Blog# 4 Propaganda

Blog#4-Propaganda

The questions I will address in this blog are: what is propaganda? What is free speech? What distinguishes propaganda from the legitimate exercise of free speech? I will bring the discussion into the realm of reality with examples of both legitimate political free speech and propaganda.

I’ll start by defining the term propaganda. What is propaganda? Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community towards some cause or position. Propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular reaction or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political or any other agenda. There is what’s called propaganda techniques which are methods that are used to spread ideas to further a cause. These techniques are used to manipulate the readers or viewers reason and emotions. Many propaganda techniques are being used to persuade an audience: name calling, false analogy, testimonial, card stacking and the bandwagon technique just to name a few.

Next I’d like to define the term free speech. What is free speech or freedom of speech? Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship and/or limitation. The term freedom of expression which is related directly to the term freedom of speech is used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving or relating any information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. Freedom of speech in America is established in the very first amendment to the American Constitution:”Congress shall pass no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” Free speech is often regarded by many as one of the most important rights. At the same time, there are government efforts to regulate, restrict, or even prohibit many types of speech often with popular support.

So what distinguish propaganda from free speech? Propaganda is information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause and influence the intended audience. While free speech will bring to light the facts on a certain matter, idea or subject and let the audience drew its own conclusions and form its own opinion. In other words, propaganda will show the audience only part of the big picture so the facts are being taken out of context to influence the outcome (subjective). By using this tactic the audience will be influenced to reach a conclusion that will support a specific agenda. While free speech presents the whole picture and let the audience forms its conclusions (objective) without any influence to sway the results.

I started my research of modern day propaganda on the internet and found out there are some very opposing arguments from both ends of the spectrum. On one hand of the spectrum I found those who believe that propaganda doesn’t exist or if it does there is very little of it out there. On the other end of the spectrum there was the majority that believes propaganda exist in every aspect of our modern lives. The “propaganda believers”, for a lack of better term, go back to WW1 where they claim British propaganda was used against the German enemy. The same group believes that in WW2 where German propaganda was used against the Jewish people. But it doesn’t stop there, during the cold war era the United States and the Soviet Union used propaganda extensively to promote fear and strengthen public in support and advance of their agendas. In this day and age they advocating that the War on Terror is modern time propaganda.

A different aspect of the propaganda campaign that I found throughout my research was the same groups seem to believe that most of the media and political ads are propaganda. Since they prevent the audience from thinking too hard about the whole situation they are one sided, the one they want to convey as the truth. These groups view most advertisement as propaganda by that definition and claim that by turning on the news or watching commercials you’ll be exposed to plenty of propaganda. They used freecreditreport.com as an example that promotes fear in the audience to sell a product that can be obtained for free since by law the three major credit bureaus have to supply you with a free credit report but this fact isn’t mention in the ad otherwise the intended audience will not purchase the service these ads are trying to sell.

So what about legitimate political free speech? Does it exist or is it a myth? I believe that political free speech does exist in the United States. Let’s examine the process of the Presidential Elections that are held in the U.S. every four years. We live in a democracy and every legal citizen over the age of 18 therefore has the right to participate in the General Elections. During the presidential elections the main candidates meet usually in a University, before an audience of citizens, where they hold a Presidential Debate about the issues at hand and what is their position in regard to these issues. The questions are posed from one or more journalists or members of the audience. In my opinion, this is the ultimate political free speech, for this reason it won’t be found in any country that doesn’t support free speech. There is political free speech in the U.S. in every political realm; politicians can talk freely for or against the government without any censorship or penalty.

In closing, we all need to use our Critical thinking skills!!! We are very blessed to live in country that has free speech as the first amendment of the American Constitution. But as I showed in this assay living in a country that has free speech could be a two edge sward since the same freedom of speech can be taken by extremist groups and be used for propaganda against the country that give them this freedom. For example, extremists Muslim groups that uses that freedom of speech to infiltrate and poison public opinion as seen on the DVD Obsession where radical Islam declares war against the west. Propaganda was, is and will be part of our lives as we live in a free society where freedom of speech is one of our basic rights, so we have to be assertive as to the information we retain and the sources this information comes from, use our critical thinking skills and judge the facts on their own merit and determine what is propaganda and what are the facts and act accordingly. God Bless America!