COM 416   PROPAGANDA

          As humans, it is nearly impossible to avoid seeing or hearing of some sort of propaganda on a daily basis. Propaganda can be positive or negative, it can be loud or it can be subtle. This term has many underlying components and modern propaganda can be defined as “a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea, or group“ (Bernays 1928). Propaganda can be seen in daily lives from the news channels to flyers at your local diner and it is simply an unavoidable thing.

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          In my day to day life, I am pretty busy, very connected, social and have a lot going on. This only increases my chances of coming into contact with forms of propaganda. To me, one of the most obvious forms of propaganda in my life are commercials. Specifically, this Aveeno commercial comes to mind. The commercial is for Aveeno’s new positively radiant 60-second in shower facial. The commercial features Jennifer Aniston. For anyone who has ever seen a TV show or movie featuring Jennifer Aniston, they know she does not look her age and has looked the same since her 20’s. This commercial uses a testimonial technique by having someone with beautiful skin, endorsing this new Aveeno in shower facial. This makes the viewers think that with this 60-second facial, they will have skin like Jennifer Aniston. This is considered to be a type of propaganda because it sways the viewers to think a certain way with the use of a well-known celebrity.

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          Another type of propaganda I have seen in my life recently is in the news. Hurricane Irma had been approaching the islands and Florida very quickly and has since put these locations almost under water. Every news channel had some type of coverage of it to keep the people informed. Within the factual news, most networks that I tuned into had a link to some sort of website that would allow me to donate money to a relief fund. Celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens posted an Instagram story with a link to keep everyone that follows her informed about ways to help the victims of this hurricane. This seemingly changes our view of this part of the world and as stated in the text, “Propaganda… does change our mental pictures of the world“ (Bernays 1928). This is a form of beneficial propaganda because it changed my way of thinking from “I can’t believe how many homes hurricane Irma took” to “Wow, there is a way I can help these families in need in the aftermath of hurricane Irma”.

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          My generation, including myself are connected to social media in ways that previous generations may not understand. For many people my age, social media is how they get informed about world and U.S current events. While scrolling through Facebook recently, I came across a pretty graphic video about the dairy industry and how as humans, we should not be consuming a cow’s milk for any reason and explained how we get our dairy from these cows. It was a video I simply could not stop watching as someone who has done research about dairy industry in the United States. This can really change peoples opinions on the dairy industry because they see the harmful process it takes to obtain milk from dairy cows and people will also be informed that our bodies are not meant to digest dairy.

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          A more obvious form of propaganda in my life was seen during the presidential election. “The American government and numerous patriotic agencies developed a technique which, to most persons accustomed to bidding for public acceptance, was new. They not only appealed to the individual by means of every approach to support the national endeavor but also secured the cooperation of the key men in every group” (Bernays 1928). Any kind of election is bound to have some kind of propaganda and in this case, this national election consisted of many different campaigns, speeches, and visits across the country. The candidates speeches were aimed to gain followers from the audience or change their opinions on who they wanted to elect into office. Their campaigns were very thought out and rehearsed to ensure that their speeches would be delivered and the audience's beliefs would be swayed or changed.

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          Another piece of propaganda that can be seen on a day to day basis comes from the social media platform, Instagram. Specifically, URI greek life's Instagram. Not only does it show only positive aspects of greek life here at URI, it has an ongoing campaign called ‘Why I went greek” which features ordinary students like myself and the majority of the viewers talking about why they chose to join greek life at URI. This is a form of propaganda because it uses ordinary people to make its viewers think “Hey, they’re just like me, I should join greek life like they did”. This is considered to be propaganda because it attempts to change the way we think about greek life and puts greek life in a good light incase we were to think otherwise of it.

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go out and buy their clothing. These ads almost always feature Kate Hudson to put a familiar face on the brand and to make the viewers think “I want to be like Kate Hudson and she wears these pants, I should buy them too”.

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          Not a day goes by where I don’t come in contact with some form of propaganda. It is a broad term and can be seen in many different forms. Propaganda can be used to gain followers in instances such as elections, or can be seen to sway people into buying certain products. “The extent to which propaganda shapes the processes of affairs about us may surprise even well informed persons” (Bernays 1928) . Propaganda can be used to sway people’s beliefs and opinions in a positive or negative way but either way, we are exposed to it in day to day life.

 

Bernays, Edward (1928). Propaganda. Brooklyn: Ig Publishing.

 

Fabletics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.fabletics.com/

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Janus, E. (2015, December 27). Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.youtu be.com/watch?

          v=UcN7SGGoCNI

 

(2017, July 19). Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=U4gc58woEbg

 

uri_greeklife. (2017, September 12). Today is the LAST day to sign up for Sorority Recruitment [Instagram                 post]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BY8nGk BgZNs/?hl=en&taken-by=uri_greeklife

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