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Propaganda And Stereotypes

Good Essays

There are limitations to what the public are told and what portions of the information is truthful. The way in which this information is portrayed to the public influences how well they accept what is being presented to them. The issue of violence within society is constantly being represented within the community, and it is how the public understands the information as to how they understand violence as a social problem. The manipulation of people’s values and ideals are at the helm of almost all tensions surrounding truth and its representation. This essay will discuss three ways in which the representations of issues are manipulated in order to hide inappropriate events or issues from society.

There are major discrepancies when it comes …show more content…

Terrorism, at its base definition is a form of political violence, the same as war, apart from war being on a larger scale, so in this sense, acts of terrorism deserve as much justification as acts of war (Held, 2003). However, it is seen that acts of terrorism are unspeakable acts, and any form of terrorism is an immediate threat to society and people’s way of life. This is mainly caused by the influencing of society’s behaviour towards acts that are now described as terrorism, which began during the Pacific War. Propaganda was used to manipulate Western society’s perceptions of the enemy – mainly the Japanese – in order to advance their wartime agendas. Government officials approved propaganda that attempted to dehumanise the Japanese, to make them into a breed of “subhuman” (Dower, 1986). This was to make it easier for soldiers to face and kill the Japanese in combat, as there was hesitation to kill anyone on the battlefield (Dower, 1986). This process of ‘othering’ was an essential part of what was deemed effective propaganda and began to be used outside the military and throughout the public (Aszkielowicz, 2015). The propaganda was seen throughout western society so much, that the racist terms and subhuman representation became a part of society and lodged …show more content…

The use of propaganda in the Pacific War was crucial in creating a sense that the violence of the war was justified in fending off the advancing efforts of the Japanese. This form of racist discrimination changed public opinion quickly and dramatically and proved that the effects of the influence could be long lasting. The public’s willingness to accept the lies told to them about serious issues such as the abusive treatment of prisoners of war highlights the reluctance of society to accept responsibility for these incidents. It also highlights the effect that witnessing violence can have on the witness, negative effects that individuals would seek to avoid at all costs. The influence that the media has on the public’s opinion and attitudes towards certain social issues highlights how troubled society is with the contradicting versions of truth. There are often calls for a fully truthful media and press industry, however this is unlikely to happen as the public would have to access this information themselves which is seen as extremely unattractive. The ability for individuals to actively seek out the truth of issues out of the cloud of their representation could help in the overall understanding of issues as a whole

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