Propaganda — Persuasion or Manipulation?

Over this past semester, it was made clear to me that propaganda does not only have the power to persuade, it has the power to manipulate. I believe I have the power to make this claim based on five different sectors of propaganda: propaganda rhetoric, news, education, politics and everyday life. First, it is important to note that the rhetoric of propaganda has the goal of appealing to the audience’s emotions rather than their thoughts or reasonings. This is because emotions cause an immediate reaction while having to think something through takes time and effort. Propagandists know this and are able to take this info and use it to manipulate you in certain emotionally charged contexts. It is also important to consider how propaganda works in different environments, industries and scenarios.

My readers will understand how news reporters have the ability to be selective in their reporting making their stories subjective rather than objective. They will learn how a textbook has different framing around the same body of text depending on the state you are in in order to comply with the ideologies most preferred in that geographical location. Readers will learn that politicians make rumors about their opponents to discredit them in the public sphere and will do many things, including using propaganda, to get a leg up in the competition. Lastly, they learn how that by even just simply scrolling through your favorite social media platform, propaganda has the power to reach and manipulate you. Even in the subtlest of ways like AI generators or memes.

Propaganda doesn’t have a dedicated form or location when it comes to it being deemed as manipulative. With that in mind, it is so important that people not only become aware that propaganda is out there, they need to understand how to identify it by learning what to look for. If that happens, the power of propaganda being able to manipulate people will be diminished over time because we will know when to call it out when we see it.

Read the whole paper here.