Propaganda in film and the manipulation of popular opinion in modern western civilization Ever since Aristotle outlined his principles of persuasion in Rhetoric, these principles of persuasion or compliance have been an important part of human history. However, the word "Propaganda" is a relatively new term and is associated with ideological struggles in the twentieth century. It was originally used by the Vatican to describe the systematic spread of beliefs, values or practices in the seventeenth century and to counteract the ideas of the Protestant reformation. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when it was used in Europe it was quite neutral and described various political belief