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Pros And Cons Of Propaganda

Decent Essays

Propaganda is not a recent idea or concept however since the creation of film propaganda has found its way into them, especially documentary’s. Documentary filmmaking is a platform and mode of filmmaking associated with truth and actuality to present an overview of a topic or issue (Aufderheide, 2007). Audiences expect this when watching documentary films because generally the topic of a documentary film is based on a real issue and/or event without the use with actors, sets and special effects (with the exception of docudramas) (Nichols, 2010). Although they may be based on a real-world issue/event the filmmaker(s) behind the documentaries have an agenda and are trying to push certain ideologies or points of view on the audience. However, the assumption is made that they are doing this through fact and truth (Bizz). Propaganda on the other hand does not rely on truth or fact as it is an idea of dishonestly. Propaganda never tries to persuade or inform instead it attempts to deceive an audience by conveying/creating representations and ideas in a text that can only have one dominant reading (Aufderheide, 2007). Propaganda filmmaking is usually created by governments and political figures to impose hateful/nationalistic viewpoints and ideologies on the general populous (Aufderheide, 2007). Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1935) and Prelude to War (Capra, 1943) demonstrate that documentaries have the ability to create a false representation of history due to the filmmaker's

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