Propaganda

Have you ever walked up to a complete stranger and asked, “Excuse me, do you know what propaganda is?” Well we’re willing to bet R100 that the person will answer you with the words “Hitler” or “Apartheid” somewhere in his sentence.

Propaganda has become such a big factor in society that an “Institute for Propaganda Analysis” was created in 1937. The founders of this society, Kirtley Mather, Edward A. Filene and Clyde R. Miller, grew concerned with the amount of influence that media had on the general public and started this society to ‘spark rational thinking,’ and basically challenge the public to have healthy debate on media based views.

There are as many as ten different ‘types’ of propaganda used in society today:
· Assertion – “An assertion is an enthusiastic or energetic statement presented as a fact, although it is not necessarily true.”
· Bandwagon – “Bandwagon is an appeal to the subject to follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well.”
· Card Stacking – “Involves only presenting information that is positive to an idea or proposal and omitting information contrary to it.”
· Glittering Generalities – “Glittering generalities are words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects, but are linked to highly valued concepts.”
· Lesser of Two Evils – “The lesser of two evils technique tries to convince us of an idea or proposal by presenting it as the least offensive option.”
· Name Calling – “Is the use of derogatory language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy.”
· Pinpointing the Enemy – “This is an attempt to simplify a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as the enemy.”
· Stereotyping – “Simplification is extremely similar to pinpointing the enemy, in that it often reduces a complex situation to a clear-cut choice involving good and evil.”
· Testimonials – “Testimonials are quotations or endorsements, in or out of context, which attempt to connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item.”
· Transfer – “It is an attempt to make the subject view a certain item in the same way as they view another item, to link the two in the subjects mind.”

During the past few weeks our class has been investigating and discussing propaganda used in modern day society. We also had a look at some historic speeches and were set the challenge of finding ten words or phrases which were used to bring propaganda into the speaker’s message.

We had the opportunity to debate whether a spokesperson, that came to our school to talk about street children, had been using propaganda as a way to set off a thinking spark in our heads, and if so, whether this meant that there are good and bad kinds of propaganda.

As a class we have learnt a lot during the past few weeks in terms of propaganda and this linked in very well with the advertising section. So next time you are walking through a shopping centre and a complete stranger (who will obviously have read this blog) walks up to you and asks, “Excuse me, do you know what propaganda is?” You now have the ability to give an educated answer, hopefully completely omitting the words “Hitler” or “Apartheid”, therefore causing us to owe someone a hundred bucks.

By: The Fuzz