Propaganda

 Today I was asked what propaganda is and does it exist today. Now when I think of propaganda, I think of my history classes and when my teachers would pull up pictures from World War One of Uncle Sam saying, “We Want You”. In my opinion, that is the most basic type of propaganda and what most people think of.  So, when I was asked to define exactly propaganda is and if it still exists, I decided to do some research. 

 

According to dictionary.com, propaganda is information especially of a biased or misleading nature used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or viewpoint or the deliberately disseminating information that is untrue. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/propaganda

 

What this basically breaks down to is, that propaganda is something given out or produced to try and change your viewpoint. A quick review of social media shows that propaganda is alive and well in today's world. Governments, including the United States use it to promote particular ideas or concepts. This can be a good thing, especially if the government is promoting something like eating healthy or recycling but it can also be misused especially in today’s world with all of the various forms of social media. 

 

Currently the big thing in my generation is the app called TikTok.  TikTok is an app where you can make videos between 15 seconds to three minutes about whatever you want. It is the second most popular app among teenagers, who usually create videos of themselves dancing or singing along to a song. Some of these videos have also been used to spread propaganda though. Some of this might be considered positive, such as Alabama’s TikTok video contest to promote the Covid vaccine https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/news/2021/07/16.html or the White House’s campaign to raise awareness of the vaccine among young adults. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/technology/vaccine-lies-influencer-army.html

 

Lately though users have been using the app to produce propaganda related to Covid and the vaccine that is very different. A Russian marketing firm tried to hire influencers to promote false information about the vaccine, while China has utilized it and other forms of social media to promote the idea that the virus was created in a lab in the United States. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57928647  Deep in the Data Void: China’s COVID-19 Disinformation Dominates Search Engine Results – Alliance For Securing Democracy (gmfus.org)

 

TikTok is not the only app or social media form that is or has been used to push various forms propaganda. A recent review found that Facebook’s algorithms had resulted in almost half of all Americans seeing content that had been created in Eastern Europe as part of a massive propaganda campaign in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election.  This sort of disinformation campaign occurring is bad enough but the fact that the algorithms promote it is even worse, especially since the more we see something, the more likely we are to believe it is true. Facebook's algorithms fueled massive foreign propaganda campaigns during the 2020 election – here's how algorithms can manipulate you (theconversation.com)https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/

 

All of these examples show that propaganda does exist is today’s world and it is just one reason why the people of America need to become more informed about what's going on in the world and not just believe what they are seeing on their screens. We need to actively need to research out multiple different sources and viewpoints prior to making decisions on things like our health, social issues or political candidates. Cornell University has provided some tips on how evaluate what we find online which I think everyone should be using on a regular basis. Infographic: Spot Fake News - Fake News, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources - LibGuides at Cornell University  After doing this study on propaganda I am extremely concerned about where our country is headed with everything that is being posted on social media unless we start to do our own fact checking.