Something about Propaganda
By Chris Sewell
Misinformation as always been around, but to continuously fuel the same misinformation to the point where it becomes believable is my definition of propaganda.
Today, that word is not used as much as it once did, its replacement is fake news. According to Lina Mai, fake New is misinformation or stories that are false and lacking verifiable facts, while propaganda is selective information for political means (When Is Fake News Propaganda? 2018).
When it comes to politics, any means of communication that has the numbers and accessibility to citizen is a potential propaganda machine. Never before, have we heard a president of the United States tweeting, a medium he uses to respond to allegations and political matters.
There is usually a time and place for that, however, not in this new era. As always, opportunists are looking for a platform to take advantage of.
I see this in the Reporters without Boarders blog. Even though, it is tragic that some 34 reporters have been killed, while some have been detained by Russia. The writer strategically placed what he wanted to say in his blog, but ultimately reminding his readers and potential audience, about the dark past of the Soviet Union and Russia in comparison to what it is today.
The message in the blog is not necessarily political, however, it is aimed at a political figure, whom is Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister of Russia.
The message is meant to get the attention of the masses through the Football World Cup, this is known as Soccer in the United States.
During this event, millions from around the world watch and participate. Another attention magnet is including big names, such as the Russian Prime Minister. The Football World Cup is then turned into a machine that will get the writer’s message to a worldwide platform, supposedly, I didn’t venture in depths about the story to see if it became that successful.
The point that I want to make is that Reporters without Boarders have an issue that involve Russia, but they simply can’t just go on Russian soil and protest, so they did the next best thing.
They wrote accusations that is directed to the Prime Minister and laws that apply to the World Cup game itself. In my opinion, their blog became propaganda when the writer(s) declare that they are conducting a campaign that is fueling support to their confined journalist to keep up the resistance, because the Kremlin can’t continue declining media pluralism (World Cup hasn’t loosened Russia’s grip on media freedom, RSF says, 2018).
