Merriam-Webster defines propaganda as: “ideas, facts, or allegations, spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause.” Also when given the powers of the media, and its ability to reach the masses. Put an entity in power and there is a very real probability that the facts the media are delivering to the masses will be skewed. A quote attributed to Winston Churchill represents this postulate well, “history is written by the victors.” The evidence of this can be seen for as long as time was recorded. With communication of any type there will be misrepresentations being spread all the time, intentional or not, it is simply a fact of being human.
To the targeted public, effective propaganda tells you what you want to hear, shows you what you want to see, as a beginning. Following that can be any type of messages either. Take the Hardees’ commercial from the recent Superbowl game, a still of which is shown on the right. Hardees’ took a beautiful girl put her in the backseat, gave her a burger and told her to be sexy. Kate made her audience want to go out and get a burger. Here they showed us what we wanted to see, Kate Upton in all her sexy, burger eating glory, after that: go out and buy a burger. So a few questions for your reading pleasure. Do you think anything is wrong with this picture? No? Good, who wouldn’t want to watch Kate Upton pig out on a wet delicious burger? Ogaddam would agree with us, they would say humans are hardwired into liking this. Do you kinda want a burger right now? I do. Do you then think it is odd that you want that burger? Probably not. Why? This is what propaganda does, it excites you and the ideas it is inserting into your mind become common place.
Propaganda doesn’t necessarily put the largest life-changing ideas into our heads, it can, but mostly propaganda manifests itself mostly in advertising and marketing. Hopefully in the future though, if it is not doomed to be repeated for generations, we can all learn to distinguish where the Kate Upton viewing pleasure ends and where the message to buy burgers begins. If this can happen propaganda will still be there but it won’t turn the masses into a hive-mind doing the bidding of whatever the overlord wants (ahem North Korea).
The concept of North Korea brings another way to look at propaganda. We’ve introduced you to what its is like to be subjected to propaganda with our friend Kate, and the almost hive-mindedness that can ensue. But what happens to the observer to the implementation of propaganda? To answer this just think about the people of North Korea. How terrible are their living conditions? Are they living under an oppressive regime? And yet if you had an opportunity to ask a citizen of North Korea their opinion of the government, what would they say? Are they happy with their life? Judging by the recent death of Kim Jong Il and the people’s reactions in the country I would say that they loved their government. This is a government that was apart of President Bush’s Axis of Evil. Clearly the people must be brain-washed right? Well, yes up to a point. Government sponsored propaganda is behind this phenomenon. This evidence shows that propaganda is a powerful tool.
Propaganda throughout history
Propaganda is about as old as media and the written language. According to Wikipedia, Brendan
D. Nagle’s The Ancient World: Readings in Social and Cultural History gives evidence that most historians view the Behistun Inscription, an inscription detailing the rise of Darius I dating back to before 500 b.c.e., as an early form of propaganda. Cracked.com asserts that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by Pharaho Khufu to compensate for his own failures as a leader. Propaganda is media meant to influence people towards a cause of belief. It is also as old as media. It has been used for many social and political movements, including war.
Military propaganda is probably the most famous and infamous. It is also most likely what people immediately associate with propaganda. World War II is probably the best example for most of effective propaganda. Nazi Germany used films to influence the values and opinions of its residents. Joseph Goebbels held the title of Minister of Propaganda. Leni Reifenstahl’s films during this era are well known, such as Triumph of the Will. However, propaganda was used on both sides.
The Eternal Jew is an interesting study in that it is a title for propaganda used to promote a good cause and an evil one. The image of the right is that of the 1940 German film (obviously the evil cause). The film depicted Jews as uncivilized and less than human. The same title was also the title of a 1934 British film meant to show the historical suffering of Jewish people.
Social movements today are also often propaganda. Public Service Announcements are an example of this. Another great and divisive example of this that has recently made headlines is the film Kony 2012 by Invisible Children. The film was made in order to promote the organization’s stop Kony movement. Considering the purpose of the film is to help Invisible Children’s movement and to, really, hurt Joseph Kony, the film is propaganda.
Propaganda in other countries (and how we view it)
Without making any broad claims, propaganda in other countries is generally viewed more skeptically by American viewers. Notably, North Korea is able to rally support from its people because it restricts media coverage, particularly of anti-government ideas, such as a poor military and previous food shortages. We often mock this because we think it is obviously misleading and ridiculous. The television show 30 Rock mocked the propaganda with Margaret Cho’s impersonation of Kim Jong-il. Perhaps because propaganda is often used to promote a feeling of superiority in its viewer, we are not as positively influenced by foreign propaganda and look at it objectively or even cynically.
Propaganda in the US (and how we view it)
Propaganda is used to promote social change. Anti-smoking campaigns, such as the CDC, are propaganda meant to counteracts smoking advertisements, another form of propaganda. In truth, there is very little difference between advertising and propaganda. The purpose is to “sell” a concept to the audience. As alluded to earlier, we often like to believe as individuals that we are above being influenced by media messages or advertisements, but that is not very true. While the more educated members of our society may have a more dissecting eye, clearly propaganda is still effective. It is why bumper stickers exist. We want to repeat popular phrases like, “Support our troops,” to show our allegiances and recruit others to our side. We root for people in the Olympics simply for sharing a common country of origin. If we consider propaganda as messages with the purpose of trying to influence others to our ideas and beliefs based on rhetoric and what we consider truth, then our debates in class are meant to spread propaganda. We may call it discourse, but when we have an agenda to win and make our case, not willing to relent to the other side, it is clearly propaganda. We are more willing to accept images and ideas meant to support our own beliefs or satisfy our egos than those unrelated or opposing us. It often doesn’t matter who is “right” or if the other side is valid. One needn’t look much farther than Fox News to see examples of this.
The military and the entertainment industry
With traditional venues for recruitment such as “Uncle Sam Wants You” posters and recruitment tables staffed by friendly military personnel, but failing to deliver, the military has been moving towards a campaign that is heavily integrated with the entertainment industry. Whenever there has been an unpopular war, recruitment numbers fall drastically. In an effort to turn that around the military initiates a campaign to recover those numbers, and the entertainment industry can be a very effective tool.
The military and music videos
Popular music videos, such as Katy Perry’s “Part of Me”, display pro-military propaganda. This video glorifies military service by glamorizing war- showing only positive imagery of camaraderie, the accomplishment of physical strength training, and the sheer delight of dancing with the American flag in the backdrop (a reasonable activity of serving your country). There is no mention of death, destruction, pain, loneliness, degradation, or the development of mental disorders that are products of military service. The video plays off of ideas of ‘strength’ and ‘courage’ already associated with earlier pro-military campaigns, as well as positive associations of female empowerment. Critics such as Naomi Wolf have asked the general public to boycott the pop singer.#
Other music videos, such as Rihana’s “Hard”, show false rewards associated with service. The video challenges ideas of manhood, “Go Hard or Go Home” and presents highly sexualized imagery as reward for military service. It portrays military life as a party, focusing on sex, fashion, alcohol, and games (and of course dancing). Its purpose is to persuade the audience to live the ‘good life’ of the military, no matter how unrealistic it may be.
The military and the movie industry
Military themes have been woven into film for nearly as long as we can remember. However, a distinction should be drawn between films that contain militaristic themes and films that contain these themes in addition to receiving strong financial support. The promise of financial support can strongly influence the direction taken in a film. An early and rather noteworthy example of this is found in the film “Top Gun”. As stated in a Washington Post article titled “25 Years Later, How ‘Top Gun’ Made America Love War” the film, which was made in collaboration with the Pentagon, was created in a post-Vietnam era in which many Americans expressed doubts about the military. At this time, the military greatly wished to resuscitate its image. Following this blockbuster hit, enlistment spikes and polls showed rising confidence. It is reported that during the production of the movie the “Pentagon worked hand-in-hand with with the filmmakers, reportedly charging Paramount Pictures just $1.8 million for the use of its warplanes and aircraft carriers. [In exchange for this financial support] the filmmakers were required to submit their script to Pentagon brass for meticulous line edits aimed at casting the military in the most positive light.”# While some may not find cause for concern in this sponsorship of film, others may argue that it leads to an entertainment culture in which the only films made are those that contain pro-military and pro-war messages.
More recently, two films have taken this collaborative relationship with the military a step further and have received full sponsorship.# “X Men: First Class”, which was touted at the time of its release as the “Army’s first sponsorship deal with a Hollywood film”#, was intertwined with a series of military recruitment advertisements that seemed to support a belief that “you too can be a superhero if you simply join the military!”. Sure, it is unlikely that a viewer of these advertisements will wholeheartedly believe that s/he will acquire superhuman powers simply by joining the armed forces; however this repeated emphasis on the theme of invincibility fails to address the true dangers that soldiers face. These advertisements and associated films paint military service as an adventure, a place of camaraderie, and as an arena in which to showcase what you are truly worth. A second, more recent film titled “Act of Valor” has taken this full sponsorship even a step further. The film, which many view as a “full-length piece of propaganda” was financed entirely by the military and starred real-life SEALs. Even to the casual observer it is blatantly obvious that this film is intended to raise moral and general public sentiment as it related to the armed forces.
The military and video games
The line between military and entertainment (a collaboration creatively termed militainment by some sources) is further blurred when one enters the realm of video games. War-themed simulations have been used in military training for quite some time; however games have more recently been used in recruitment efforts. In 2002, the military developed a game titled “America’s Army” that can be viewed as the “first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims”.# According to one source, “Chris Chambers, the former deputy director of development for America's Army, admits it is a recruitment tool, and Chris Morris of CNN/Money states that "the Army readily admits [America's Army] is a propaganda device."The game, considered by the U.S. Army to be a "cost-effective recruitment tool," aims to become part of youth culture's "consideration set" as confirmed by Army Deputy Chief of Personnel Timothy Maude in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.”# From the “America’s Army” site, players are able to directly link to the “Go Army” recruitment site.
Concern has been expressed over this blending of war and entertainment. In a video game context, if one fails a mission and dies s/he can simply reload and try again. Sadly, in a real-life situation, death is not something that can be evaded with the simple press of a button. What raises even greater concern is the fact that these games are targeted at a rather young and impressionable demographic. In an article by LiveScience, executive producer of the game, Masha Berry, explains “We wanted kids to be able to start playing at 13...If they haven't thought about the Army by the time they get to 17, it's probably not something they'll do.”#
Why this matters
Propaganda is often viewed as advertising and entertainment by much of the general public. However, on some occasions, it can be a dangerous tool instituted by those with power. It is important for individuals to be aware of the ways in which they may be influenced by propaganda, especially considering how it has come to permeate music, movies, and video games. Propaganda has persisted through time, present during every era, and today is no exception. Whether it be the campaign against the Jews during the second great war or the oppression of citizens in present day North Korea, propaganda can be used for nefarious purposes. In today’s entertainment industry propaganda, at the hands of those who possess money and power, is overriding creative freedom. Military propaganda is used in an attempt to create an image of adventure, group camaraderie and strength. Military service is being portrayed as a way to escape from the troubles of a mundane life and live a life like those that are depicted in film, music, and video games. Seldom is the dangerous and deadly side of service depicted. Individuals have a right to know both the positive and negative aspects of any issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/katy-perrys-part-of-me-vide-boycott-marine-propaganda-naomi-wolf_n_1387684.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/25-years-later-remembering-how-top-gun-changed-americas-feelings-about-war/2011/08/15/gIQAU6qJgJ_story.html
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12791/forgetting_the_past_one_military_movie_at_a_time/
http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/pentagon_propaganda_xmen/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army#Controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army#Controversy
http://www.livescience.com/10022-military-video-games.html
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