Propaganda
Propaganda is a set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of just providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to give loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of opinion, perspective, or behavior of the target audience.
If you watch CNN and watch the BBC, you’ll see quite a different perspective in news. The US tends to keep news localized unless it affects US interests, BBC reports on interests across the world.
In our current elections, notice how the candidates vilify each other. Sometimes politicians lie just to get votes.
How can you recognize propaganda?
How can you protect yourself against propaganda?
Is propaganda ever good? Cite examples.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
You can recognize propaganda if someone is saying is only one side of the story or it is trying to get you to act a certain way. You can protect yourself from propaganda by giving a logical response that was thought not from what the propaganda said but from what you know to be true. Propaganda can be good like the World War II propaganda with Uncle Sam asking you to join the army because if we did not get all those soldiers we might not have won. Then we would now be controlled by Hitler.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
You can recognize propaganda when you look at different posters. One poster could be of someone buying stuff from a certain company. That’s propaganda because it’s showing someone buying something. Then people will think “oh, that person’s so cool, and she/he buys from that brand. Well, so will I.” That type of propaganda is called the bandwagon effect. Another way of spotting propaganda is looking at old World War II posters. The American posters have American people looking scared because if the people don’t sign up for the army, Germany will take us over and cause us pain and misery. That type of propaganda is called Fear.
You can protect yourself from propaganda is knowing companies will try and get you hooked at a young age. Like McDonalds. They’ll put a toy in the happy meal so you’ll want to come back as a kid. Then it’ll become a habit and when you’re older you’ll keep coming back.
Yes, propaganda can be good. Two examples of good propaganda is when people say that eating healthy will help you live longer and another one said is if you take a power walk for at least thirty minutes a day, then you will live at least 2 hours longer.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
To recognize propaganda, you need to know facts. Sometimes in propaganda, people don’t tell the whole truth. They only tell one side of the story. If you know both sides of the story, then you will know if someone is using propaganda.
To protect yourself against propaganda, you can’t believe everything you hear or read. For example, Hitler would tell the Germans that Jews were not smart. But Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists in the world, and he was Jewish!
Sometimes, propaganda can be good. For example, when you want to persuade someone to stop smoking, you will most likely use propaganda. Smoking is bad, so propaganda is good in this situation.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Sometimes it is difficult to recognize propaganda, but a lot of people know what is propaganda and what isn’t. I see a lot of propaganda myself. Some things that I have noticed is when you buy things at the grocery stores or at other shops. They tell you that you can have something 3 for $5.00. When they do this, it makes them look good because they are selling something for 3 things instead of 1 but for a larger price. When they do this, the people that are going to buy this product think about the fact that if they just bought 3 separate ones it would be a lot cheaper.
When we were working on our projects, the Patriots or the British would preach about how everyone should be on their side so that they can be free and have a bigger army so that they don’t lose their lives or land. I think that the most common propaganda that most people use is bandwagon. I think this because they always have stars on T.V. advertising facial products, clothes and even shoes. This is like bandwagon because if everybody sees famous people wearing and using that kind of stuff, they are going to go out and buy those things so that they look cool.
I could avoid propaganda very easily but sometimes it may be hard to do. I think that you have to have a lot of common sense because you have to know when you are being used with propaganda. I agree with Carson, you can also easily look at propaganda when you notice that people that are trying to persuade you to buy something or tell you to do something they will only tell the better half of the story. For example if someone tells you to vote for Hillary Clinton and they really wanted you to vote for her, they would tell you all of the good stuff. For example, she could be the first lady president and she is experienced because she is the wife of Bill Clinton, but what they don’t tell you is if she will help the causes that we need help with or what will she do for us in Hawaii.
I think that depending on what the situation you are in, you need to be able to use propaganda. I think that a lot of people working in big companies who try to sell things think that propaganda is no big deal. It is just a way to sell things even better. On the other hand, I think that the people who buy those things would be a little mad when they take things home, and the object that they just bought says on the box that it will last for 3 years when it only lasts for three months.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
To recognize propaganda you have to know the truth to know if it is true or not. An example of propaganda is a cigarette commercial saying that you should start smoking because it is good for your body. If you did not know the facts you would think that smoking was good for you and you would start smoking. If you did know the facts, you would not listen because you know that smoking is bad for you.
To protect yourself from propaganda you should always think of what you know to be a fact in your thinking, and don’t let propaganda influence your thinking unless you think it is true.
Propaganda can be good sometimes. An example is when companies say that you should be active for at least an hour every day. This is good propaganda to my understanding because if you are active then your bones will not crumple and you might live longer.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
You can recognize propaganda usually because it is an advertisement. It is usually telling you to do something or buy their product. Propaganda itself is telling you one side of the story and not the other. Propaganda could be using a superstar to tell you to use this product. Almost every advertisement is propaganda because it tells you what it gives you, but it doesn’t always say what it doesn’t give you. Propaganda isn’t always easy to see. They can use words to make you think that they mean something else. They can make you think that their product is perfect for you, when it only lasts a couple of days. Then you’ll have to come back and keep buying that product every time it breaks.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by simply not paying any attention to it. You can look at the advertisements and still have nothing to do with it. You don’t have to buy the product, and you don’t have to listen to what it is saying such as: “All Hail Hitler!” or “Don’t vote for Obama!” You can merely just have nothing to do with it. Sometimes, if you feel like you don’t agree with the propaganda, it is natural. You probably know the other side of the story that the propaganda is trying to tell. It isn’t always easy to avoid propagnada. Sometimes it could be a video game that you really want or a toy that is on sale. This is some of the effects of propaganda and why it can be dangerous.
However, propaganda isn’t always bad. Sometimes they are merely making an advertisement saying they want you to use that product without meaning any harm, or it could be asking you to make a difference in the world by doing something simple, like recycle or donate money to charity. So even though propaganda can be dangerous, it can still be good and simple. You can compare that to people. Some people can be good and mean no harm, while others want you to go their way, think their way is the best, and want you only to believe their side of the story without having a clue about the other side.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
You can recognize propaganda by when people give you one side of the story, want you to vote or do something for them that they will benefit from. People use persuasive ideas to control you like a puppet to change your ideas, looks, and attitude.
Assertion, Bandwagon, Card stacking, Glittering Generalities, Lesser of Two Evils, Name Calling, Pinpointing the Enemy, Plain Folks, Simplification (Stereotyping), Testimonials, and Transfer
are all different types of propaganda that everybody uses.
I can protect myself from propaganda by thinking before acting, so when there is this new trend that will cost me $500, I can use that money for something else other than a Wii 2 or Xbox 420. Come to think about it, they are going to keep on making stuff that gets better anyways.
Sometimes propaganda is good because if you have a good cause like cleaning up Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor), it is good. But when you use it to take over the world, that is not good.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
You can recognize propaganda by the way you feel, especially when you feel like they are persuading you to be on their side or see their point of view. An example of propaganda is the old smoking commercials. In the commercials they would say that smoking is cool and hip, and they wanted it to appeal to the younger generation. That is propaganda because that is actually not true. Smoking is bad for you and if people knew the real facts there would be less people that smoked and a lot of lives could have been saved.
To protect yourself from propaganda you shouldn’t believe everything someone tells you. People aren’t always right. For example, if you think your older sibling is the best and you look up to them, you will pretty much believe everything they say, right? Yeah, you probably will but, you shouldn’t believe everything someone tells you (even if it is someone you look up to) because it might not be true. You should find out what is right and what you, yourself should believe in.
Sometimes, propaganda can be good. It matters on your situation. For example, you could say something like “Eat smart, don’t eat pop tarts.” Some propaganda that is good is about your health or eating right. Examples of bad propaganda are like when they say “Michael Jordan wears these shoes, why don’t you” or “If you join our army, our town won’t look like this” (have a picture of a town totally destroyed). It is good for advertising and making money but I think that it is making people believe and trust you when what you are doing is just for yourself and not the good of the town. Well, I’m not saying that if I was running a business that I wouldn’t be doing propaganda to try to sell my products. It just doesn’t seem right to be doing that to the townspeople or even worldwide (if you have a big business).
February 19th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
You could recognize propaganda if you know if someone is telling the truth or a lie. Usually propaganda is a lie. An example of prapaganda would be a poster of a German Nazi Soldier looking brave and buff, and Jewish people looking like cockroaches.
You could protect yourself from propaganda if you educate yourself about the subject and don’t believe everything you hear, see, and read.
Propaganda could be good only if it is used for a good cause. For example, they used propaganda to recruit American soldiers.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
You can recognize propaganda when it seems too good to be true. Usually you can tell that it is propaganda from just hearing it.
One way that you can protect yourself from propaganda is when you hear or read it, you go and look up the information yourself. The effects that can come with your uneducated guess without firsthand knowledge and thoroughly thinking it through are great.
Sometimes propaganda is good because some people need guidance and if they believe, it they will start to do it. Adolf Hitler wrote once that if you tell a man a lie enough times then you can get them to believe it. Another reason it is good is if someone wants to have a better life you can teach them things that will lead to a better life. You can share knowledge so it won’t be lost.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I think that you can recognize propaganda when it either makes a certain race, place or anything look bad or say anything bad about it. For example, Adolf Hitler made the Jews look bad by saying bad things about them like they have fat lips, they are cockroaches, they have noses that are shaped like a six and lots of other bad things. After he said that over and over again, people started to believe him and also hated the Jews. You can also recognize propaganda when the person, company or race makes themselves look good and everyone else look bad.
I think that you can protect yourself from propaganda by not believing everything that posters show and what people say. I think that if I didn’t learn about Hitler and how he hated the Jews, I would probably believe a little of what he said. There is going to be propaganda everywhere and all through our lives so we have to learn how to make choices and choose what to believe and what not to.
There are good and bad propaganda. Some examples of good propaganda are when they say to eat healthy so that you can stay healthy. Another example is when they say exercise because it is good for your health. This is the kind of propaganda that I would believe. Some examples of bad propaganda are McDonalds. McDonalds is sort of bad propaganda when they say that you can get things for a dollar, It makes you want to buy more of it and at that time you will just think that it’s a dollar but after awhile it adds up. They also do that to the happy meals. They put toys in it so that kids will by it more often just for the toy.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I believe we can recognize propaganda by looking at ourselves and thinking, “why am I thinking this way and if I am, what influences me?” When you think about your actions it is called metacognition. When doing this, you can find propaganda. We can protect ourselves by looking up information by ourselves like how Mcdonald’s says their food is nutritious and most people believe it. If we take the time and look at the nutritious value, we might think twice about if Happy Meals are really helping your body or that a Big Mac will fill your stomach.
Some propaganda is good like the South Beach Diet which influences your desire to eat healthy and be slim, or Recyling Hawaii propaganda which encourages people to recyle our trash. Also propaganda can be bad like tobacco is cool and good for you. Also companies tell people to do this because everyone does it.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Propaganda is when you make someone or something look bad. In World War II, the Allied troops made Adolf Hitler look bad because he killed all the Jews. Propaganda is also when you sell stuff. This propaganda says that everyone else is doing it so you should too.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by trying to get the full story before you choose sides. You can also make sure that the product is the best and lasts the longest. Propaganda is trying to get you to do something and when you ignore it, then the company that was doing it would realize that it isn’t working and they would stop.
Propaganda can be good in ways because it might be used to make somebody stop a bad habit such as smoking. Propaganda can also be used to help a company that recycles get more employees. It can be used to get people to start recycling and save the world from Global Warming.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
You can recognize propaganda by knowing two sides of the story. You can tell if it is by the lies or when they are only one-sided. Propaganda doesn’t mean that you hate a certain place or thing, it just means that you want to persuade people to one side.
You can prevent propaganda from influencing you by just doing what you do and don’t listen or follow anybody unless you know that 100% sure that there right.
It could be good but I wouldn’t know any examples of any that I could explain. It could be good if you wanted to raise money for cancer you could put posters or commercials about cancer.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
You can recognize propaganda when you feel as if it is trying to change the way you are thinking. Propaganda tries to persuade you to think a certain way whether if it is good or bad. One example of propaganda is if you watch most commercials, they would have a celebrity saying how good this certain product is or how good it works. People would think, “well, if this certain person is using it then I should use it too.” Many of these commercials often lie to persuade you to buy their product so they can make more money. Another example of propaganda is when Hitler persuaded the Nazis into thinking that the Jews were bad. He lied to them and said that they smelled funny, their noses were shaped like a 6, and they had fat lips etc.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by doing your own research and by knowing what is right. Most people believe whatever they hear, especially kids. People often listen and believe what their friends are thinking. You don’t have to believe everything you see or hear unless you did your own research and know that it is true. You can protect yourself by being educated so you can know what is right.
Propaganda is sometimes good if it speaks the truth. One example is if you ever see or hear something on a commercial or the radio talking about how you could stop smoking, where to get help for abuse, exercise, etc. Those kinds of propaganda are good because it helps you to sometimes quit bad habits. It can also help you to make the best decisions for youself whether if it is health habits, education and more.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:44 am
You can recognize propaganda by looking at different posters. The poster may try to change the way you are thinking. If that is what you are reading then it is most likely propaganda. A lot of companies use propaganda to get people to buy their products. Propaganda does not always have to be a poster. It could also be on television. For example, tabacco companies way back used television to get people to smoke. My mom said when she was my age, she would read the cartoons in the newspaper. A lot of times they would have a cartoon saying “A lot of doctors smoke camel, if you smoke camel you will be more healthy.” That is propaganda. I think that a lot of companies use propaganda to make people do bad things, like cigarettes, beer, and stuff like that. You just need to know what propaganda is good and not so good.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by doing research to see if it is true or not. If it is true, you know that you can buy that product and believe in it. If you find out it isn’t true, then you should tell all your friends, family, etc.
Propaganda can sometimes be true. I doubt most of it is true but there has got to be some propaganda out there that is true. For example, I saw a propaganda poster at the grocery store and it said “You should buy Watermelons. They are cheaper and healtheir then cookies.” That was very true so some propaganda is good. With propaganda you really have to make choices, good or bad.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:55 am
You can recognize propaganda when you feel someone trying to persuade you to think differently or to buy an item that you really don’t need. Examples of this are commercials. In commercials, the company uses things that catch your attention. For example, if a company was trying to sell a remote-controlled airplane they would probably show how fast it can go, how long it can go without a charge, and probably background music. For a backpack, the company would probably say how comfortable it is, how much it can hold and how nice the design is.
I can protect myself from propaganda by getting both sides to the story and finding more about the product that you think you are going to buy. You also should not believe every single thing that you read, see, or hear. An example of thinking carefully is when there is some kind of new food out that cost $300 and everyone had it. The company that made that new product will probably use bandwagon propaganda. Bandwagon propaganda means when you say something like: “Everyone has it, why don’t you?” You will probably want to buy it now, but instead you could buy a more useful item.
Yes, sometimes propaganda is good. Like, after we found out that smoking is bad, we used propaganda to tell everyone that smoking is bad and you should try and stop. Propaganda can be good and propaganda can be bad. Just to make sure, ask yourself questions so you will not fall right into the trap that the companies want you to.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
You could recognize propaganda if it is making you want something. For example, you could say Xbox 360 is the best because it has the best graphics you will ever see and it is slimmer then the original Xbox. Propaganda also could be persuading you to join something like joining the army. They can tell you that you might be a great hero and soldier to the country. It could also be only one side of a perspective. For example at McDonalds they try to make their food look healthy when it is not healthy.
I think I can protect myself from propaganda if I think before I act because most times they come out with better stuff. One example is ipods. Every once in a while they come out with a new one. First it was the ipod classic, then it was the ipod shuffle, then it was the ipod nano, then it was the ipod video, then the new ipod shuffle, then the new iphone, then the new ipod nano, and then the ipod touch. They made a lot of ipods this past year. If you just save your money for a house and a car you will be more successful. My mom was reading a book and it said that if you save one dollar a day from age ten or eleven, by the time you get to age thirty or forty you will have one million dollars. So now I put ten dollars in to my bank each week so I will be able to afford a pretty nice house and car. I also heard about this twenty-year-old kid and he had a huge house and a hummer just by doing his work and saving money.
Propaganda is good sometimes because you can convince somebody to do good in something and then reward them. For example, we told Jonathan if he finishes all his homework we will give him two hundred dollars and he did it.
Propaganda is also good if it is trying to get people to stop taking drugs.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:08 pm
You can recognize propaganda when you see things that seem very evil or something that is too good to be true. You have to know the facts, what is true and not true, basically what is right from wrong?
You can protect yourself from propaganda by doing research and finding out the whole truth. If you research and find the statement false, then you should not believe that piece of JUNK!! If you start believing this JUNK then you will be putty in the person’s hands who wrote the propaganda. Hitler told people propaganda and they believed the propaganda. They were putty in his hands.
Propaganda can be good. It can be good towards the person that it favors, so basically it is your perspective if the propaganda is good or bad. For example, making the Americans look like really evil people was good for the Japanese. As I said before, it all depends on your perspective of the situation. If you think that something is good, then that situation is good.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
One way to recognize propaganda is by listening to someone tell a story but knowing they don’t tell the full story. An example is when someone tells you a story that he got in a fight but he doesn’t tell the reason why he was in a fight.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by not buying toys that they keep making new and better versions of. For example, they keep making new game systems. They keep making new Game Boys like the Game Boy Color, then the Game Boy Advance, then the Game Boy SP, then the DS, and then the DS Lite, so you can protect yourself by not playing it.
Propaganda can be good and bad because the person who is telling the story would want to make them look better than the other person.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
One way you can recognize propaganda is by looking at advertisements. One day you could see an advertisement for a cool game system and you really like it. A few months later, you see another advertisement by the same company advertising another game system and saying that the other is bad. That would be major propaganda.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by not buying things that you think are cool. When you buy those things, you are just adding yourself to the society of propagandists.
Propaganda is good and bad. It is good for the propagandist because he is getting more people to buy his product. It is bad for the person who is seeing the advertisements because he is falling into the propagandist’s trap and once the trap snaps shut, there is no going back.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I agree with Kealani that to recognize propaganda you should look at advertisements. For example McDonald’s say look at our chicken nuggets with fresh white meat. Their French Fries have tons of oil in it. That is not healthy. Just like the apple dippers, the apple is good but not the caramel. Another example is when they say some games are such a good game when it isn’t like wht they said it would be like.
I agree with Kapena that you don’t always need the new version of things. Like me, I got an IPod but then I wanted the IPod Touch. So now I got the IPod Touch. Just because something sounds good does not mean you have to get it. If all the cool people had some kind of phone, it does not mean you have to get it to be cool.
Propaganda is not always bad if somebody came up with good propaganda that smoking is bad, or to stop baseball players from taking steroids, Human Growth Hormones, or other stuff. If baseball players stop using steroids and stuff, people would not get in so much trouble.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Propaganda is in mostly everybody’s daily life. We don’t see propaganda as a huge thing because we see it so often. Whenever we watch TV we see people advertising. They are using propaganda. They use propaganda by telling us all the positive things about that product or business. We think that although they only say the positive things that are not propaganda because they are not lying to us, but they are. You know when you watch TV and you see those commercials of Shampoo and Conditioner and they show the girl with silky smooth shiny hair. You know that if you used that Shampoo your hair wouldn’t be the exact same thing as that. You want your hair to be that shiny but it usually only can happen in movies. When specialists come to specialize on doing the girls hair and making it super shiny. That example is propaganda. You can recognize propaganda by comparing maybe a newspaper from different countries. A newspaper from America says that America controls the world. In another newspaper from China it says that China controls the world. How do you know who is right and is telling the truth. When you are in a situation where you don’t know who to believe you shouldn’t just pick because you like one of them better. You should do more research to find out the truth. People tell you lie every day because they always want you to believe the wrong things. Whenever you are not sure of something that someone tells you or something that you hear you should always research on it. Even if you just need to ask your friend. That is still research.
You can protect yourself from propaganda by not believing everything you hear. As what I said before don’t listen to everyone that tells you something. Whenever you hear something that is maybe is something that you think that you really know it is not true still. Even though you are positively sure, you never know until you have compared the research that you have done to figure out if that is really true. Maybe you were right the first but not right the second. You never know.
I think that propaganda sometimes is acceptable if it is used for good use. The only propaganda that I know about is selling things to make money. For every blog that I have ever done mostly on things about our earth every single one some how comes all back to money. In every blog I probably used money at least one or two times. I have noticed it before but doing this last blog it really pops out at me. Before in the world to survive you needed food and water. In the modern world you need money to live. Although you don’t eat money, to get food you need money. If you don’t have money you won’t get food and if you don’t get food you will die. I don’t like propaganda because it is actually scamming people of their money, but it is ok to do. It is not like it is against the law.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I find propaganda sometimes easy to see and sometimes not easy to recognize because at times you will see propaganda for a cause that you are also for. Then your brain already clicks and says that the propaganda poster is right and isn’t propaganda at all. When you see a propaganda poster and you are not for the cause, then your brain will say this is just propaganda and it’s just wrong. In either situation you could be wrong. For example, the person for the cause might say it’s not propaganda but it might be, and the person not for the cause might say it is propaganda but it might not be.
You should always be aware of your surroundings. I can see the propaganda but don’t have to believe it fully. You can protect yourself from propaganda by simply not paying any attention to it. You can look at the advertisements and still have nothing to do with it. You don’t have to listen to what it is saying such as: “have it your way” or “bababababa I’m loving it!” You can read and believe some of it but not all of it, or just have nothing to do with it. Sometimes, if you feel like you don’t agree with the propaganda, it is natural. You probably know the other side of the story that the propaganda is trying to tell. It isn’t always easy to avoid propaganda. Sometimes it could be a video game that you really want or a toy that is on sale.
Propaganda can be used in good ways and bad ways depending on your perspective. For example, propaganda could be about saving the trees and a tree hugger would think it is a great propaganda poster, but a owner of a gas station would think it’s bad.