The Targeting Victims Of Propaganda

Propaganda is a tool used to manipulate and control one’s beliefs or opinions, usually about politics or economical issues. Propaganda has been around for hundred and thousands of years and yet it is still used today to promote the same ideological concepts. Specifically, we are the targeted victims of propaganda. The main idea of propaganda used by modern-day media is to create a fulfilling fantasy in substitute for reality, thus creating a false disoriented perception of reality itself. Propaganda has many effects on masses such as when it comes to war or promoting products for large corporations, such as MacDonald or a certain brand of clothes, food, or other desirable items. To understand more about propaganda, the first step is to know
how it works and then the tactics used in propaganda and finally how it’s used in war.
To begin with, propaganda is unable to function and extent without the assistance of the media.
Media helps the word spread and grips the attention from people, of whether it’s from television, newspaper, or the internet, all of which helps spread a particular desirable message to the public. In order for propaganda to take full effect, it relies on our attention and our emotions towards that message. Propagandist uses bias and non-factual statement to alter the hard truth into into a misleading lie. Business endorsers often sell products based off of our interests, which makes it easier to earn profit. In the novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, Squealer was a direct representation of propaganda. He was appointed by Napoleon to convince the other farm animals pigs they deserved more rights because they are the “brainworkers”, resulting the pigs being placed in a higher hierarchy. (“...We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your own sake we drink that milk and eat those apples.”
)(p.36) There are numerous properties of propaganda which includes: distraction, repetition, and testimonial.
One of the most common tactics used is distraction. When we are distracted, we are blinded from the truth, and just believe whatever we are told without even knowing if the information given is accurate or not. Only one side of the so called “truth” is told and the other half isn’t. For instance, McDonald's uses the happy meal and incorporated mini playgrounds in the fast food restaurants to attract kids, but at the same time, however they are using our interest as an advantage, so we can enjoy the pleasure, and also consuming their product. What they don’t tell us is that the burgers the produce contain 49% water and 12% meat, the meat is made of blood vessels and cartilage, and 25% of the time, that burger that we are consuming in our diet contains parasite sarcocystis. The fact that we don’t know what’s in our food and we just keep on consuming it because of the false indication of advertisement makes us a victim of propaganda. Another tactic used in the arts of propaganda is repetition. Repetition plays a key role in propaganda because it drills a certain objective they want into our mind, so we can keep paying attention to them without them losing our interest. For an example, they may keep repeatedly say the same slogan over and over again until we adapt to that slogan. In Animal Farm, the main slogan that was said throughout the book, was “Four legs good, two legs
bad”. This slogan is used to convey Animalism, which shapes the mindset of the animals that all humans are just as evil, even though at the end of the novel that doesn’t seem to be the case. Ironically, towards the Li, 3 end the animals turned away from Animalism and their ideas and behavior started possess human like qualities. Last but not least, there is testimonial. Testimonial is the use of a public figure, usually a celebrity to promote a certain product or sometimes a message they are paid to advertise. Testimonial heavily depends on a mass of people to influence others to buy their products. If no-one likes their products, then they won’t be able to succeed their object they want people to hear about.
The last effect of propaganda affecting masses is the most effective during War. The most prominent and obvious examples of propaganda in action is probably the Holocaust and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. These major war events lead to an overuse of propaganda. During the Holocaust, the tyrannical dictator, Adolf Hitler decided to discriminate all the Jews from Germany, because they were theorized to the reason behind why they lost War World 1. How did he do that? Simple, all Hitler did was exploit ideas Anti-Semitism and stereotypes. He made satires, mocking the Jews of the evils and made many speeches that motivated many to join him.
Propaganda was also popular during the time when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Fear was the most essential element that allowed mass majority to favor the side of the government instead thinking of what’s right themselves. In one such poster, posters were the main propaganda. They made posters trying direct to the public that all all Japanese or Japanese-Americans are not to not trusted for because they might be associated with the war and possibly cause a threat to our country. Intimidated, the Americans allowed the government to take the Japanese to concentration camps, where the government decided they were not a big as a threat. Posters, speeches, and all ways of communication help influence and stimulate the growth of propaganda.

Li, 3 Asking questions like, what is the real message they are trying to convey and how does this really benefit me and others in a way can help you detect when propaganda is being used.
In conclusion, propaganda affects masses in several different ways involving a variety of different tactics and its effect on war. With the help of technological communication, it makes it easier for the propagandist to alter our opinions and make us believe what they want. In simpler terms, propaganda is an implement used to persuade anyone to believe a certain idea, whether it’selling a product or reaching a certain objective, they will do just about anything in their power to do what they can.