Propaganda techniques in the media Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002 Whose voice guides your choice?

How do you decide who is the best candidate… Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

or which is the best toothpaste ? Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

Looking for facts to back up your choice is an excellent idea, but find out who is presenting those facts. Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

Are they facts at all? Or is the advertiser using propaganda techniques to persuade you? Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

What are Propaganda techniques? Propaganda is designed to persuade. Its purpose is to influence your opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior. It seeks to “guide your choice.”

Who uses Propaganda? Military Media Advertisers Politicians You and I

What are some of the techniques used to persuade us? Bandwagon Name-calling Testimonial Glittering Generality Plain-folks appeal Transfer Emotional words Faulty Reasoning Fear

Bandwagon Everybody is doing this. If you want to fit in, you need to “jump on the bandwagon” and do it too. The implication is that you must JOIN in to FIT in. Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

LIFE TAKES VISA…..  What kinds of feelings does the man in the commercial experience?  How does Visa use the bandwagon technique to try and persuade you to get a VISA card?

Name-calling A negative word or feeling is attached to an idea, product, or person. If that word or feeling goes along with that person or idea, the implication is that we shouldn’t be interested in it.

Testimonial A famous person endorses an idea, a product, a candidate. If someone famous uses this product, believes this idea, or supports this candidate, so should we.

Life Takes Visa (Testimonial)  Who was the celebrity in this commercial?  Why would using a celebrity make people want to buy your product?

Glittering Generality A commonly admired virtue is used to inspire positive feelings for a person, idea, or product. Words like truth, democracy, beauty, timeless are examples of those general terms.

Plain-folks appeal This idea, product, or person is associated with normal, everyday people and activities.

Transfer Symbols, quotes, or images of famous people are used to convey a message. The message may not necessarily be associated with them.

Emotional words Words that leave us with positive feelings are used to describe a product, person, or idea. We associate those words and, therefore, those positive feelings with the product.

Faulty Reasoning Factual supporting details are used though they do not support the conclusion. It works like this: Christians believe in God. Muslims believe in God. Christians are Muslims.

Fear Our fears are displayed. Ideas, candidates, or products are shown to put our fears to rest.

How do we make sure that we are making informed choices, instead of allowing others to sway us in our decision-making? Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002

We make our own choices when … we read and listen to reliable sources, we watch for combinations of truths and lies, we check for hidden messages, we watch for use of propaganda techniques,

and, most importantly, educationservice WHEN WE LISTEN TO OUR OWN VOICES !