Propaganda In journalism
By Tamar Belfont
What is propaganda? Propaganda is information, ideas or false rumors deliberately spread widely to either help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, etc.
In today’s society, it has become harder and harder to figure out if a rumor is accurate or false. Propaganda focuses more on getting a story heard even if the story happens to be false. The goal is to get a message across. For example, according to research news propaganda is a type of propaganda covertly packaged as credible news but without the sufficient transparency concerning the news item source and the motivation behind its release. News propaganda can also be motivated by national security reasons. Wikipedia is a well-known source that also can give false information but because sometimes it is known as a useful source and sends a message, we don’t focus on how its propaganda.
Our current President Trump according to The Rolling Stones, threatened to shut down the government if Democrats don’t vote and once again professed “No Collusion!” while alleging Special Counsel Mueller is unfit to lead the investigation. He also unleashed a new string of attack against the media, with which he has been especially displeased in recent weeks.
Publishers of the New York Times in fact spent time talking to the president. Both journalists were concerned about his labeling journalist as ‘the enemy of the people.” Trump comments could have contributed to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence. Our president proves that propaganda will go as far as it needs to go and it just makes it harder for journalists to provide accurate news. If our sources cannot provide accurate information, imagine the stress and pressure that is on the journalist to have to publish the work. It makes it harder for society to trust journalist when releasing information. Trump made it a lot worst for future journalist myself as well as current journalists.
People want to figure out has media really addressed propaganda because we still deal with it today.
In most schools, media literacy doesn’t exist in schools. Students would be asked to distinguish between CNN and Fox or to identify bias in a story. When tech is involved they ask us to not use nor trust Wikipedia but to instead use google. We can’t always make media a reliable tool for current events and information because we have some media outlets just telling people like me what we want to hear or what would keep our interest. It really not hard to have fake news. According to Boyd, she states “Since the election, everyone has been obsessed with fake news, as experts blame “stupid” people for not understanding what is “real”…More media literacy is needed to teach people how not to be duped.
And if we just push Facebook to curb the spread of fake news, all will be solved.” I agree with this statement of stopping Facebook from spreading fake news. We aren’t dealing with false news in a serious manner. We need to restrict many social media websites from allowing us to expose false information.
For example, I do believe Twitter needs to be a little private. If someone account is private, people who you don’t follow you should not be allowed to see what you post through someone else’s social site. Actions need to be taken place instead of us just verbally addressing the situation. It needs and requires a “cultural change” about how we make sense of information.
We need to restrict many social media websites from allowing us to expose false information. For example, I do believe Twitter needs to be a little private. If someone account is private, people who you don’t follow you should not be allowed to see what you post through someone else’s social site.
