...Propaganda and lies in American news outlets What is propaganda? How is propaganda perpetrated through the media and especially in media broadcasting American news? Propaganda is some sort of action based on communication that is made purposely for the intention of influencing opinion as well as the thinking of a specific community so that conflict or disagreements may arise. In most cases propaganda happens through media since it’s the most common place where individuals pay attention to and it normally end up influencing the opinions of so many people. A very good example is how the news outlets in America spread lies and propaganda based on some of the most crucial situations with the aim of protecting specific famous individuals (Fawcett 2007). This paper will show and analyze presence of propaganda in some of the major news outlets in America, the reasons they do this as well as what the opinion of the public. For so many years almost all the news outlets in America have been on the fore front spreading lies and propaganda. Some of the executives, senior producers and the executive producers know what the media is doing and it is under their consent that such this happens. They are involved in all the activities of the news outlets and because they tend to be biased, they use the media to spread lies and propaganda in the American news outlets. (endthelie.com) This has led to so many Americans questioning the integrity and reliability of these news outlets as much as they...
Words: 2709 - Pages: 11
...In response to the United States entering World War 1 on April 6, 1917, it was important that they recruit troops and prepare the correct equipment required for war. When we declared war, the Government needed to persuade Americans to invest in the war, both financially and emotionally. With that being said, the Government tried really hard to make the citizens think a certain thing. Thus being called propaganda. One of the most popular themes of the propaganda posters were liberty bonds. As one advertisement says, “Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds.” In this poster, there is a German soldier with menacing eyes and bloody fingers creeping on the Atlantic. The purpose of this propaganda poster was to encourage Americans to invest in the...
Words: 313 - Pages: 2
...Propaganda During World War I By Khaled Almuaigel A week after the congress approved of the war declaration that brought the US into The World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order that created the Committee on Public Information which was a government agency to advertise and mobilize public opinion on the war effort . This committee was presided by then famous journalist and a political ally of Wilson’s, George Creel. Under creels leadership, the committee had over 150,000 full time employees and volunteers who had affected the lives of every citizen of the United States. The Committee on Public Information was responsible...
Words: 1022 - Pages: 5
...Watch the two video clips "Zinn: The Misguided Notion of Patriotism" featuring Howard Zinn in "Howard Zinn: The Misguided Notion of Patriotism" in module # 12 "Critical Thinking and Mass Media Propaganda". Identify one main claim made by Howard Zinn in each of these two video clips and his supporting reason for the claim. Compare his views to those of Noam Chomsky in the clip "Anti-Americanism" in the same module page. Probe their claims and reasons with essential questions and justify your agreement or disagreement with them. (ANSWER) Essential Questions: What is beneficial for Americans to be aware of about World history? What does it mean to be...
Words: 2247 - Pages: 9
...analyze and evaluate the techniques used in World War II propaganda. WWII Propaganda Posters Read More >> Propaganda is the spreading of information through media with the purpose of promoting a cause. During World War II, posters were widely used in the propaganda campaigns. Their content ranged from simple instructions to purely motivational content. In a series of posters, the British government employed a variety of persuasive techniques to convince people to join the war effort. A very common theme in the propaganda was unifying the country around the war effort. The purpose of it was to convince the people that entering the war is a good idea and to increase patriotism. In one poster, it shows a group of people wearing different job uniforms together and on it says "England expects national service" and it is trying to convince people to join the war in any way possible. The propaganda technique used in this specific poster is bandwagon by trying to encourage people to join the war effort. This technique reinforces peoples natural desire to be on the winning side and...
Words: 645 - Pages: 3
...blend of cynicism, humor, and intelligence by Barry Levinson, Wag the Dog thus begins with these opening credits, an early indication of a dark socio-political satire that would unfold to criticize mass media and indecisive public opinion, but most importantly, the abuse of power by political leaders. Wag the Dog also satirizes the immaturity of the society and how people's unquestioning absorption of propaganda only encourages the media to exploit them on a higher level. Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) is a retired political consultant, a spin doctor who resurrects the support for the US President's after his disastrous scandal with a teenage girl just eleven days before the election. In order to smother the sparks of rumor ignited by the media, Brean invents an international crisis to sway the people's vote he fakes a war on Albania. The president heroically ends the war and his compassion and exceptional 2/11 leadership qualities are presented through the mass media to the people, winning back their faith. (Lu, 2007) The movie is basically about a fraud of the American public conspired by the incumbent president’s White House staffers. This was done through fabrication of a war in attempt to cover up a presidential sex scandal with a teenage girl. This movie received a lot of different feedbacks from the audiences and one of them elucidated: Right from the opening scene, Wag the Dog...
Words: 1637 - Pages: 7
...Bandwagoning, glittering generalities, name calling, and stacked cards are the best political propaganda strategies to use when running for President of the United States because in today’s society, American citizens are commonly influenced by advertisements that allow a candidate to appear superior to the other. There are seven different types of propaganda: endorsement, glittering generalities, bandwagon, stacked cards, name calling, plain folks, and image molding. Propaganda is bias advertisement used to persuade the reader. Many candidates use propaganda to gain the support of citizens for any upcoming election. The goal of using political propaganda is to win an election. Walter Mondale used bandwagoning, which is convincing people to support a candidate because other people do, to show the supporters that he already had in attempt to gain new ones. His campaign manufactured buttons with sayings, such as “retirees support”, “united paperworkers for Mondale”, and “Asian...
Words: 779 - Pages: 4
...different counter strategies by the RSF but propaganda as one of the strategy has been partially covered. The study focuses on Rhodesia Front government’s propaganda as a counter insurgency strategy to the guerrilla activities. Propaganda is the control of public opinion. There are three types of propaganda that is white, grey and black propaganda. White propaganda is the dissemination of the truth to someone’s advantage, grey propaganda is the mixture of lies and truth and black propaganda consists of largely but not total lies. All these types were exploited upon implementation of propaganda at different levels through different tactics. Psychological operations which were executed as forms of propaganda involved planned use of communication through words, symbols and actions to influence the behaviour of the targeted audiences and achieve set objectives. The government’s use of propaganda warfare was prompted by a number of reasons which ranged from economic, political, social and military factors. It is worth noting here that, the tempo and conduct of the war varied from one locality to the other depending on the terrain and proximity to strategical areas like borders, transport networks and close to government’s administrative offices. The study is presented in three chapters. The first chapter outlines the reasons for the introduction of propaganda warfare in Chilonga in 1970. It majors on the motives behind implementation of propaganda warfare before the intensification of the...
Words: 26951 - Pages: 108
...Propaganda is used to all aspects of life to rally people behind a cause. In the context of politics, militarism and war it is often associated with authoritarian governments, but it is used in democracies as well. Although the practices of propaganda contradict democratic ideals, many propaganda techniques are more easily utilized in a liberal society that encourages freedom of speech. When propaganda is used in a liberal society, it is especially effective because in a liberal society people assume they are thinking and acting freely, without recognizing the subtle manipulation of propaganda. Although it may seem unethical, the American government and its military officials often use deceitful tactics of propaganda to hide the truth about...
Words: 1809 - Pages: 8
...difference between wartime propaganda and peacetime advertising or politics? 2500 words. Introduction Propaganda is an art requiring special talent. It is not mechanical, scientific work. Influencing attitudes requires experience, area knowledge, and instinctive “judgment of what is the best argument for the audience”. No manual can guide the propagandist. He must have a good mind, genius, sensitivity and knowledge of how that audience thinks and reacts From this we can consider that propaganda is not something based solely on warfare or politics or advertising. The use of propaganda is virulent in peaceful societies not at war by virtue of bombarding the general public with advertising (Newspaper/Magazines/Radio/TV/Internet) for goods and services, political canvassing and promotional material (to channel social development and public opinion, to mold the population into following the the ideals of conflicting political ideologies). Does this contrast with the use of propaganda in wartime? The objective is obviously the same – to get the general populace to accept what the propaganda states and take appropriate action i.e. buy goods, vote for a party or support the war effort. Advertising and political propaganda continue to take place during the periods of War propaganda although the reverse is not generally true (or is reduced to recruitment advertising and maintaining armed deterrents). The method of delivery of the propaganda, in whichever age you choose...
Words: 2878 - Pages: 12
...reading; Pratkanis, A; Aronson, E, (1992) "Our Age of Propaganda" from Pratkanis, A; Aronson, E, Age of propaganda : the everyday use and abuse of persuasion pp.1-14, New York: W H Freeman Personally sourced reading; Doob, LW; Robinson, ES. (1935). Psychology and Propaganda. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 179, p.88-95 The following readings have been selected due to their similarities of discussion and engagement. The two reading interact in an explicit way and therefore touch on similar debates while providing varied opinions. Psychologists Pratkanis and Aronson present a thorough overview of how individuals and the mass media manipulate us using devious persuasive techniques. While Doob and Robinson attempt to understand propaganda through understanding communications and the behavioural sciences. In order to understand how and why we are persuaded, Pratkanis and Aronson analyse the various tactics marketers use in advertising to get us to conform. This set reading points out ways in which we might deal sensibly and effectively with propaganda, by examining persuasion in a context of argument and debate. Pratkanis and Aronson quarrel about persuasive communication techniques and suggest that rather than using logical argument, propaganda uses emotional symbols in order to manipulate us. In the personally sourced reading by Doob and Robinson, the approach suggested states that propaganda is not ‘automatically’ successful. Doob and Robinson...
Words: 640 - Pages: 3
...is responsible for educating its citizens about persuasive techniques and advertising. The Consumer Bill of Rights asserts the people’s right to be informed and their right to consumer education. Public opinion must be logical in order for us to properly evaluate our Democracy. Our current educational system produces uneducated citizens who are unprepared to analyze persuasive messages in such a logical manner. The government is responsible for educating its citizens about persuasive techniques and advertising because the Consumer Bill of Rights asserts the people’s right to be informed and their right to consumer education. President John F. Kennedy introduced the Consumer Bill of Rights in 1962. This legislation asserts that the American people have four fundamental consumer rights: the right to safety, the right to choose, the right to be heard, and the right to be informed. The right to be informed protects against misleading...
Words: 1032 - Pages: 5
...mostly hand in hand with media -- only not the regular meaning of the innocent media we know. Media propaganda is the other form of media that is rather described as media manipulation. In this paper, the following will be discussed: first, how stereotypes of ethnic groups function in propaganda, why does it function so well, and finally, the consequences of these stereotypes on the life of Egyptians in particular in society. A fair examination will be conducted on this example of stereotypes through clarification examples and research results from researches conducted from reliable sources. The real association between Egyptians’ stereotypes and propaganda discussed in this paper shall magnify the association of stereotypes and propaganda in general. It seems necessary for this paper to start with some clarification of the terms associated with propaganda. Propaganda can be thought of as a foster parent for stereotypes. Propaganda is known to be the intentional manipulation of public opinion through hidden messages in advertisements and other media functions. Thus, propaganda uses many techniques to be able to deliver theses hidden messages to the public and influence their opinion. Fear, brainwashing, name calling, glittering generality, misinformation and much more are some of the techniques that propaganda uses to influence and manipulate the opinions of the majority. Propaganda finds the usefulness of stereotypes in the fact that it’s easy, fast and straight to the public...
Words: 1346 - Pages: 6
...to explain how propaganda and psychological warfare influences and manipulates people to make them support a country. I am going to show how the media works as the medium through which the governments spread their propaganda. The government manipulates masses using pamphlets, speeches, morality and priorities. This manipulation is done through the media. Media and subjects like censure are going to be discussed in this report. I will show how the Persian Gulf War can be set on as an example of the media spreading government propaganda and psychological warfare. This report also includes an analysis on propaganda and it’s denotative and connotative meanings. This report is also going to show us it’s effect and importance in our community and society. Whats Propaganda All of us, know about the horrors and the devastation that are a result of wars. Despite these horrors, we act indifferent towards war and it’s effect on the world community. Countries’ governments manage to manipulate us and make us think that their war actions against another nation, race or culture are well justified. Nations make the members of the society believe, that they are doing the right thing, and that this military action against a declared enemy is the most desirable thing to do in order to keep “the world’s stability and peace”. For this reason people say we are “meant” to help and serve our country, in it’s war against their enemy which changes into being our enemy too. Propaganda and psychological...
Words: 2808 - Pages: 12
...The Use of Propaganda and the Media by Political Groups Propaganda is a tool that is used all over the world to influence how people think. Propaganda has fittingly been referred to as “the weapon of mass persuasion” by the Canadian Broadcasting Channel. Propaganda can be defined as communications with the goal of influencing the opinion or attitude of a population in favor of the ideology of oneself or one’s group. The messages behind propaganda are almost always political. Governments and militaries around the globe have used propaganda again and again to control their followers. Famous examples of aggressive propaganda campaigns are those of the United State Military, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito of Japan and Joseph Stalin. In the past, printed media was the main form of spreading war propaganda. As society and technology evolved over the decades, so did propaganda. The messages hidden in modern media are far more difficult to identify than ever before. The use of propaganda has always had specific motives, but are the reasons behind war propaganda harmful towards society? What are specific ways that propaganda has affected the populations of the world? There are many negative examples of ways that the global population has been influenced by propaganda during war times throughout history. Propaganda produced by the government is almost always under-handed and one sided. There seems to be a formula for the perfect war campaign using propaganda that has...
Words: 2179 - Pages: 9
