Propaganda Across The Board
By Denis Johnson
Propaganda is a way to get the public to buy into what you are trying to sell. The media or advertisers do a good job trying to influence the public to get them to buy in. Propaganda is good and bad in a way.
The good thing that comes with propaganda is that there is true meaning behind the ad. Like for example in the KFC commercial. Their saying of “Finger Licking Good” is good for their business because they are a fast food restaurant.
By doing that they convince people to come in and try some of their food. Having a commercial with a family at a dinner table with a bunch of food is a good way to say that their food is good and to buy a whole a lot of it. An ad like that is good to show during the Super Bowl because the majority of America is watching it and it promotes a family being together around food.
An example of bad propaganda is the media just showing bad images of a certain community to convince the audience that a particular neighborhood is known for violence, crime etc. Like their breaking news story will be someone in that neighborhood who’s been stabbed or shot. By doing that it gives the audience an indication that’s all that neighborhood is known for. When something good happens in that neighborhood the news won’t show it. What usually happens is that it will be reported in that community by that community newspaper and not get reported beyond that. Sometimes social media will post the positive image of someone in that community doing something good before the news does.
You can look at propaganda in a good way or in a bad way , but the media or advertisers are going to continue to sell it to the audience. We are a society that reacts to things way to easily and the media knows it. Like I said in my last paragraph.
The media can always show a negative image of a particular community that has a reputation of crime and that will get a reaction from their audience. It’s much easier to sell the negative than the positive because it will help them get ratings but also it gives the public something to discuss for days. Negative stories sell more than positive stories. If you try to sell a positive story there won’t be any buzz. Selling a negative story is more appealing for the media because they will always get a reaction from the audience.
