What is the Smith-Mundt Act? That was the first thought I had upon starting this project. It took a lot of research to fully understand it. The Smith-Mundt Act was signed into law by President Truman in 1948. It was designed to regulate broadcasting for a foreign audience. This pretty much means it allowed the U.S. State Department to communicate to people outside of U.S. borders through broadcasting, face-to-face exchanges, magazines, literature, and other media of communication and engagement. Its funding came from different legislation called appropriations. What it actually did was stop the government from being to spread propaganda domestically.
President Truman signed the Smith-Mundt Act in 1948
It has often been described as a propaganda act. This is because of what the communication from the U.S. to these foreign audiences said. It was very standard 'this is why the U.S. is the greatest country on earth' type of media. It is something that many citizens of the United States do not know about. Mostly because it was focused outside of the country for so long.
But then, in 2012 U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry introduced the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act. It was made to amend certain parts of the Smith-Mundt Act. It allowed for modern platforms like the internet and satellite broadcasting. It also allowed the media produced for foreign audiences to be released in the U.S. which effectively got rid of the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences. Many news sources claimed that this act was a way to bring propaganda intended for foreign countries would now be shown to the American people.
Mac Thornberry, Former United States Representative
Something interesting about this act is the lack of information surrounding the original act from 1948. Understandably, there is less information than the Modernization act because of how old the original act is. But the lack of information is monumental. I could barely find anything outside of Wikipedia about the original act.
Even on congress.gov a website that has bills and acts from the government, I could only find the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012. I believe this to be another example of what the act truly is, propaganda from the United States Government.
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