation and prior knowledge decide too.
My books in English
Two new titles on manipulation are due in mid-October 2026, next to a film analysis of the most discussed mindfuck film there is and the biography of a surgeon whose fame the regime wanted for itself.
War Propaganda & Media Manipulation
75+ techniques of propaganda and media manipulation, from World War I and Nazi mass propaganda to Ukraine, deepfakes and AI-generated disinformation, with practical questions to test news, images and sources yourself.
Book page
This Book Lies to You
Fiction as a laboratory for manipulation: sixteen stories that guide your perception, followed by an explanation of how each deception worked. Framing, confirmation bias and selective attention, experienced instead of explained.
Book page
The Key to Mulholland Drive
What really happens on Mulholland Drive: the key, the blue box and the ten clues David Lynch hands his audience.
Book page
Ferdinand Sauerbruch
Germany’s most famous surgeon, a man the regime wanted to claim for itself: reputation, political pressure, compromise and contact with the resistance.
Book pageBlog series
Between the Frames
Longer readings of single mindfuck films: how a plot twist is prepared, where the film hides its clues, and why you understand it differently the second time.
Endings explained
Eight films whose ending changes everything that came before it. Each analysis follows the same questions: where the deception starts, which clues are visible on a second viewing, and what the film gains from misleading us.
A talk on how propaganda works
A lecture on the basic mechanisms: framing, priming, agenda setting, and the cognitive shortcuts propaganda relies on. The talk is in German; YouTube offers automatic English subtitles, and the player is only loaded from YouTube once you click.
In German with automatic English subtitles · watch on YouTube
Further reading
Three places to start, all freely accessible and solid.
State-Sponsored Disinformation
RAND Corporation
Research on information warfare, disinformation campaigns and what does and does not work against them.
Open the collectionState of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
An archive of Nazi propaganda with historical context: posters, films, newspapers and the campaigns behind them.
Open the archiveOpen source investigations
Bellingcat
How to verify images, videos and claims yourself – the practical side of source criticism.
Open the siteFrequently asked questions about manipulation and propaganda
What is propaganda?
Propaganda is organised public communication meant to push perception, attitudes or behaviour in a particular direction. It works through selection, repetition, simplification, strong emotions and clear images of friend and enemy.
What is the difference between propaganda and manipulation?
Manipulation is the wider term: any influence that steers perception or decisions in a hidden, one-sided or distorting way. Propaganda is an organised, usually political or ideological form of it. All propaganda manipulates, but not every manipulation is propaganda.
How do I recognise propaganda in everyday life?
Warning signs are heavy simplification, missing evidence, moral certainty, constant repetition, enemy images and language designed above all to produce fear, outrage or belonging. No single feature proves anything; what matters is how they work together.
What part does framing play?
A frame is the verbal or visual setting a subject is placed in. It brings some aspects forward and pushes others out of view. Communication without a frame is impossible, but a frame chosen deliberately suggests an interpretation before you have thought about it yourself.
Are fake news and propaganda the same thing?
No. Fake news are invented or grossly distorted reports that look like journalism. Propaganda can use false reports, but it often manages without lies: with information that is true, yet selected and emotionally framed.
Does media literacy protect against manipulation?
Not completely. But people who can check sources, interests, evidence and forms of presentation react more slowly and compare perspectives more often. That is frequently enough for a technique to lose its effect.
What is a mindfuck film?
A mindfuck film misleads its audience on purpose and, through a late revelation, changes the meaning of earlier scenes. The usual devices are unreliable narrators, jumps in time, dream levels, omissions and sudden changes of perspective. Well-known examples are “Fight Club”, “Shutter Island” and “Mulholland Drive”.
Is narrative deception a form of propaganda?
Not automatically. A film or a novel can mislead its audience without wanting to change political attitudes. Both use similar mechanisms of perception, but their aims differ, and the deception in a film is revealed in the end.
What is in the OUTSMARTED encyclopedia?
OUTSMARTED explains more than 100 terms and techniques of influence, among them framing, agenda setting, cherry picking, whataboutism, enemy images and censorship, each with a definition and historical as well as current examples.
