Power of Propaganda

POWER OF PROPAGANDA

The, places you go, the things you see, the news that you hear, all revolve around propaganda. Propaganda is starting to shape our lives, and the way that we live. It has changed and affected our world, in ways that people don’t realize. Sometimes propaganda can be good, and sometimes propaganda can be bad, depending on the situation.

Just like lots of other things, there are lots of pros and cons to propaganda. It isn’t always bad, and sometimes it is there to help people.  Propaganda can be used to help people in lots of ways. It can be used to tell parents to make sure that their kids need to wear their seatbelts because if they don’t wear their seatbelts they can get very badly injured and/or die in an accident. That may not be the whole truth, because sometime even in an accident, it doesn’t mean that you will die. But people say that to make the message stronger and more persuasive.  But if somebody in a car and doesn’t have their seatbelt on it is very dangerous, this type of propaganda is good.  Another example would be shots and vaccines.  Om hospitals and in doctors’ offices you see advertisements that say get this vaccine, or get this shot. The doctors and hospitals say that if you or your child don’t get a vaccine or shot for this virus or flu, then they will get the virus and they will be in a lot of pain, and may die. That isn’t the whole truth because sometimes even without the vaccination you don’t get the virus. And sometimes there are side effects to the vaccine. Even if you do get the virus it doesn’t mean that you will die. But the doctors are trying to get you to get the vaccine so that the possibility of getting it isn’t as high, and you can stay healthy. All propaganda isn’t bad, and sometime it can be the thing that saves your life.

Propaganda is something to make you believe something, and sometimes that something isn’t something good.  When someone makes you believe something it isn’t always good, because it prevents you from thinking individually and prevents people from saying what they think.  And that is the case with some kinds of propaganda.  For example when you see a propaganda ad that says that this country is bad and that everyone that is from that country is evil. This example shows that one country is bad, this isn’t good because sometimes when people aren’t getting the whole story and are told to believe something.  This might lead to people doing things, taking action which may lead to something bad. This type of propaganda is used lots of times during wars, because the government wants the people in their country to think that all the people in the opposite country are bad and evil. The government does this because when they do something bad to the other country they don’t want the people of their country to think that they are the enemy and that they are just doing this for defense.  Another way that propaganda can be bad is the technique that some propagandists use. For example fear is a technique of propaganda that doesn’t really have a positive effect, on our society. When people feel fear they don’t question the message, and that is why many propagandist use this technique. I think that fear has had a bad affect on our society because when you don’t get the whole message, you don’t fully understand what you are believing, or sometimes buying. One example of this is the Proactive Commercial. When you see this commercial they say that having acne and blemishes on your face is bad, and that your life inst good if you have acne, they also say that you are ugly if you have acne. But when see this commercial you don’t get the whole message, and the audience only see’s that message. Propaganda can have a very bad affect on our society, if used in a negative way.

I think that I have learned lots of things from this project. I have learned how to be able to find the whole message behind a piece of propaganda, and not just the message that the propagandist wants me to see. I think that now I can see propaganda clearly, and I can point out propaganda in my everyday life.  I have learned that our society is significantly affected by propaganda, and propaganda has shaped our society to what it is now.  Propaganda has affected our world in lots of different ways, it has made our world in to a society where it is harder for people to start thinking individually.  Even though propaganda can be bad sometimes but it can also be good. I think propaganda prevents people from thinking individually.

Propaganda is everywhere, and our life and society have been affected by propaganda significantly. Propaganda can control what people believe, what people buy and how people live their lives. People rely on propaganda for what they buy. Usually when people are thinking about buying something propaganda plays a very big role in their decision. When people hear that a certain product can do something, and another product from a different company can’t they immediately think that that product is the best. The customer/ audience doesn’t wait to hear the other company and they also don’t want to hear what that certain product can’t do compared to what the other product from the other company can.  If this world and our society didn’t have propaganda in it, we all would be able to believe in different things easier and our decisions would be 100% our decisions because there wouldn’t be anything or anyone telling us what is better. I think without propaganda our society is something is needed for our society because without it companies wouldn’t be able to sell their products, and messages wouldn’t be as powerful as they are with propaganda (good or bad). Our world and our society would be very different without propaganda.  Propaganda is a piece of our society, that can be used for good.