Take a Proper Gander at Propaganda
By Jarrod Benn
When people hear the word “propaganda” their ears immediately perk up due to the bad wrap the word gets. In most cases the word is closely associated with subliminally controlling popular beliefs about a topic, which leads to the bad wrap that the word has gotten throughout history. While learning more about the word and what it actually means I figured out that every company and brand uses propaganda in some sort of way. Especially businesses, for them there’s just no avoiding the use of propaganda. Propaganda refers to mass media using their duty to inform in order to spread a belief or idea that is beneficial to them, now in some cases this can be harmful to the public while in some cases it can help the public.
Propaganda can be useful to the public in a circumstance that requires a lot of information about a topic that the general public may not have yet or isn’t willing to be informed about, in some cases mass media sources can influence the general public to make a decision on a topic that will be beneficial to the public as I believe mass media should be doing more than often.
For example, the police and prison system can be viewed as forms of propaganda. I say this because the uniform of an officer is a symbol that represents combatting crime, this is their agenda. When a potential criminal sees this symbol they are less likely to commit a criminal act.
Propaganda in most cases isn’t as beneficial to the public as it is to politicians. Most times propaganda is used to relay the idea that one side has beliefs that are better than the other. For example, when a commercial is ran on television that has a political candidate “approving this message” it is more than likely propaganda. These kinds of commercials tell the public all of what they want to hear rather than all of the truth.
Propaganda has been in media and in front of our faces for a very long time. Many sources of media that are independent are now combatting the spread of propaganda with unbiased news, and in my opinion this seems more professional that what the “professionals” are doing.
