Propaganda Analysis

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Summary of the lecture about propaganda by Oliver Davies Propaganda is a tool for manipulating and changing the opinion of people. The bases of propaganda have come forth form the modes of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Walter Lippmann (known for the term ‘Cold War’) and Edward Bernays (considered to be the father of Public Relations) were in the trenches for the first strikes of the propaganda “attack”, and both considered propaganda to be an essential tool for war. They might have been right as to this day we see warring countries use propaganda to justify their actions. In ancient times propaganda was more difficult to spread, as almost everything had to be done mouth-to-mouth. That changed with the invention of the printing press…show more content…
The fact that wars give rise to intensive propaganda campaigns has made many people suppose that propaganda is something new. The truth is, it is not. The battle with persuasion for power and men’s minds is as old as human history exists (Casey, 1994d) To some speakers and writers, propaganda is an evil instrument. There negative approach makes a part of the world think that propagandists hoodwink the population, use half-truths, lie, conceal and distort facts. Although there are many pessimistic perspectives, there are others who have a positive view and think especially of techniques, slogans, catchwords and other devices. Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b). Of course propaganda is used in controversial matters, but it is also used to promote things that are generally acceptable. For both those purposes propaganda can be expressed in different forms such as, exhibits, drawings, goal-pictures, graphs, parades, songs and many more. Propaganda can be found concealed or open, emotional or containing logical appeals to reason, or in combination (Casey,…show more content…
‘’It is only one of the tools in the formation of public opinion’’ (Casey, 1944c). As to my observations and reading I created an opinion in which I found that people often relate to propaganda as an extreme and horrible tool while at the same time it is a part of our daily life. Whether propaganda has a bad reputation or a good one, I do not believe our world is possible to live without this adaptive and evolving tool. “It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the miss-educated” ~ Herbert M. Shelton (Goodreads, 2014). It is true that we humans need to discuss, give opinions, and have deep conversation about events that happened in the past or are happening right now and about people we all cross in our life. However, some sources where our discussions, opinions and conversations are built up on are sometimes misleading from its origin. ‘’The news isn't there to tell you what happened. It's there to tell you what it wants you to hear or what it thinks you want to hear’’ ~ Joss Whedon (Goodreads,

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