Propaganda, or is it?

Propaganda is the stuff of communism, Hitler, and terrorist groups, right? Wrong. I believed that propaganda was limited to these groups, that it was not something we experienced here in America. Now however, I'm starting to think many commercials and political campaigns use propaganda every day. After reading a PDF on the Read, Write, Think.org website (click the third link down), I've discovered how close persuasion and propaganda really can be and how prevalent it is in our society.

The website Propaganda Critic says, "propaganda can be as blatant as a swastika or as subtle as a joke. Its persuasive techniques are regularly applied by politicians, advertisers, journalists, radio personalities, and others who are interested in influencing human behavior." This commercial is a public service announcement on wearing your seat belt. It shows a man in a car accident. The opening lines introduce the man and say he "didn't want to die, but he couldn't stop himself." It shows the accident step by step, shows his ribs breaking and puncturing his lungs. It then tells the audience what they can do to prevent this same thing from happening to them, "Think. Always wear a seat belt."

Some might argue that this is merely persuasion. According to Propaganda Critic however, this add uses a propaganda technique, namely the use of fear. It says, "There are four elements to a successful fear appeal: 1) a threat, 2) a specific recommendation about how the audience should behave, 3) audience perception that the recommendation will be effective in addressing the threat, and 4) audience perception that they are capable of performing the recommended behavior." Does the PSA include all of these four elements? The threat is the dying in a car accident. The recommendation is to wear your seat belt. It is believable that wearing a seat belt could have prevented the driver's death. The audience feels it is capable of using a seat belt. This is a successful use of the fear appeal.

Propaganda is also incredibly common in campaign commercials. I know this will be controversial, but I want to put forward two campaign commercials: one of President Obama and one of Senator John McCain. I'm not commenting on our current President, and I'm also not commenting on Senator McCain. In fact, these videos are not even from the same election. I'm just putting these forward as examples of propaganda techniques. One of the first examples these commercials use is the plain folk technique. Both Obama and McCain try to portray themselves as "plain folk." They try to make the voters believe they are just like them, that they've been in the voters' shoes.

Another propaganda technique they both use is Glittering Generalities. Some words used in these campaign videos are democracy, change, family, faith, courage, and strength.

"For our purposes in propaganda analysis, we call these virtue words "Glittering Generalities" in order to focus attention upon this dangerous characteristic that they have: They mean different things to different people; they can be used in different ways. This is not a criticism of these words as we understand them. Quite the contrary. It is a criticism of the uses to which propagandists put the cherished words and beliefs of unsuspecting people."

These are emotionally charged words. They are used in order to, again, draw the voters closer to the candidates. Sometimes they can twist the truth simply by meaning different things to different people.

There are many other examples from just these two videos I could list, such as the bandwagon, transfer, and testimonial techniques. Yet these are just two campaign videos, and both are positive. What about the negative political videos? There has to be some obvious propaganda in the negative political ads. One side or the other cannot be telling the full truth if they contradict each other on so many levels. So while the average person believes propaganda does not exist in the American society, it is actually alive and well.

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Technology and Conspiracy Theories

The Apollo Moon Landing Hoax. Area 51 UFO Conspiracies. The Roswell Incident. The urban legend of the Kidney Thief. Chemtrails. The 9/11 Conspiracy. A person could spend all day researching conspiracy theories and “proof” of urban legends. There is so much information out there, and it's all available at the click of a button. It used to be that conspiracy theories relied on word-of-mouth to spread the story. Then it advanced to monthly newsletters and underground radio broadcasts. It has all become so much easier with the internet.

Many people do not see a problem with this. “What's the harm in speculation?” they might say. It seems to me that conspiracy theories are abounding now that we have the internet. My professor, Dr. Suzanne Waldenburger says, “The best thing about the Internet is that ANYONE can get their information out to millions of people. And the worst thing about the Internet is that any BOZO can get their misinformation out to millions of people.” The internet truly can be a great resource. It is easy to find information about just about anything. I use Google search all the time when I'm looking for any random piece of information. The information is well organized and easy to use. I can almost always find the information I need on the first page of recommendations. That nagging question of “who is that?” while watching a movie no longer has to be nagging. Just open up Google and search for the movie. It invariably takes you to IMDB which lists the whole cast of the movie. Ta da! Question answered.

So is this dangerous, this motherlode of misinformation at our fingertips? David Aaronovich, author of Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, says yes. “They divert us from real threats. Fruit-loop perorations about explosives concealed in the elevator shafts of the World Trade Center distract Americans from the "un"imaginary conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalists to destroy us. And if the feds really blew up the levees during Hurricane Katrina, there's no need to examine the emergency preparedness of New Orleans' government, is there?” When looked at it this way, these conspiracy theories can be dangerous.

I firmly believe in educating oneself, however. Knowledge taken from credible sources really can be power. It can give someone control, even if it's merely control over one's own decisions. This can apply to many things, but the main ones I've seen are in medical decisions and political choices. These are two places where conspiracy theories abound. These are also the same choices where being informed is key. Perhaps conspiracy theories can play a role in helping people to understand they cannot take anyone's word for truth. They must do their own research. Hopefully they will find their information from credible sources and not the links I've provided.