1. Understanding the world around you
Propaganda
Understanding the world around you

2. What is it?
At its most basic definition, propaganda is a way to exaggerate or emphasize certain ideas in order to further a political, social, personal, or commercial cause.
It is present everywhere, but most easily seen in advertisements or political speeches.

3. While there are dozens of types of propaganda, these are the most common
Name calling
Glittering generalities
Transfer
Testimonial
Card stacking
Bandwagon
Plain folks

4. Name calling
Name calling encourages us to form a judgement without evidence or examination and plays upon fallacies to give a bad name or reputation to someone or something
Words like “traitor” have negative connotations and thus give the person or thing called such a negative association.
“Our job as Americans and as Republicans is to dislodge the traitors from every place they’ve been sent to do their traitorous work” (Sen. Joseph MCCarthy)

5. Glittering generalities
Glittering generalities fall back on words that evoke good feelings and positive emotions that relate to country, family, service, or other types of ideals.
This device is the opposite of name calling as instead of calling someone an “enemy” or “traitor” you reference them as a “friend” of “freedom”.

6. transfer
In transfer a person attempts to move the authority from something we respect to associate it with their product or their image.
This transfer can relate to country, church, or other things of respect or prestige.

7. Testimonial
Testimonials work to show a product works by having people vouch for their success using it.
Testimonials are most prominent in advertising but can also be used for organizations and political parties.

8. Card stacking
Card stacking propaganda uses deception and the omission of facts to make their product or perspective seem better than it really is.
Sometimes card stacking is a matter of manipulating statistics, but it can become as extreme as flat out lying or eliminating evidence or perspectives that are unflattering.
This picture is deceptive because it appears to show that Verizon has significantly more coverage, however, the fine point states “Comparison [is] based on square miles covered with 36 voice & data services available outside 36 coverage area” meaning the map shows more than just the 3G coverage for Verizon so that Verizon appears better.

9. bandwagon
Bandwagon propaganda encourages us to be a part of something popular or follow a trend.
By emphasizing that they have served “billions and billions” Mcdonald’s is encouraging people to be a part of that number.

10. Plain folks
Plain folks propaganda is typically used by people in authority (politicians, business leaders, ministers, educators” and works to show that they are normal, regular “plain folks” just like everyone else.
It attempts to make people more accessible to their audience.
On the election trail politicians typically eat at popular local restaurants to show they are common, everyday people who value local cuisine.