School Shooting Solutions in America; Harmful Propaganda
Video Script
Access my screencast video here.
“Propaganda is not merely a type of persuasion: it stands at the intersection of persuasion, information and entertainment. The versatility of propaganda to inform, entertain and persuade is why it is used by those in power or those who seek power,” (RobbGrieco, 2022).
Propaganda can use lies, half-truths and even the complete truth in order to persuade or sway a group of people into believing or doing something (RobbGrieco, 2022). More than that, propaganda has the ability to harm a massive number of people with little effort.
The example of propaganda that I chose has been all over the internet for the past few weeks. The video shows a teacher easily opening a life-saving bulletproof box that was built to protect students from school shootings. I felt that this qualified as propaganda because it most definitely falls in that intersection of persuasion, information and entertainment that I previously mentioned.
This video persuades people to think that this is a solution to the school shooting issue in America by informing them of this seemingly easy-to-operate contraption. While at the same time, many are taking this as a form of entertainment — not that this issue is a laughing matter — but the fact that we need bulletproof boxes for school-aged children is almost comical. How could we be at this point and what is coming next? The demeanor of this entire video is just off-putting to me.
We see propaganda in 6 major locations: advertising, education, entertainment, journalism and public relations, government and politics, and activism and advocacy (RobbGrieco, 2022). Within each of these 6 locations, propaganda functions slightly differently in order to have the most optimal impact.
With this example, you can find this video in almost all of these locations. Propagandists are taking advantage of this viral moment by getting people to act together by building consensus and by a systematic effort to shape perception and cognition using media (RobbGrieco, 2022).
I think a major part of why this video had been spread throughout so many networks is to try to get the American public to see that this is an easy solution to a major problem. If we all have that idea or mindset, then maybe topics like gun control won’t be so popular and so divisive. I think this is harmful because it is completely disregarding the root of the problem and is instead trying to make the public complacent with our current environment when it comes to school shootings
Propagandists in this example are also tapping into America’s deepest fears. They know that people will respond emotionally and immediately to this video because most, if not, all Americans have some sort of anxiety or insecurity when it comes to shootings at schools (RobbGrieco, 2022). This is also harmful because we know that people want an immediate solution to this horrific problem.
This bulletproof box solution may seem like that easy solution, but what are the logistics? Is it really that easy to get a $60,000 massive device into every classroom in America? I would think not.
Creative Process and Reasoning (Essay Portion)
I had some difficulty picking out an example of contemporary propaganda that could be seen as harmful. This is due to the fact that there is such an abundance of propaganda circulating throughout varying networks. I really had to narrow down my options and I found the best way to do that is to look for propaganda about a topic that is meaningful to me. My mom is a third-grade teacher and it honestly does scare me to think that she could have been or could be in a school shooting situation. It’s a major topic of discussion in my household because we just can’t fathom how we have gotten to this point in society.
My mom is constantly training for worst-case scenarios and her school has many precautions in place like metal detectors, police officers, and lock-down drills. But it pains her so much to even have to do these things because how could someone even remotely come to the conclusion that shooting innocent children could be a solution to whatever problem they might have? Obviously, it’s not that simple and mental health problems are almost always involved, but why children? Why a school where people come to learn and grow?
I see the narrative that teachers should all be armed in the classroom all the time. I cannot imagine my mother holding a gun or even being in the same room as one, let alone be trained to operate one. People are constantly avoiding the root of the problem and by offering short-term and ineffective solutions, it forces teachers to be the ones to make up for it. The example of propaganda I chose perfectly depicts this.
A video of a high school teacher in Alabama opening a bulletproof box in her classroom recently went viral. The box is somewhat camouflaged with the classroom because the teacher decorated it to make it less intimidating. She opened it up with ease then giggled and said, “It’s that easy.” To a lot of people, this seems like the solution we need to the school shooting problem in America. However, to me, I think this is extremely harmful because it almost normalizes the fact that people shoot up schools. Instead of supporting mental health programs and gun control laws, this propaganda video supports a terrifying reality of what the future might look like.
To the naked eye, this contraption looks like it could definitely be useful and save lives — that I agree with. The harmful part is that people might stop here — meaning they might think this problem is solved with this one invention. This is scary because without actually getting to the root of the issue, it is going to repeat itself over and over again and soon enough we will need another life-saving invention once this is no longer effective.
With that being said, could this invention even be effective in the first place? A lot of schools don’t have $60,000 floating around in their budget to purchase one of these boxes so it would take millions in funding and a lot of time to get multiple classrooms, not even every classroom in America equipped with one. Just for some quick math, there are approximately 131,000 kindergarten through grade 12 schools in America (Vlasova, 2022). In order to get just one of these boxes in each school, not each classroom, that would cost about 7.9 billion dollars. That number doesn’t even include schools that are just high schools, middle schools or elementary schools or colleges and universities.
Overall, this example that I chose can definitely be seen as harmful propaganda. In my opinion, this video is just adding to the long list of short-term solutions to a problem that truly needs something long-term and permanent.
References
RobbGrieco, M. (2022, February 2). Defining Propaganda. Path Wright. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://propaganda.pathwright.com/library/mind-over-media-57772/466743/path/step/99035871/
Vlasova, H. (2022, May 29). How Many Schools are in The U.S (Statistics & Facts) — 2023. Admissionsly.com. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://admissionsly.com/how-many-schools-are-there/
