Age of Propaganda

In her essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled”, author Donna Woolfolk Cross explains the different types of propaganda and how it is used in the United States. The essay was first published in Speaking of Words: A Language Reader (1977). Cross defines propaganda as “simply a means of persuasion and so it can be put to work for good causes as well as bad” (247). In her article she discusses how propaganda works and explains how propaganda is used with thirteen different devices to manipulate people’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas. She uses this essay as an informative piece, giving advice on how not to be manipulated by propaganda.

The article "Mind Over Mass Media" by Steven Pinker uses logos, ethos, pathos, and other rhetorical elements to effectively communicate that mass media is a positive development and is not a reason for panic. The first noticeable rhetorical element in Pinker’s essay is the presence of a rhetorical triangle. A rhetorical triangle is made up of a rhetor, the audience, and the rhetor’s purpose. In this essay Steven Pinker is the rhetor because is the one trying to make a point to the audience. The audience is the reader of the article who is listening to the rhetor. Finally, the text or point the rhetor is trying to make is that e effects of mass media are not a cause for panic. In fact mass media is an effective way for humans to keep up with the modern age. The clearly defined rhetorical triangle in Steven Pinker’s essay is a surface level example of rhetorical elements in the text.

Star Trek is a franchise that has been around for a very long time; it has been turned into books, movies and a television series. Television is one of the world 's most influential pieces of propaganda. Whether it is being used to promote the next president, sponsor the newest upcoming athlete, or tell you about your favorite show, television is used to influence the world and how we perceive it. The popular television show aired for the first time in 1966 and throughout the years has seen many important events in its lifetime. Societal issues that were present in Star Trek, such as racism, sexuality, war, and scientific theories, continue to appear in today’s mainstream culture, even decades after the show came to an end.

“My Imagination at 10 years old didn’t have the capacity to grasp what had taken away the happiness of the refugees” (6). A child is naïve, innocent, and can’t grasp the idea of war, much less fathom joining it. So the military must find tactics to rework their minds into apathetic killing machines. In the memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah drugs, emotional manipulation, and pop culture are some of the main tactics employed by the militia.

The spreading of information is the mold to which society’s viewpoints are created. Depending on who or how this information is spread, it may be phrased to garner a specific meaning or arouse a specific reaction. W.E.B. DuBois once hinted towards this manipulation of information in his statement, “Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists… I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” DuBois hints towards the fact that forms of expression, are when a specific thought or emotion is brought to reality to cause viewers to feel a specific way. Art would serve no purpose if it had no message to convey. Fahrenheit: 451 by Ray Bradbury depicts this message of propaganda as throughout

Even though W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Gunnar Myrdal are all three very different men, that come from different viewpoints on the topic of race, they still believe the same thing. The Propaganda of History, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch, and An American Dilemma, are three different books that all talk about race.

From a simple ribbon affixed on the back of a pick-up truck with the words “SUPPORT OUR TROOPS” to tough-as-nails, stern Uncle Sam, war propaganda has always been present throughout history. But this type of propaganda differs from the actual experience of war; it glamorizes the entire idea to instill support. However, in the novel A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, his experience with war as a boy soldier is anything but glamorous. Young and with fleeting innocence, his form of propaganda came from the corporal of the army, ingraining the idea to “visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you” (Beah 112). As his experience

Persuading an audience can be done in several different fashions, one of which is Hugh Rank’s Model of Persuasion. Rank’s model states that two major strategies are used to achieve the particular goal of persuasion. These strategies are nicely set into two main schemas; the first method is to exaggerate an aspect of something, known as “intensify.” While the second is to discredit it, which is referred to as “downplay.” Al Franken, Jeffrey Snyder, Harlan Ellison, and George Will, have all written persuasive articles about gun control.

There is little evidence that persuasion can be effective because subjects do not integrate the information into their own belief system. The experiment was designed to test the relative importance of attribution versus persuasive manipulations by comparing persuasion treatment with an attribution treatment. The persuasion techniques were designed to be maximally effective by using a credible source delivering a repeated message stating the benefits of change. The attribution techniques were designed to be maximally

"Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." ( Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1926).

Neimeyer, Rebecca Macnair, April E. Metzler, and Karen Courchaine (1991) are researcher at University of Florida and they came to the conclusion that individuals with high levels of prior bias, when forewarning is enhanced and creates a resistance to persuasion, whereas it has the opposite effect on individuals with more balanced cognitions (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). This differentiation forms an inconsistency for researchers, since ‘‘nearly every independent variable has increased persuasion in some situations, had no effect in others, and decreased persuasion in still other contexts’’ (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). To account for these inconsistencies, researchers use ‘‘The Elaboration Likelihood Model or ELM to addressed the impact of forewarning (forewarned, unwarned) and argument quality (strong, weak) on subjects to get an honest response (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). And according to ELM, the results of forewarning would vary as a direct effect from cognitive responses (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). Although, it is not only forewarning that could cause to resistance to persuasion but person could be motivated by the warning to be more considerate in their own positions as participants, while generating points of view in supporting their own stands and opposing alternative

One of the greatest revolutions in the twentieth century was not political in nature, however, it aided in many different political revolutions. This revolution was the communications revolution. The twentieth century has experienced one of the greatest changes in means of communication including technologies such as radio, motion pictures, the Internet, advanced communications and most importantly the television. Sadly, political leaders and the government to convince or persuade the masses that their ideas supercede those of others have utilized these technologies.

Throughout the years, there has been different changes to our country. From the Age of Reason to today there were different beliefs and ways of thinking. These two time periods have differences and similarities in their values. At the very beginning, to when our country started, took a lot of courage., Tto go from one country and start a whole new one took a lot of time and work.

McGuire and Papageogis proposed forewarning targets of the persuasive intent of a message might produce inhibition of persuasion through counter arguments (1962p127AAC). Hass and Gracly, found that this is only particularly effective if there is a time delay between warning and message which allows for cognitive processes to actively generate a counter-argument (1975). Thus, if the target were perhaps familiar with the door-in-the-face technique or simply inferred a second request may be likely, and there was a delay between the unrealistic and realist request, the persuasion attempt is likely to be inhibited.

Everyone in the United States has had some sort of interaction with a person from the church, at a church, in a church and has seen countless images of Jesus in various states of crucifixion to constantly remind you of his sacrifice, a promise to you that you are forgiven and you have a place in heaven. Now, this essay is not for everyone, some people cannot function without a crutch, or life is so bad this is the only escape from reality that is possible, this essay is for those who like me as a child was so confused about the Christian religion, but could never isolate those reasons until entering an age of wisdom and clarity.