Ideology and communication:: Analysis of the ideological content present in Leninist and Castroist graphic propaganda

Abstract

This article features part of a research work carried out in 2006. It proposes an analysis, both linguistic and graphic, of a selection of political posters created by artists, publicists and designers involved in the machinery of Leninist and Castroist
propaganda.
The study of posters is addressed by interpreting them as social discourses representing and evidencing the ideology held by the groups in power. Systems of belief, worldviews and concepts about life held by the dominant group underlie these social discourses, and
they play a significant role in the construction and communication of knowledge, the organization of social institutions and the structuring of power relations within a society.
In this way, ideological elements present in Leninist and Castroist graphic propaganda are identified and explained in relation to the way they are represented in the process of social construction of reality and legitimation of a socialist control and power structure.