That led me to thinking about propaganda in today's world. Today we have so many avenues for propaganda to be disseminated, with television and the internet added to newspapers and radio, that you think it would be easy to think of some examples that everyone would have seen and would know. However, I've found that there is just so MUCH information out there, that not everything becomes "common knowledge". Each generation has it's way of gathering information and consuming that information that I think there are many things out there that not everyone is seeing or hearing.
I get most of my news from the internet or the newspaper. I don't watch television news on a regular basis. I do read the newspaper everyday, and when I sign in to my e-mail I read the news feed that is there, such as it is. So I believe I get a general idea of what's going on in the world. I assume that most people use these sources for their news first, but I could be wrong about that, and it may be a generational thing.
My further sources of news are the blogs and websites I read regularly. There are others I visit when something else has linked me to them. I read about topics I am interested in and further my knowledge that way. This is the area where our differences in age, gender, areas of interest, etc. will cause our "common knowledge" to diverge. We each use the resources that we're drawn to. I often think that people at work will know what I'm talking about when I say, "Did you hear about the ...? or Did you see that video on YouTube?" Much of the time they haven't, because we frequent different sources.
So, you think with the wonders of Google or Bing I could find millions of examples of today's version of the propaganda poster. Suprisingly, I could only find a few with that general search. There are political posters and parody posters. It being Election Day I could have talked about political ads, I suppose, but I despise attack ads, no matter what side they're on, that I just can't go there.
Although some are amusing and some are funny because they're true, that still wasn't what I was looking for. My avatar is something I'd seen and liked so I co-opted it for myself to use when I need such a thing. I know I have seen other things repeatedly while surfing of the 'net, so where were they? Since I had seen them repeatedly I thought they would be "out there" to easily find. However, I found that I had to search for certain things or topics to get what I wanted and even then I wasn't really satisfied with the results.
I did find things that were inflammatory, so I opted not to post them here, lest we start up a debate that has no place in this course. But what I did take away from all of this is that one common denominator to all the propaganda out there, both then and now, is that it plays on the fears or the emotions of the audience. They can make you feel sad, or afraid, or angry. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on how much is based on actual truth or on which side of an issue you stand. If it stirs you to action, I think that's a good thing (as long as you agree with me, of course...I kid....sort of).
Picture Credits: All images were obtained from a Google Images search.
