Propaganda in the media
By Dayanara Analuisa
Propaganda has been a dangerous and effective tool to spread ideas worldwide and continues to successfully influence people’s opinions. The reason propaganda has become powerful in media is that it works through emotions. Emotions are intense devices and can easily change a person’s beliefs.
To be able to distinguish propaganda, one has to look at the intention behind the message. The most known propaganda was used to influence the audience to perform an action of some kind. Although the ability to mass communicate to a wider audience can be a useful tactic, propaganda can do more harm than good.
The increase of propaganda leads to a brand new problem that many are familiar with. Fake news has emerged over the years with the growth of propaganda and has a similar impact on the audience.
Generally, propaganda doesn’t need to be factual or correct which is the reason why fake news has become a close replacement. Although fake news may not have the same intentions as propaganda, they both have the same end result. The idea of fake news and propaganda having a wider range allows the spread of ideas to become more successful.
danah boyd claims in “Did Media Literacy Backfire?” that to stop the wildfire of “news” the public needs to be taught how to distinguish information. Fact checking and using new websites isn’t good enough in a world where people can be too lazy to do an extra step. Certain websites may not be the most credible, but many still use this information because it is the most convenient. Due to the fact that most propaganda and fake news spread through websites in the modern day, it wouldn’t be difficult to spread more false news.
boyd explains that the problem can’t disappear, but if media literacy was taught to distinguish what’s news and what isn’t, then fewer people would get duped.
Media literacy is an effective tool, but it’s not a foolproof solution to stop the spread of propaganda.
According to Phil Zimbardo, “an expert in mind control tactics,” he explains several ways to resist social influence by propaganda. Zimbardo argues to “be sensitive to situational demands however trivial they may seem.” We cannot believe in simple ways to solve a solution when the problem is too massive. However, when propaganda becomes more subtle, it is our job to continue looking at this information critically. The moment we stop analyzing this information, we start to believe it and have already been persuaded.
Although advocating for propaganda isn’t necessarily wrong, but many are aware that social influence can have too much of an effect on people. The tactic could be used for a beneficial purpose and has proved to be successful in history.
The most prominent example would be propaganda that influenced people to go to the war. It illustrated a sense of nationalism and the impact it left on the audience was monumental. On the other hand, it could be seen as the government having too much of an influence over the public, which could be dangerous.
Overall, the idea that propaganda can be seen as a threat cannot be finalized. However, it has proven to be a formidable opponent to defeat.
