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Top 10 Insights on Learning

About Propaganda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​1. Autobot danger, Autobot Destroys

In the world of social media constantly becoming more and more ways of fueling the public with information, “bots” are generated by the users to stir the pot, in lack of better terms, with other users to generate organized chaos with their responses. In The Disinformation Game, we played in class shows how these bots are created and are used to manipulate the ways people are reacting towards situations. I learned that the way once people generate a lot of followers/a bigger following that can create an impact on some other situation. An example that was used in the game was a prominent man was forced to resign after an incident occurred with his company. The incident, however, was small and more than likely a hoax created to stir the chaos in order to create a backlash for him to resign for actions he may not have caused. Impacting a person's life just by trolling. In my own life, I have noticed these on twitter mostly where there are these “fake accounts” that go and follow celebrities and they may only just be following celebrities or certain people in the limelight. Then they start having twitter wars with other fans to cause a commotion over small details of their lives. One big one I remember was when Kylie Jenner had her pregnancy a secret until her baby was born and all the bots going for different validations on conspiracy theories.

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2. “Fake it till you make it” Campaign Imposters   

The theory behind this all is the more sponsors you have the more credibility you have. When up and coming Instagram stars or “wannabes”  want to make themselves more relevant towards a growing fan base they start to post what looks to be sponsored content. When in reality it is not even close to being a sponsored post. Girls and Guys would buy these products themselves and then go to social media sites and post as if these products happened to be purchased for them and they are being paid towards posting these items to get more people to buy them because they have them. This is to fool other companies into thinking they are worth a sponsorship since “other companies” are sponsoring them. They are a lot of ways that companies are going through sponsorships and using social media platforms with these new sponsors get the word out about products that may be specific for a certain targeted audience. Such as gym/health/workout accounts can post about a new pre-workout that will reform the way they can enhance their workout time. Writers can post about a new caffeine drink that can help through any writer's block. These people and accounts can be classified as micro influencers. Where they may not have a million followers, but they have a good way to target more specific consumers. In my personal accounts, I see certain celebrities post about all these tea-detox drinks and how they help them lose weight or stay healthy with their busy schedules. For more detailed information a video by the Rules for Rebels account has more in-depth synopsis of these fake it till you make it influencers. (Rules By Rebels-05-02-19)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=jbN22xdCVAo

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3. Purge for the year 2020

Entertainment is a way of getting propaganda in a very limited way that people may not pick up on unless it is specifically spelled out for them. The Interview was an entertainment piece that was explicitly made to make fun of the way North Korea’s Dictator policies and the extreme ways of life under his rule as making it through humor. There are so many examples of dramatized shows and movies to showcase the policies and propaganda for a variety of different outlets. There are examples from prison, different countries, drug culture, post-apocalyptic worlds and more. Whereas the Purge movies can showcase what life can be like if there is the world of a day of no repercussions for peoples actions, which can cause more chaos than help. In my personal life, I tend to watch a lot of movies and television shows. Where now after propaganda I am going to be looking more in depth with everything I am watching to make see if there is more to the script than what the show is truly about. I recently have been watching Game of Thrones and it really shows, in a very subliminal way, that there is such a thing of power-hungry people and how that really impacts the way politics is run. Which can be considered true to today's society. The way that once power is captured and the more and more you can obtain the more untouchable you think your overall actions are. It is really interesting to see the underlying message even if the overall thought was very much unintentional.

 

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4. Viral? More like Virus.

When something goes viral it is the simple ideas or thoughts that have a tendency to blow up what seems like overnight. Even if this means that the information that is put out there is completely falsified. A huge example of virality was the KONY 2012 Campaign. KONY 2012 was a way for people to bring awareness to a situation where justice needed to be made. The war criminal Joesph Kony needed to be made famous so that he would be indited for his crimes. The whole campaign was bringing people into areas to plaster his name everywhere and anywhere to draw the attention of all media to get the people talking. However, it was perceived as something entirely else than what it was meant for. The reason this went viral is due to the emotional appeal it had to a vast audience due to the influence it had over children. When it comes to playing on peoples heart strings that is what can make something viral completely out of nowhere. Or the other approach when it starts to play tricks on the mind and has a completely different outlook. Such as blue and black or white and gold dress. The news even covered this viral instance because of the huge impact it made on anyone who tried to figure out the true colors of the dress.

 

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5. Propaganda is always negative, right?

When people hear the word propaganda they always think it is a negative form of media and some tool used to impact the world in a negative way. Such as the Nazi propaganda in the early ’40s that was used to promote Hilter and his views.  However, there is propaganda in the world that is used for the better of the people. There is propaganda for the betterment of the environment and certain movements that involve women and equality rights. The propaganda that involves the improvement of equality for all, including but not limited to both payment between men and women, but also the ability of love is love. We need to be progressing with the changing times and that includes giving the equality of gay marriage and more inclusive results with the LGBTQ community. Especially when it comes to the youth of America because it is something that the older generations still struggle to agree and accept as a part of our every day lives. Propaganda is not always negative but is a needed outlet to showcase what change should be made. What changes should be considered and be talked about by everyone? Propaganda will not always work, some people’s opinions can not be changed and impacted as much as others. But if this means some will be influenced by it, then it is worth it to keep the positive outlooks of making a change with propaganda.

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6. I now pronounce you meme and propaganda you may now influence others!

People will never think a meme is nothing more than to make people laugh. But it goes hand in hand with propaganda as well. There are different kinds of memes that will influence others to think more about political, environmental, and social movements that are impacting the world today. In propaganda, we learned that memes can be a variety of these in different degrees. Some of the memes are more straight forward to the point and have no humor around the content. It is a very serious matter. However, there are some memes that are used to enlighten certain subjects in a more light-hearted way. There is an example of propaganda where it goes hand in hand where it impacts in a positive way as well, but there are birds having plastic straws in their mouths instead of fountain drinks. This is a meme that goes together in ways that it influences others and it is propaganda in a positive way. Below is the picture from Mind over Media website.

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7. News more like News?

The news seems more and more like it is being fed information that may or may not be beneficial only to their viewership. It seems that certain news stations are becoming more bias towards what their views are. That’s because they are. It is proven that there are certain stations that will influence others based on sharing the same political and social views. There are stations that will lean more towards the right or more towards the left or more of a neutral-ish standing. Below is the graph showcasing the news stations and their views and what viewership they will obtain from sharing the news that they do.

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8. Twitter the Meme paradise

Twitter this semester has been a huge influx of different forms of memes as well as other outlets of propaganda. Propaganda can be found through different hashtags as well as through the previously stated bot accounts. Most of the accounts are formulating different ideas and fuelling off different battles that have already started. Especially when it has to do with pulling other accounts into their problems and then even more people will see it and generate more of a following.

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9. Propaganda is not a given, it must be learned

Propaganda is something that a person will never know unless they are taught about it and are taught the ways it can be out there for the world to see. There is something about learning the small aspects of hidden details that are not easily sought out. Propaganda is always thought of as a tool and it is indeed as such. However, there is more towards being a tool used for the benefits of something bad in the world and benefits that help the world to make it better.

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10.  Propaganda no matter the year no matter the definition, it is ever changing

There is nothing that changes more than the definition and the impact that is propaganda. With the time changing constantly nothing has been consistent and that includes the evolution of social media and the internet. There is nothing that stays the same and with the evolution of so many different aspects of human life, it really interesting to see what the adoptions there is to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=jbN22xdCVAo

https://propaganda.mediaeducationlab.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9wFUhvnT0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWKGDcf1Cg

 

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