Essay on Propaganda and Rumors: Analysis of Their Impacts on Society

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Abstract

The main problem here that we face in our everyday lives is the false information and the false news we hear everyday and leads to rumor spreading and many other problems that sometimes affect our beliefs and attitudes. Why is Propaganda dangerous?

Propaganda is a promotion material that uses content filled with causes, emotions and relies heavily on manipulating the public opinion and their action in order to support the main aim of the source. It uses mass media to foster its idea and support it. It can be spread starting from one individual to the masses and large groups, nowadays the public view of propaganda is neutral, it has been agreed on for propaganda to remain here and work on how to differentiate the good from the bad. The spread of false news and media manipulation in the twenty-first century greatly expanded the range of what constitutes the darkest and most effective types of propaganda, while the word “Fake News” has been going around for some time, it gained attention when several people witnessed “Donald’s Trump” dramatic win in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and saw the effect of fake news websites.

We will see everything about propaganda and the techniques used for spreading in this research.

At first, when the word “Fake News” came into the spotlight, it was generally viewed by people as social media posts with quite amazing storyline. Social media is a powerful technique and has a great impact used in propaganda and in spreading rumors. The technique of propaganda spreading was there for years and its effect is increasing day by day. Keep in mind that social media is one of the most used means of communication in order to spread lies and misinformation.

Introduction

Do we let propaganda influence us? Everything starting from how we act, what we eat, what we dress is being influenced by Propaganda. We can see propaganda everywhere. Is it the trend we think is cool? Yes. But the question that should be asked is, how much propaganda can shape us? Propaganda’s impact is diffused, inescapable and inevitable. So, to be clearer, propaganda is a plague; it is widespread in our society.

We can see it everywhere we go and it can greatly shape the way we live our lives, how we wear and the decisions we make can be influenced by what we observe in Ads. The pair of shoes we want for a sport or for a run have been well advertised and endorsed by a popular athlete and that’s why we bought them. Advertisements campaigns work so hard to make anything they market look simply amazing. Who in the world wouldn’t want to be like their favorite celebrity or athlete? No one care if the endorsement is a Nobel prize winner or someone who has suffered a trauma and has been through a lot, the media is great at taking advantage of whatever they can get their hands on and TBH, this is their main goal. That’s how things work if you gave it a little thought.

In another way, what we tend to say and the way we talk and even sometimes our expressions can be the result of propaganda. The reason why I’m writing this in the research because again, the hero factor plays a great role. You can be watching your favorite athlete, celebrity or model and start to act like them, believe it or not, this can be a good and a bad thing. As sometimes people are so obsessed to the extent, they can get a tattoo of their favorite hero or even copy the ones they have. If we saw them helping an elderly cross the street, we like them even more and that’s how Ads point them out. You can start to talk and act like your hero. People can be influenced by shows because they think they can be a better person if they started to act in a certain way. So, we have come to a conclusion that propaganda has the ability to shape our lives.

Everything we do is a piece of Propaganda.

Let’ s state some facts. It’s in the human nature and completely normal for people to spread news, in fact, I agree that, when it comes to ads alone, the most successful commercials are those which are humorous.

The reason I think that is that comedy is the best way to bring up an emotion inside anyone. Usually, if not always, if someone thinks something is funny, they ‘re going to want to tell their friends about it so they can all have a good laugh. When this happens, because the advertising is clear enough in the marketing as in the Adidas MVPuppets: Burn the house down advertisement, consumers will obey or purchase the advertisement product. (The commercial doesn’t explicitly tell viewers to burn their house for record.) For instance, using this commercial, I found this and showed it to my brother, who laughed and said that I had those.

And if he didn’t actually buy it because of the commercial, inquire about it and people would know what the MVPuppets are. If misinformation is the root of a virus, it would spread the quickest way it could.

What is Propaganda?

Propaganda is an advertising tool and if it wasn’t available, many people would’ve had difficulties reaching their goals.

The concept of propaganda is (Material that has been disseminated for the purpose of expanding a cause). You can sense that this Definition is vague; one might write a book to explain Propaganda but it is as simple as that. Propaganda is the information used to promote or publicize a point of view or a specific cause. Propaganda is known of being biased or misleading info, in another words, it doesn’t tell the entire truth because of the urge to promote a specific view, cause, product, or a person. It is often used in the political field and works under specific circumstances. Propaganda has the ability to manipulate one’s own beliefs, attitudes and actions.

Deliberacy and a fairly strong emphasis on deception differentiate propaganda from normal conversation, or free and simple sharing of ideas. Propagandists have a stated purpose or set of goals. To do this, they carefully pick and deliver symbolic data, statements and presentations in ways they believe would have the greatest impact.

They can ignore or misinterpret important information or actually lie to enhance impact, and they may seek to deflect the interest of the reactors (the people they are attempting to sway) from all but their own propaganda.

Similarly intentional selectivity and deception often discriminate between advertising and education. Educators seek to pose both aspects of an issue — the reasons for skepticism as well as the reasons for accepting the claims they make, and the pitfalls and advantages of any possible course of action.

Education helps to encourage reactors to collect and test facts for themselves, and to help them learn the strategies to do so.

Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that certain propagandists may consider themselves as educators and may assume that they express the purest truth, that they highlight or misrepresent other facets of the facts just to render a clear message more convincing Or that the measures they recommend are in fact the best actions the reactor could take.

On the same time, the reactor who sees the message of the propagandist as self-evident reality may think of it as educational; this also appears to be the case for ‘true believers’—dogmatic reactors of moral, social , or political propaganda dogma.

[image: Fake News, the Propaganda of the 21st Century – Big Tows322 – Medium]

Examples of Propaganda:

Any sort of advertisement is propaganda used to promote a product or service. For example, an ad that promotes one deodorant brand over another is a case in point of propaganda.
Political posters and advertisements are a case in point for misinformation. These support one candidate in the campaign, and his opinions on others.
Many kinds of misinformation are generated by Government. Some type of advertisements from the public sector on safe living may be called propaganda.

Propaganda Techniques:

Figure 1: Propaganda Techniques

Propaganda is based on social psychological studies, are used to produce it. Many of these same tactics are known as logical fallacies, claims of science propaganda, and misinformation while being often persuasive. Many people have tried to identify the tactics used by propagandists from the early use of propaganda to move entire nations in WW1 and 2 through to the present.

Name Calling: Propagandists use this tactic to generate anxiety and excite hatred by using derogatory terms (bad names) to establish an adverse impression or dislike against a community, views, ideals or organizations that they will have us condemn. This method requires a conclusion without looking into the evidence. Name Calling is used as a replacement for arguing about the merits of an idea , belief, or proposal.
Glittering Generalities: Propagandists use vague, sweeping statements (often slogans or simple catchphrases) that use language associated with values and beliefs deeply held by the audience without providing information or reason to support them. They appeal to ideas like pride, honor, country love, wish for harmony, equality, and ideals of the nation. The terms and phrases are ambiguous and mean different things to different people, but there is still a positive meaning. It can’t mean true or wrong because it’s just saying nothing or nothing.
Transfer: Change is a tactic used to hold the legitimacy and acceptance of something that we admire and gratitude for something that the propagandist will have us embrace. Propagandists also use gestures (e.g., raising the flag) to stir our passions and earn our support.
Testimonial: This tactic is used by propagandists to persuade a reputable figure or someone with experience to support a commodity or cause by giving it their approval stamp in the expectation that the target audience will follow their example.
Plain Folks: This approach is used by propagandists to convince the audience that the spokesperson is from humble origins, someone they can trust, and one who has their interests at heart. In order to reach the audience and identify with their point of view, propagandists have the speaker use common language and mannerisms.
Bandwagon: Propagandists use this technique to convince the crowd to follow. This device creates a widespread supportive impression. It strengthens the human will to be on the winning side. It also plays into feelings of isolation and loneliness. The implication is that if you don’t jump on the bandwagon the parade will pass you by. While this is contrary to the other method, it has the same effect: getting the audience to join in with the crowd. Propagandists use this tactic to convince those who are not currently in the bandwagon to follow a mass campaign while ensuring at the same time that those on or partly on will stay aboard. Propaganda bandwagon took on a new twist. Propagandists are now trying to convince the target public that they will be left out if they don’t join.
Card Stacking: Propagandist employs this tactic to make the best arguments on his perspective and the worst arguments for the opponent’s point of view feasible by deliberately presenting only the evidence that help his side of the debate when attempting to persuade the listener to embrace the evidence as an inference. The propagandist stacks the cards against the facts, in other words. Card stacking is the most difficult method to spot, as it does not supply the listener with all the details available to make an educated decision. It is up to the public to determine what is missing.

What effects does propaganda have on society?

Propaganda can also not only affect the understanding of a situation by users and cause behavior around it, but also form how we view other users in the situation. If we receive misinformation from social networks, we ‘re pressured to determine whether the source will be part of our social network. Even misinformation may have the effect of polarizing an audience. For example, if a piece of propaganda portrays a situation too clearly, a person may try to point this oversimplification out and may deliberately work toward the expected consequences of the propaganda. Manipulation, owing to its one-sidedness and propensity toward sentimental arguments, may be met with the existence of more manipulation or denial by revealing alternate views or representations, disclosing reality or evidence whether the propaganda puts out lies. Therefore, the consequences of misinformation can be action against it, or no action at all, together with action according to the message.

Initial Effects:

As propaganda typically appeals to feelings over intelligence (remember Nelson ‘s definition of propaganda as one-sided communication), its results take place on a emotional level at first. Propaganda can cater to any number of emotions like anger, expectation, joy, sadness, pain, fear, satisfaction and modesty. There are a variety of ways deception can try to appeal to these emotions.

Intended Effects:

The desired results of propaganda are mainly intended to persuade. The idea here is that, by reminding the individual of some notion, the individual will behave in line with that concept. For instance, a representation of a strong , healthy cartoon character consuming vegetables would ideally first persuade the person that vegetables are the source of the character’s strength and health, and then push the person to the practice of eating vegetables. The expected result of propaganda is that individuals may promote propaganda on their own, either as indicators (others see this person consuming vegetables) or by conversation (saying to others that vegetables make them happy and powerful). Propaganda often results in a noticeable shift in the values or principles of the public, such as a reporting of a famous new restaurant. The subject has no impact, because it is not strong enough to affect a culture drastically.

Nevertheless, more influential incidents like violence in a war’s media reporting may have a profound impact on an person which may result in a shift in the way culture sees the conflict.

The effect of misinformation on the popular sentiment may be the difference between winning and losing a battle. Dr. Philip Taylor has clarified the importance of deception in war media reporting in his book ‘Munitions of the Heart. Propaganda itself is not wicked nor menacing.

It is actually nothing more than coordinating strategies intended to convince others to think and act in a certain manner, and in times of conflict it typically involves having them to participate or to help the fight ‘(Labash, Dec. 20, 2001).

Wartime messaging is so important because of the influence that comes with popular interest that it can also be used as a tool. The opportunity to gain approval from the public may be almost as critical as fighting the battle.

Mis-information: It is the false information that is shared accidentally and without aiming to cause harm.
Dis-information: It is information intended to cause harm, by consciously sharing false information.
Mal-information: It is the information or opinion shared aiming to cause harm, e.g. hate speech, harassment.

Conclusion

To conclude, propaganda is a disease, and no matter how you think you’re and try to avoid it, it’ll hit one day and try to change you in some way. Try to think about it, all advertisements work hand to hand to influence you. However, the question here is can you get over it? It pops into your mind, quickly, it has the ability to spread from person to person really quick just like a virus, and it is full with new techniques to try to draw you in and get the best influence. The question that I keep asking …is it possible to try to stop something that can be unstoppable? Are you in charge or has propaganda took over and controlled us? and made us think that we are the leaders and we are the ones who make that decisions? It’s pretty clear now that Propaganda is an unavoidable force and can have great influence. Take this as an advice; when you choose which propaganda exactly to listen to and follow, your decision’s outcome can happen instantaneously and can come with consequences.

And Always remember to be aware, remain careful and to choose wisely.

References

Automated tackling of disinformation BY European Parliament – March 2019. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/624278/EPRS_STU(2019)624278_EN.pdf
What is Propaganda BY Megaessays.com https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/28403.html
How Propaganda is used in Advertising Media BY UKessays. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/how-propaganda-is-used-in-advertising-media-essay.php
Propaganda BY Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda
7 types of propaganda techniques advertisers use BY CANZ MARKETING. https://www.canzmarketing.com/7-types-of-propaganda-techniques-advertisers-use/

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