Is it really new? Seems to me it went on during WWI and WWII to name just two recent wars. Recent, in the sense we had modern technology (radio and telegraph) and near instant access to propaganda on both sides.
Yes, it is new.
Images could not move instantly into public view, and images are what do the damage. TV (and now the Internet) is the game changer in the Propaganda Wars.
Also, it helped that the media was marginally on our side in those wars. They could be censored, or would even self-censor. And there was time to censor them...