Synthesis of the Course
In my essay, I discussed the five topics regarding propaganda that really stood out to me throughout this semester. The first insight I gained is about social media and the way that algorithms are personalized to every user, which can lead to dangerous effects such as getting caught in the echo chamber where your beliefs are only reinforced by those with similar beliefs. I know from personal experience that It’s too easy to get caught up in the rabbit hole of social media, which is why I wanted to discuss it in my essay. Next I talked about how propaganda can take the form of entertainment, such as memes, and how political memes reflect cultural ideas and values that must be known in order to understand the message. I also learned about how propaganda can bring people together in this way by allowing people to create their own propaganda about a shared goal. The next topic I talked about was the way that patriotic propaganda can have harmful effects on society like leading to division. Patriotic propaganda can be dangerous because it promotes this idea that you can’t criticize anything about your country. Next, I talked about conspiracy theories, specifically about why it’s so easy for certain topics to become theorized about and for disinformation/misinformation to spread. The last piece of insight that I wrote about in my essay regards the idea of banning harmful propaganda, specifically the Nazi propaganda films that were created during World War II. I think that this is an engaging topic and I wanted to address my point of view based on what I have gained from this course. Overall, writing this essay was a great reflection exercise and allowed me to synthesize the various elements of propaganda that I learned about throughout this semester.
