Rise of Modern Propaganda - Essay Example

Propaganda is used today as it was in the past. However, it has taken many turns in that it is now used in elections (politics) in many countries all over the world to convince the electorate to vote as well as in advertising products.

Although most of the electorates favor a particular party, they sometimes change their minds about the party for which they had a preference because news is going around that the electorates are backing the other party. The political parties often lie about what they are going to do and frame stories about what the other party and some evil that they have done. It is also used in advertising where the advertisers give the impression that a particular product is out of this world. They use personalities who are very popular to convince people to buy products.

So if a particular musician or singer is in the limelight at a particular point in time then that musician or singer will be likely to persuade persons who would not want to make purchases of products under normal conditions. They are usually dishonest about what the product can do and so people buy them and for a moment think it works because they are caught up in the “advertiser’s moment”. This advertising is done on various media – television, print, the internet, radio, television, and electronic billboards.

In the past propaganda was used in times of war and is still being used today. Each side would be indicating to their supporters or country folks that they are in control of the war they are winning when this is not so. Print media was used a lot back then as television and the internet was not available. Propaganda is a negative tool. It seeks to make the advertisers better off by making the customers worst off from something that may not add value. For the political parties, it makes one party appear better off and another party appear worse off.

However, in the end, it has negative outcomes for the populace who are guided or influenced by propaganda. On the other hand, in a war, if one of the parties hears that they are winning the battle it acts as a form of encouragement and gives them the motivation to fight much harder to the end. The definition of propaganda has not changed it is only the user that has changed or I might add, how it is used has taken on new dimensions having mainly used in wartime to used in advertising campaigns of various forms.

It continues to be a dishonest mode of operating. "Every day we are bombarded with one persuasive communication after another. These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and debate but through the manipulation of symbols and our most basic human emotions. For better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda" (Pratkanis and Aronson 9, qtd on web). Technology has certainly changed the face of propagandizing.