LEAP 4

LEAP 4 15 ORIGINAL MEMES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYAan4rfIbk&feature=youtu.be

LEAP 4 ESSAY

Kevin Neller

Professor Hobbs

COM 416

May 4, 2017

Leap 4

Propaganda is defined in the dictionary as “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation etc.” The term propaganda has many different definitions and has altered it’s meaning over the course of the years. Before enrolling in this course, I never knew the true meaning of propaganda, how present it was in my everyday life or where to find it. Propaganda is everywhere, whether we know it’s present or not. We see different types of propaganda in advertising, entertainment, government and politics, journalism and public relations, advocacy, and education. After finishing this course, I now understand the variety of different meanings the term can hold as well as how visible it is in my daily life. Propaganda is used as a strategic form of communication that is cautiously designed to target audiences by simplifying information, arousing emotion, attacking enemies, and appealing to audience values.

Before enrolling in this course, I was completely unaware of what the true meaning of propaganda meant or how effective it was in our society. Taking a look back at leap one, I remember it taking a while to produce five examples of propaganda present in my life. Now looking back at it, I would have no problem raffling off many different examples. Each project built up to the next and my understanding of propaganda started to become clearer each time. I have learned that you cannot trust everything you see or hear in the media, especially on social media. Social media has such an impact on our generation today and this is where fake news spreads like rapid fire, leaving it up to the audience to determine whether it is accurate true information or just fake news looking to evoke emotion.

The most powerful group of people that are most effective with their propaganda is ISIS. “Social media has empowered ISIS recruiting, helping the group draw at least 30,000 foreign fighters, from some 100 countries, to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq” (Brooking & Singer, 2016, p.1). This group uses modern tools like social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Whether propaganda will be effective depends on the message, the creators purposes and goals, the techniques used, the environment and context in which people experience the message, the format and means of communication used to deliver the message, and the audience receptivity to the values of the message. According to Renee Hobbs, “research has shown that information and events are more memorable when they are attached to a strong emotion.” Propaganda, especially through ISIS, brings viewers on an emotional roller coaster “feeling a sense of curiosity, caring, love, anger, empowerment, humor, inspiration, sadness, hope, and even pride” (Hobbs, 2016, p.1). This has helped me identify effective propaganda use and be more aware of this technique.

“It takes a very small number of people to unleash great terror, whether in Iraq, Syria, or elsewhere” (Winter & Bach-Lombardo, 2016, p.2). Several small voices are just as powerful as one big voice. This terrorist group puts so much time and energy into their propaganda using it as a recruitment tool so when media outlets are constantly reporting about it, they are helping promote their propaganda. When posting visuals on social media, they are using powerful images to get the audience to react. In former instances, the horrific videos of the beheadings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers David Haines and, on Friday, Alan Henning, have helped drag western powers back into combat in the region” (Rose, 2014, p.1). These men were forced in the videos to condemn the US government’s “complacency and criminality” and to warn them not to intervene. By using these visuals, ISIS is being extremely effective with their propaganda in that they are promoting anger and fear to Americans, which is their exact goal. We also see these powerful visuals in terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 on the twin towers and the Boston Marathon bombings. A few people sitting behind a computer screen can wreak havoc across America by being professionals at evoking emotion and bringing fear as well as anger to Americans.

What we are now calling fake news- misinformation that people fall for-is nothing new. Fake News emerged during the 2016 Presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as people began to understand the way that viral distribution of information through social media networks shaped viewers’ perceptions of the candidates and the political process. “Russian President Vladimir ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election that included hacking the personal email accounts of the Democratic Party officials and political figures”(Beauchamp, 2017,p.2). Putin’s aim was to impugn Hillary Clinton’s credibility and boost Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election, and more broadly to make the US electoral system look shady and untrustworthy. Throughout this campaign, I was able to grasp a better understanding of propaganda because we were learning the material and interpreting it at the same time. During this campaign, fake news became extremely significant in favoring each candidate. It’s crazy to think that social media can have such an affect on the presidential election, but individuals need to be aware of what news they are being told.

The main group behind this spreading of fake news was the PropOrNot team or “a newly-formed independent team of computer scientists, statisticians, national security professionals, journalists and political activists, dedicated to identifying propaganda-particularly Russian propaganda targeting a U.S. audience” (Chen, 2016, p.1). This team aimed to demonize Hillary Clinton and promote Donald Trump. The group was composted of forty anonymous individuals. “Despite the impressive-looking diagrams and figures in its report, PropOrNot’s findings rest largely on innuendo and conspiracy thinking” (Chen, 2016, p.2). In this case, they had no credible sources to support their work and no one would release their identity. Another media outlet used to spread fake news was RT, formerly known as Russia Today. RT “started out in 2005 by telling positive stories about Russian history and culture-no one cared and ratings were terrible,” Peter Pomerantsev wrote last year in the Atlantic. “Gradually, RT changed its strategy, becoming a platform for Western conspiracy-theorists, far-right nationalists, and far-left radicals who sympathize with Russia” (Delman, 2015, p.1). This broadcast helped spread fake news through television reaching more then 644 million people worldwide.

On the other hand, propaganda is not always harmful but can be rather beneficial. Launched on March 5, 2012, the KONY 2012 campaign encouraged viewers all over the world to participate in a youth uprising. “Using tweets, rallies and posters, people who watched the video were encouraged to speak out to the U.S. government to increase efforts to help find and capture Joseph Kony, the Ugandan warlord who recruited child soldiers through violent abductions” (Hobbs, 2016, p.1). The video used four powerful propaganda techniques: activated strong emotions, responded to audience needs & values, simplified information & ideas, and attacked opponents by creating an “us-vs-them” mentality. The filmmaker understood how to activate people’s emotions that suppress critical thinking and take us on an emotional roller coaster. Celebrities played a huge role in making this video go viral as they shared the link on their social media platforms with millions of followers encouraging viewers to share on their own pages to unite as one and stop KONY. The filmmaker made the video very simple as he explains it to his five-year-old son, and allows you to feel as if it was your child being hurt by KONY. The film attacks Joseph Kony, putting its viewers on a pedestal by activating feelings of collective pride.

When we come across visuals and emotions through propaganda, they are not necessarily always bad. ISIS uses visuals and emotions to bring fear and anger to American citizens so that we are always on our toes. When looking at a video like KONY 2012, the filmmaker is using visuals and emotions to make the video go viral and stop the violence. It’s interesting to me to see how you can use both visuals and emotions to create violence or become a hero. It is absolutely fascinating to be able to be aware of these situations and dig deeper into the meanings behind the act. When taking a look at both different sides, it’s scary to think about how much of this propaganda is happening in our world today.

The one thing that was hard for me to understand at the beginning of this course was how propaganda can be positive. In today’s society, propaganda’s definition has been altered so many times and all we mostly hear about today is the negative forms. After viewing “Chinese New Year: Time for reunion” on YouTube, I realized how powerful positive propaganda can be. The video starts with uplifting music and colorful animations that creates hope and happiness. Viewers receive a positive message of how wonderful and beautiful China is. The filmmaker uses tactics that unifies China and creates an image for outsiders that promotes freedom and individuality through their rich culture and traditions. This video truly opened my eyes to a different form of propaganda and allowed me to realize that all propaganda is not negative. While groups such as ISIS use visuals to evoke fear, we see how China uses visuals in the video that are beautiful and full of happiness.

Throughout the course, I have seen a common theme of what makes propaganda effective. The power lies in just a small group’s hands, which is absolutely terrifying when it comes to spreading fake news or violence. Being able to attack people’s emotions, values and needs through visuals or fake news is how propaganda becomes so successful in its message. I am not necessarily able to detect what is true or false, but I am able to understand the techniques used and be aware that it empowers our social media sites whether it is real or not. Media outlets that receive news are quick in that they want to be the first to spread the information, whether they have credible sources or not. This is how quickly the fake news can spread and then viewers leave it up for interpretation creating their own messages to be spread throughout the Internet.

The future of our nation relies on our ability to see and understand propaganda present in society. This is extremely important because as we become more advanced in technology, we are going to have more social media outlets that are promoting fake news. The way we perceive propaganda can either bring our country together or cause us to fall and believe misinformation resulting in complete chaos.

I truly enjoyed taking this course and definitely have learned a lot of useful and beneficial information. I can’t stress enough how aware I am of propaganda today even just by picking up my phone and opening social media. If we want to put an end to negative propaganda, I feel as if we need to make everyone aware and on the same page of these problems we see spreading throughout our media outlets. To live in a world where you have no idea what to believe is true or not is extremely frightening and only going to get worse if we are completely unaware of everything we have learned over the course of this semester. It’s so important and relevant in our lives today and this is what really helped me learn and engage in the true meaning of propaganda.

WORK CITED

Hobbs, R. (2016). Powerful Propaganda: KONY 2012. Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda.

Delman, E. (2015, April 22). When Is a TV Channel a Foreign Agent? Retrieved May 03, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/rt-lobbyist-russia-putin-media/390621/

Chen, A. (2016, December 02). The Propaganda About Russian Propaganda. Retrieved May 03, 2017, from http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-propaganda-about-russian-propaganda

Winter, C., & Bach-Lombardo, J. (2016, February 13). Sorry to interrupt. Retrieved May 04, 2017, from https://web.kamihq.com/web/viewer.html?source=sharedfile&document_identifier=017b7084-8727-45bc-9698-d04269770164

Rose, S. (2014, October 07). The Isis propaganda war: a hi-tech media jihad. Retrieved May 04, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/isis-media-machine-propaganda-war

Beauchamp, Z. (2017, January 06). The key findings from the US intelligence report on the Russia hack, decoded. Retrieved May 04, 2017, from https://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/6/14194986/russia-hack-intelligence-report-election-trump