The Pros And Cons Of The Media During The Cold War

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.

Propaganda takes many forms, the most aggressive example in society is political campaigning for powers in office. A prominent

Propaganda is hard to define as most definitions do not cover the full meaning of the word. The Webster's Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary defines propaganda as " the systematic propagation or discrediting of a given doctrine or cause by circulation of polemical material, such as posters and leaflets" (1353). However, this definition does not cover the full scope of the of the word. Terence Qualter also feels the definition for propaganda needs to be more refined for its new usage. The definition that he gives is "the deliberate attempt...(to) form, control, or alter the attitudes of other groups...(with) the use of the instruments of communication" (27-28). He goes on to say that the propaganda must be aimed at the group in general because that is the basic nature of the word, in that the most effective propaganda is the propaganda which has a large audience. Qualter does mention, however, that there need be no difference in the propaganda to persuade one and the propaganda to persuade the many (28). Germany did this by controlling the flow of information into the country.

Propaganda is the use of techniques to easily sway or mislead individuals. It is campaigning and convincing people with what is trying to be advertised. The word propaganda came into use in 1914 during the end of WWl but the use of propaganda actually started a very long time ago, but the term propaganda wasn’t used, there was no name for it. Propaganda is a language of power by spreading false information, shaping society’s opinion, and being able to control people.

Propaganda often receives a bad name. People believe that influencing people as negative, however “propaganda as a mere tool is no more moral or immoral than a pump handle” (Laswell pg 21). It is not until the writers of the propaganda intentionally become vicious and spread lies that it becomes

When was the last time you were exposed to propaganda? If you think it was more than a day ago, you are probably unaware of what propaganda really is. According to Donna Woolfolk Cross in “Propaganda: How not to be Bamboozled,” propaganda is “simply a means of persuasion” (149). She further notes that we are subjected daily to propaganda in one form or another as advertisers, politicians, and even our friends attempt to persuade us to use their product, vote for them, or adopt their point of view. Propaganda is usually considered in a negative sense. However, when viewing propaganda as mere persuasion, one can readily appreicate that it is

Political scientist Harold Lasswell defines propaganda as "the management of opinions and attitudes by the direct manipulation of social suggestion rather than by altering other conditions in the environment or in the organism" (Finch). A propagandist manipulates a situation in the mind of the subject instead of manipulating the situation itself. The propagandist is a spin doctor, who takes an idea and makes it appear

Propaganda means to spread information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

The author presented information on propagandist strategies and how, theoretically, to psychologically affect an audience, but never presented information on the actual effect. Another limitation of this source was that the chapter titles were not allusive to the content of the chapter, they were very vague.

"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).

When people hear the word ‘propaganda’, a negative image automatically seems to pop up in their heads. Propaganda generally revolves around hiding the whole story with information often being provided in a biased or misleading fashion.

We live in a world of technological innovation where mass media is a major part of us today. People make assumptions on what they hear. They do not try to analyze the situation to see who is right and who is wrong, and mass media is the main source of manipulating one's mind. The concept of propaganda has changed over time. Propagandists create ideas stereotypically through the use of propaganda and use media to promote it and target people's minds to have influence on their views towards a certain group of people. These ideas create negative or positive images in the intended audience's minds. However, it is notable that the information is only the one that is exemplified through media and therefore, can be

To some speakers and writers, propaganda is an evil instrument. The negative approaches make 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. They prefer effective language, the rhetoric way, to persuade the audience (Pan, 2012).

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.”

There are two types of propaganda: sociological propaganda; the spreading of an ideology through the mass media, and political propaganda; efforts that are sponsored by governments and political groups that alter a persons’ interests. All propaganda has a direction, and the overall quality determines whether it will have a positive or negative effect over the masses. Our entire nation is a vast propaganda operational system that is greatly linked to education, consumerism and politics. A great deal of what makes up propaganda and how it is placed among the masses lies in understanding the overall emotional and physical states of these groups of people and in finding a way to draw a persons’ attention to capture their hearts, breaking down