Propaganda Against Propaganda Essay

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.

John Pilger’s ‘The War You Don’t See’ promotes many strong ideas, with a strong focus on the value of honesty and the lack of it. Raising the issue of when the media do not do their job, the public is manipulated as we are not told the whole truth therefore are not aware of the horrific and

It must be emphasized that the ultimate object of propaganda in war is the destruction of enemy morale, and its corollary, the strengthening of friendly morale. “It consists of the dissemination of ideas, designed to react in different ways upon their various recipients. The enemy must be made to feel that his cause is hopeless from the start, has no chance of ultimate success, and is based upon delusive ideals.” It is usually impossible to convince the responsible organizations of the hostile nation, such as the government or the army, though it may be advantageous to hinder them in their decisions. But it is comparatively easy to influence the rank and file, civilian as well as military, and to produce an atmosphere of hopelessness fatal to success.

This essay will exam how mass media in America saw one of its greatest collapses between the events of 9/11 and the lead up to the Iraq war.(Kamiya). The essay will use Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda model and its five filters and the Frankfurt school's concept of 'culture industry' to illustrate where the media went wrong. Habermas' public sphere model will be used to discuss what the media should have done. Media became a form of propaganda that enforced ignorance and lacked a balance between pro-war patriotism and necessary critiques. The mass media sacrificed its role as the fourth pillar of democracy through supporting the Bush administration and dismissing facts and the interests of the public.

This paper scrutinizes the use of propaganda and the consequential effects during the Iraq War. It will look at certain specific events such as George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished moment, as well as other incidents during the war that may have been a tactic to mislead the American public. This paper will also examine the censorship used by the main news media outlets as to how it affected the perspectives of the public. As one of the only means of getting information about a large war the United States was part of, these news outlets, in any type of media, whether it be newspaper or the television, could tell its audience anything, and they would have to accept it without doubt. By using these examples from the Iraq War the

F or better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda." (Pratkanis and Aronson, 1991)

While in most instances, journalists and media elements assume the role record keepers or publishers of any military event in war or in peace under the premises of freedom of the press. However, this freedom can be the undoing of any military organization if the information published by the press falls into the wrong hands. The need to show the masses the “truth” can be

Newspapers, news channels, magazines, and news websites are all sources of subjective content. Some sources are more liberal, while others are more conservative. Some sources only report topics and tidbits of information which would appeal to the audience to the extent of their pocketbooks, so the whole truth is often excluded. A majority of today's media could be synonymous with the themes of In Cold Blood and The Armies of the Night. It is a common feat nowadays to present each journalistic account through the lens of an opinionated perspective, and to do away with the “straight facts,” which I believe are crucial to the role of a

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 (Casey, 1994d)

Title-How the autonomy of journalists are affected during war times and the power struggle related to media coverage.

First, one must define propaganda and since many have done so already, I shall use the Sheryl Ross model. Her model defines propaganda as “an epistemically defective message designed with the intention to persuade a socially significant group of people on behalf of a political institution, organization, or cause.”

The media are extremely powerful in the sense that they are given a platform and a responsibility to release information to the world at large. According to Chomsky and Herman (1988), in order to integrate people into a larger society, there is a requirement of systematic propaganda.

Throughout society, the mass media constantly changes over time. The mass media play a prominent role in informing the public about what occurs within the world, especially in areas which audiences do not acquire direct experience and knowledge. This essay will argue that the propaganda model is no longer valid as it has become outdated. This essay will also discuss the model in relation to the five filters and draw on Rampton's critique of the propaganda model in contemporary society.

Since my research deals with a conflict situation in the context of international politics, those studies that have dealt with similar issues are the ones that are most relevant to me. One such study was conducted by Maslog, Seow and Hun and published in Asian Journal of communication. The researchers looked at the how newspapers in five Asian countries covered the Iraq war. The study concluded that newspapers from non-muslim countries emphasized War journalism frame, and generally supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, while newspapers from muslim counries opposed the invasion and emphasized Peace journalism frame. Reseachers found that ‘religion and sourcing are two important factors shaping the framing of Asian news coverage on the Iraq war.’ (Maslog, Seow, Hun,

Chomsky (1997) uses, what he calls, the first modern government propaganda operation, the Creel Commission, to identify that the opinions of a population can be easily manipulated with a few well-timed messages and slogans. Woodrow Wilson was elected president using the “Peace Without Victory” platform in the middle of World War I (Chomsky,