The Characteristic and Usage of Propaganda - Essay Example

Task: Propaganda Part Propaganda entails the use of selective approach in communicating information to the masses. It relies on a combination of communication techniques in disseminating information to influence a particular group of people in the society. The focus of propaganda is altering the attitude of the masses. In most cases, people disseminate information without facts. Politicians have used it as a political tool that convinces masses. Propaganda also serves the interest of the senders of the message. According to Jowett, Garth & Victoria (51), propaganda creates confusion to the masses whenever directed to a definite group in the populace. This is because it has a way of distorting truths. The media helps in spreading propaganda to reach a wide target audience. The intention of the conveyer of the message is usually to create an understanding that is different from the people’s belief. For instance, a leader can use propaganda to propagate hate in communities. The leader can mislead the masses by giving them false information concerning the ongoing in the government. Interestingly, propaganda contains some element of truth as indicated by Jowett, Garth & Victoria (289). However, propagandist coats the lie with facts to deceive the audiences. Sometimes people who spread propaganda base their information on rumors in most circumstances. In addition, there are occasions when individuals spread propaganda unknowingly. Authorities use propaganda in justifying certain behaviors in the society. This mode of communication during the holocaust period appeared to support the heinous acts perpetrated by the supporters of the Nazi movement in Germany. Besides, I have come to realize that the use of propaganda can be beneficial of the society. For instance, campaigns to sensitize individuals in the community can take the form of propaganda. Consequently, the government can use it to eliminate fears among the masses by providing information concerning certain events in the society. There are times in which propaganda fails to reach its target audience. For example, the opponents of the ideology might receive propaganda aimed at convincing the supporters of a given ideology positively (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 307). Moreover, propaganda creates confusion when the message conveyed to the audience is incomplete. As such, it has contributed to rise of conflicts in the societies. The use of propaganda is not a new concept in the society. Records indicate that civilizations used it in communication during the 15th century. It began as a mode of communication within the religious circles in which the ancient Roman Catholic Church had a wing for spreading information concerning their doctrines to the masses. They had intended to convince people to disregard other religious practices. The organization was opposed to secular practices. Governments adopted its use in the Second World War (Conserva 86). Authorities were using it as a tool for spreading hate messages. I had wrote that all forms of propaganda present false information only to realize that propaganda can contain some facts in their messages. Consequently, I had failed to notice there are some instances when authority lack control in preventing the spread of propaganda. The users of propaganda capitalize on the fact that people have different understanding (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 97). I learned that people are always curious when seeking information; hence, it is easy to spread propaganda. Part 2 The characteristic of propaganda is its transformative nature. It alters people’s perception, and has the capacity to change people’s attitudes towards certain ideologies. For example, warlords use propaganda to convince people to join them in their actions. Wrong doers also use the process to comfort their victims in times of difficulties. Governments use it to conceive the masses because it is transformative. Its selective use of facts helps in brainwashing individuals to believe in a particular ideology. According to Jowett, Garth & Victoria (361), governments use propaganda to conceal the truth behind their actions. This relies on the fact that propaganda is transformative in nature. The Russian government convinced the masses to support them in their actions during the cold war era. Indeed, propaganda helped in transforming peoples thinking during the war. Propaganda is repetitive in nature and it thrives on the element of mass persuasion. This characteristic relies on the fact that people tend to believe information that they hear repeatedly. It serves to the interest of the bandwagon in the masses. In this case, people an idea because majorities in the populace are for the idea. This form of belief can be misleading to the masses because it bases its assumption on the transformative nature of propaganda. Moreover, it thrives in situations where the people lack access to information. According to Jowett, Garth & Victoria (290), it is easier to disseminate propaganda in countries where authorities have denied people access to information. Propaganda is dynamic and it relies on media in disseminating information. This makes it difficult for authorities to control the spread of propaganda. This characteristic of propaganda makes individuals to use it to spread malice. This has been aggravated with the advent of media technology. Propaganda is contributing to the misinformation of the masses at an alarming rate. Interestingly, threats and intimidation cannot stop the spread of propaganda. The suitable means to controlling propaganda is providing the public the right information. According to Jowett, Garth & Victoria (211), propaganda has the capacity to serve numerous functions because it is transformative characteristics. Propaganda uses a persuasive approach of communication whereby the conveyer of the information focuses on addressing the needs of the audience selectively. The communication technique has the capacity to captivate the audience to believe in what they hear. To some extent, it arouses curiosity in which the audience feels that they should seek for information concerning the message. According to Jowett, Garth & Victoria (359), it creates some sense of confusion to the masses. It also comforts the victims in certain circumstance. This happens in cases where authorities are justifying certain behaviors or responses. Propaganda has ideological bias because it uses ethnically biased strategies in influencing the masses. Subsequently, it uses strong ideological belief in disseminating information. Another characteristic of propaganda is that it is an institutionalized mode of communication. Organized groups such as the government and corporations use it during communication (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 60). Propaganda serves at the interest of the people who are conveying the information. Propaganda disseminates facts selectively; thus, it has the capacity to convince the audience. Propaganda applies the use of enticing words in conveying messages. In addition, there is the use of graphics to support the message. The graphics can be in form of pictures and graphs. There are instances in which propaganda has failed to accomplish its mission. For propaganda to be successful, it must be persuasive in a nature (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 99). Secondly, the senders of the message should identify their target audiences. The message should also have an agenda for it to qualify as propaganda. Sometimes inappropriate reasoning helps in sending the messages. In most cases, the messages are repetitive in nature. Propaganda uses assertion in spreading its messages as noted by Jowett, Garth & Victoria (100). It capitalizes on the fact that people are gullible whenever they receive information that has few facts. This is because people have different understanding of messages spread using propaganda. Politicians use it because they believe that the senders of the message have the capacity to convince the receiver of the message to changes their thinking. There is the suppression of information in spreading propaganda. There is the distortion of facts to serve the interest of a particular group of people in the society. Name-calling is also a characteristic and an element of propaganda. This involves naming particular events using a person’s name maliciously. For instance, people name political leaders after mistakes that they commit during his reign. This strategy is still applicable in the contemporary society in which the masses ridicule the mistakes of presidents during political campaigns (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 212). It formed the basis of psychological warfare between the United States and Russia during the cold war era. Propaganda equally creates a false notion to the masses. It takes advantage of the ignorance of the masses in spreading false information. The other elements of propaganda are transfer, generalization of information in an enticing manner, card stacking and name-calling. These elements manifest themselves whenever propaganda is used. Government can use the flexibility of propaganda to enlighten the masses. In cases where citizens doubts the role of the government in championing their rights, propaganda can be used to convince the public to believe that the government is serving on their interests. Advertisers use it in promoting their products. In this form of propaganda, a company will claim superiority of their commodity in marketing their products (Jowett, Garth & Victoria 8). Moreover, the marketer can focus on factors neglected by their competitors in convincing consumers to use their products. This form of communication enlightens by coming up with an idea that was never thought of by the masses. Propaganda is both factual and deceiving. Sometimes it presents meaningless information to the masses in an enticing manner. Testimonial is one of the techniques for disseminating propaganda. In testimonials, famous individuals in the society are giving the role of spreading the message (45). For example, celebrity sport personalities can express their thought about a given ideology to support an organization that intends to use propaganda to disseminate information. Work Cited Conserva, Henry T. Propaganda Techniques. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2009. Print. Jowett, Garth, Garth Jowett, & Victoria ODonnell. Propaganda & Persuasion. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012. Print. Read More