Give All of the Props to Propaganda

(Shutterstock. Public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest. 14 June 2017.)

            When one thinks of propaganda, it is easy for the mind to immediately relate the term with past wars. Yet, propaganda, just like anything else, has evolved over time. In today’s society, where the media both heavily influences the individual and misleads citizens daily, propaganda has taken multiple forms. Nowadays, journalists don’t care about being right; they care about being first. Working at such a fast and competitive pace allows for mistakes to happen in a careless fashion. At times, mistakes are made in order to further a writer’s opinion or idea. Most stories, written today, are twisted or tainted by bias. Society can no longer read or hear the news and trust it blindly; they must turn into the journalist themselves.

            For instance, politics today relies immensely on the power propaganda holds. Whether the politician is a democrat or a republican, there will always be manipulative motives within each party. Yet, it is made clear in Sean Illing’s article, “How Propaganda works in the digital age,” that “it’s about manipulating you, but it’s also about establishing the truthfulness of the political ideals behind it.” For instance, during the 2020 election, commercials are used by both parties to harm the image of the other. Although they may be biased and a bit overexaggerated, the commercials are linked directly to the party’s goal, which is to prove that their morals are of a higher value. However, commercials, like all other types of media, are the ways the society now receives their news. In fact, “Propaganda arises even if no one intends it. And that’s because it’s a corporate media” (Illing). Society has proven to itself that it is dependent on technology for most actions in life now, and knowing this, the government will never stop using media to influence its citizens.

                                        (Swirko, Cindy. Election Text Messages. 9 Nov. 2018.)

            Even more so, during the 2020 elections, text messages were sent in an attempt to tear down the reputation of many politicians. I personally received over ten text messages within the past few months that were sent, in hopes of changing my political beliefs. David Gilbert informed the public in his article “Election Propaganda Texts Are Completely Out of Control,” that “it was the 2016 Trump campaign that first spotted the power of the messages sent directly to voter’s phones, using them to great effect, particularly in swing states.” With the large amount of information being pushed in society’s way, it is easy for individuals to be confused and misled, especially when propaganda is the majority of what they view.

            Social media is a huge platform in which the public is misled by their peers and even those in positions of power above them. For example, a picture, which shows a Philadelphia police officer holding a young black boy in her arms, was deleted off of the internet, once it was proven to be taken out of context. The picture was posted in hopes of seeming as if the police officer was soothing the young boy, but the police force was actually the root cause of the boy’s tears ("Police took a Black toddler from his family's SUV. Then, the union used his photo as 'propaganda,' attorneys say."). Katie Shepherd depicted the image in her article, “Police took a Black toddler from his family’s SUV. Then, the union used his photo as ‘propaganda,’ attorneys say,” that, “[the] police yanked the boy form the back seat of an SUV after busting all of the windows and violently arresting and injuring his mother, who was later released without charges.” Nowadays, the truth of the news is not what is important, but rather what the creator can make the individual think the truth is. Citizens can never simply trust journalists, politicians, armed forces, or even their neighbors anymore. The truth has to be unraveled by the individual, which makes life one large trust issue.

Works Cited

Gilbert, David. "Election Propaganda Texts Are Completely Out of Control." Vice, 29 Oct. 2020, www.vice.com/en/article/jgqqxx/election-propaganda-texts-are-completely-out-of-control. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.

Illing, Sean. "How propaganda works in the digital age." Vox, 20 Oct. 2019, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/18/20898584/fox-news-trump-propaganda-jason-stanley. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.

Shepherd, Katie. "Police took a Black toddler from his family's SUV. Then, the union used his photo as 'propaganda,' attorneys say." The Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/30/philadelphia-fop-posts-toddler/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2020.

Shutterstock. Public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest. 14 June 2017.

Swirko, Cindy. Election Text Messages. 9 Nov. 2018.