Propaganda and its Implications

Throughout this semester, our coursework exposed me to forms of propaganda I had never thought about, like educational supplies that deny climate change being offered to teachers (Hobbs, Renee. “Science Education Propaganda.” URI COM416, Fall 2020). Our studies also dug deeper into and explained forms of propaganda I had always questioned but didn’t quite understand, like American nationalism being instilled in schools and reinforced in entertainment (Hobbs, Renee. “Propaganda in Education.” URI COM416, Fall 2020). What stands out to me as the most meaningful can be summed up as follows.

First, propaganda is everywhere, and it takes the form of anything created with the intention to influence behavior, attitudes, or perception. This includes education, entertainment, politics, activism, consumerism, journalism, and every other way we interact with media.

Second, everyone has something to gain by capturing your attention and influencing your thoughts and behavior. A cause or a goal is nothing without support, and our support is won through propaganda.

Third, Propaganda has no inherent value; the value of any piece of propaganda is based on the intention of the creator and the interpretation of the consumer. This is how there can be so many people who lean politically left or right who simply cannot understand what the other side is thinking; we all think we’re right.

Fourth, the propaganda that has successfully influenced us is the hardest to identify. This is why Americans don’t notice nationalistic propaganda as easily as people from other countries do, and why we see other countries’ propaganda as obvious but it is effective for the intended audience.

Fifth, we need to be able to understand the source, the purpose, and the motives of a piece of propaganda rather than just identify it in order to think critically about how we are being influenced.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1os-u5Uj5nXWWGa1mrNw86xXX9vcZd8WTww7nIKRFUpM/edit?usp=sharing