All governments use propaganda, regardless of whether you realize it or not. Propaganda is very important in order to keep people from acting out on their own. Governments have enough instability to deal with within themselves - they don't need an uprising from the people.
That is one form of propaganda that Megamickel mentions. It is one of the fewer benefits (in a Utilitarian PoV) of its intentions. The problem is that it is not usually used in that way. Let's look at the propaganda from the Iraq war. I nicked this from wiki:
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf repeatedly claimed Iraqi forces were decisively winning every battle. Even up to the overthrow of the Iraqi government at Baghdad, he maintained that the United States would soon be defeated, in contradiction with all other media. Due to this, he quickly became a cult figure in the West, and gained recognition on the website WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. The Iraqis who were misled by his propaganda were shocked when Iraq was defeated.
Propaganda is usually used in morally illicit ways and to gain for the government with no concern of the consequence of the people. Serbia did the same thing a while back. I do not think that lying and emphasizing on specifics things to stretch the truth is a way to run a government. I would think there would be an uprising once the propaganda is exposed.
There are certain words, like propaganda and nationalism, that I feel we apply to other countries but don't use those terms on ourselves. We talk about ethnic nationalism or state nationalism, but in the States it's called being "atriotic." I think there are elements of propoganda in schools and somewhat littered throughout our society, but they're simply not labeled as such.
Okay. Now is a good time for the maker to step into this.
I have done no research whatsoever on how propaganda works, but I thought about it and stated an undeveloped idea: Propaganda works by appealing to the immediate consciousness and mimics familiarity and righteousness. The propaganda may be conditioned with other forms of good things that may be around or in the person's mind. For example, propaganda can work as subliminal messages (not literally messages, though). A kid may see a certain poster in the background right before he eats his favorite meal in a good restaurant. He may then become familiar with the poster and assosciate goodness with it because he remembers eating right before looking at it. It then appears in his immediate conscious at times and is forced to think about it, and finally thinks it is right due to the goodness it was conditioned with.
Damn. I got lost in that tangent and don't know what I was going to say next. Anybody know any other forms of propaganda that they would like to explain?
Well, parenting is probably the most akward way to look at it, but Parents obviously tell there child what to do, and they morally believe them. :P
Anyway, to the real stuff, Propoganda is anything that is.. Insipirationally pulling you to an idea. For example, when America wished for Liberation from Britian, all the flyers and stuff from writers really pushed up the army efforts. The propoganda helped by pushing the country from its knees to standing tall after defeating Britian.
Other forms such as presidents, speeches, or TV [If the leaders of the country want the idea] can easily influence you with this mini-propoganda [whichi is huge when you put it together] and you have a bunchah followers. Great way if your doing something right, unfortunatly it doesn't work much like that. :P
'Sides the real jewish haters, The Nazi's put propoganda down at the roots of starting schools, and much of the lasting army was put into effect due to their love of their "Fatherland". They believed they were following loyalty. :S
I say, if Propoganda is just for uplifting spirits or showing problems in the world and how to help 'em, by all means enlight the world to help.
If its something morally illicit, murder it, ignore it, let it die. Kind of like a useless post in the forum. xP
Yeah. I was trying to explain how the nazi media-sublimation proganda worked. I just used an example. The kid is the t-v watcher/radio listener, and the poster is the occasional commercial popping up trying to convert the people.
Sure why try and SOLVE the problem when you can just brainwash everybody into thinking the problem is fine the way it is? It's just a way for the government to be lazy.
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially 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 encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.
