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Monday, March 03, 2008
Propaganda- Lesson 6
Explain one of the seven propaganda devices we discussed in class, support your analysis with examples and evaluate the effectiveness of the device in relation to the examples given.
21 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Plain Folks propaganda is a device or technique speakers use to persuade the spectators that their ideas are of and for the people; therefore winning them over. An example of plain folks is the current elections taking place in the United States. Politicians use this technique to win over voters, persuading them that their main interest is for the people, addressing issues that the country and society want to see a change in. And although these politicians campaigning come from wealthy backgrounds, they still market themselves in their campaign trails as ‘normal people’, making sure that they portray their image to the public as though they are one of them, who can or are going through the same things they are. John McCain uses this method of approach when he talks about his earlier days when he served in the navy, fought in the war in Vietnam, and was a prisoner of war for 5 years before returning to his homeland. So by this story he is telling the people that he is a normal citizen like themselves and fought for his country, therefore if he is elected president he will not show anything less than do the best for his country and people. I think that this method of approach is clever, and in addition to politicians advertisers also use it. However, I do think that this method should be presented wisely when approaching an audience, because it is what and how we want to represent ourselves to the viewer or spectator.
Card Stacking By Khadeja Hussain Al Buloshi March 10, 2008 03:16 am
It is one of the propaganda techniques that used nearly in all forms of propaganda, Mostly it seeks to manipulate our perception of an issue by being one sided and emphasizing one side to another. For example by creating media event using testimonials of the one side and also ignoring and omitting other important facts to the audience, most likely it is used in persuasive speeches. For example when the Iraq War started, Al Sahaf, Minister of information in Iraq used to come out to the media and proclaim the victory of Iraqi troops against Americans but the real situation was so different. So the best way to deal with this type of propaganda is to get some more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_stacking
One of the clear examples that strike me is, when the American troops invaded Iraq, and they went with few people that they gathered who claimed to be Iraqi’s, to the Square that have Sadam Statue and worked hand in hand with them toppling the statute. That video piece was broadcasted all over the news in the Arab and western world, to stress to the point that this war is in the good of Iraq and they needed that liberation from sadam. The Americans thoughts that with this media show they will let the world believe that the decision of invading Iraq is the right one, and that might help them to get more allies toward this war. But the truth is not that, nor those people were Iraqies and nor that war was done In favor of iraq, that typically was made and set to manipulate the people. And that also raise another point that few people were writing about especially about the video intentionally being rigged off by the Americans.
Links to the video in Arabic and western media:
Al Jazeera Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ITuaJUDkc&feature=related
Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wss_urnuB7o&feature=related
Another example is also involving the United States war in Vietnam, were they didn’t lose the war military but they lost it because media showed the civilians mass casualties and portrayed Americans horrible acts in Vietnam so under pressure American troops left Vietnam.
Propaganda is the formulating of a message that aims to influence audience by engaging them emotionally.
One device used in propaganda is called “Transfer,” which is the method of passing on the feelings associated with the public approval of something they admire, respect, and honor to something propagandists would have them approve of.
The Transfer device could be the most powerful device of all propaganda devices because it drives the public through stir of emotions using objects, images, phrases, and symbolic representations.
Ancient Symbol or Nazi Evil?
The use of symbols in the Transfer device is very common because symbols influence people from the very first sight.
The Swastika is an ancient symbol that illustrates good fortune and it has been used in many major religions such as; Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, and Jainism. (1) The Aryan people (the word Aryan means noble), who lived in Iran and North Africa, used to believe that they are a pure race and they used the Swastika symbol to represent that belief. In 1919, the National Socialist Party of Nazi Germany adopted, modified, and then used the symbol to illustrate the purity of race they believed they had. (2)
Numerous cultures used the Swastika to symbolize love, life, light and good luck; however, the world delineates it as a symbol of death, destruction, hate, and evil.
Handwritten..
Many phrases have a psychological impact on people; especially when associated with faith, spirituality and religions.
According to wikipedia, the flag of Iraq has had changed five times since 1921; the year of Iraq establishment. Although it is still unconfirmed, some claimed that the “Takbir” phrase (allahu akbar) was inserted on Jan 1991 in Iraq flag and written in Sadam’s own handwriting. Many in interpreted the change as an attempt to win the Islamic world support after the first Gulf War in Aug 1990. (3)
As many declared, Saddam wasn’t a religious man; even though, influencing people by the usage of a spiritual phrase had a significant impact on many parts of the Islamic world; excluding the GCC region of course.
A protected right!
Destroying a symbol doesn’t affect the symbolized object; however, it could stir emotions when the public relate to that certain object.
Flag desecration (such as burning a flag) is a form of protesting against policies, governments, or nationalism; or symbolizing hate towards the enemy and that could cause an explosion of feeling. (4)
Symbols are not isolated objects. A simple action like burning a flag can send messages about beliefs against the symbol and what it represents. In fact, flag desecration is a protected right in many countries; just like the freedom of speech.
To conclude:
Symbols, phrases and objects could create a significant meaning and formulate a distinctive message when being inserted in a specific context because it adds an emotional depth to the message.
This lesson is too interesting for me, while reading and searching about Propaganda I realized that is around us everywhere we go in the Street, T.V, Internet or even children’s books.
As we discussed today the seven Propaganda Devices, and I would love to explain Glittering Generalities as I understand is the opposite of Name Calling it uses the effective and positive language to effect the emotions that makes the group believe the idea too easy with out even examining the facts.
To help me understand more I researched the internet and read more about Propaganda I learned that during the War Word Two the Americans targeted children’s little minds and emotions with making comics books by creating American’s Super Heroes who save the world from terrorism for example: Captain America, Superman and T-Man.
Testimonial is one of propaganda devices. It can be used in political or advertising area. Celebrities appear in ads, which will convince the people to accept or reject the idea. For example: in political side Barak Obama has two celebrities that are supporting him and they are Opra and George kolony who have many fans. Fans will be convinced and accept Obama as a future President for US since their idols are supporting him. In the advertising area celebrities can be used in ads of products like Nancy ajrum sipping a can of pepsi. This will result in making Nancy’s fans prefer Pepsi as a favorite drink, and in the same time will have a positive effect on company’s profit.
When a famous person or celebrity leads a campaign to attract people attention this was called a Testimonial Propaganda.
To ensure that the testimonial propaganda was effective, all sorts of tools were used to manipulate people, one effective tool was to use famous people to conduct a message in a persuasive way to ensure that it appealed to listeners, sometimes these messages were advertised in a way that made the bad sound good.
From my perspective, I believe that Testimonial Propaganda is deceiving and I am against it, great leaders throughout history have used this method and leaders today such as the USA leader has used Testimonial Propaganda to lead campaigns against Arabs and make them look like terrorists.
Unfortunately because these campaigns are so strong and well practiced throughout history the only way to defeat Testimonial Propaganda today is an undiscovered weapon to match injustice since the truth no longer has a voice.
In my opinion, (testimonial) propaganda device is very effective. in which they use a celebrity or an important person to advertise for a product or a program. For example, Damas uses nansy Ajram a celebrity to advertise for their product. And most people would want to buy and have something related to their favourite celebrity. people who love Nansy Ajram would want to buy something related to her.
Its a process made to control our way of thinking.For example:Name calling,which is when we have a bad idea about a subject just due to the media influence on us.It is like how foreigners call Muslims "terrorists",because Muslims are badly represented on television.Where as Muslims think in another way,which is defending their religion. Words and images are used for many propagandists.The images that are shown on television can change a person's way of thinking. When a person sees a Muslim carrying a weapon or killing a soldier,they will immediately have a "bad image" about all Muslims.So killing to them is related to Muslims.
What I understood from my research that propaganda is some of techniques may lead the person –propagandist-, who would like to influence other side ( in his opinion/ action/ behavior), to become someone, which the other side would like to see, listen or do, which makes his targeted audience agree on what he wants to achieve (thoughts/ beliefs). There are many methods of propaganda such as; 1. Beautiful people, which means that propagandist uses name or picture of a famous celebrity to make his audience do/ buy what he is selling. For example, Advertising companies, such as Lux White Glow, used Aisharya Rai, who is the most beautiful actress in India, as celebrity to do a commercial ad for its sop. Plus, Coca-Cola company has used Aisharya to do a commercial ad.
The effect of the technique led to promote Lux and Coca- Cola and get more profit for the company’s income.
2. Another interesting way of propaganda is Common man the "'plain folks”, which makes the propagandist behave/ dress/ act like he is one of common people; who understands others and counts people’s problems as his concerns. Example: Govenda, Indian actor, to become a politician in India and he visits poor people in their places and houses, which helped him to get more votes from people.
one of the Propaganda Techniques is the (Card Stacking): which is considered as the most difficult technique between the seven ones, because the person uses all evidences and facts to totally support him self and to be totally against the opposite person or the opposite point of view, so by the end he gets all the attention and the acceptance from the audiences. It is hard also because people or audiences don't have all the required information to make the true choice and judge based on what the person have and that's why it calls card stacking.
For example: The Program that used to be shown in Al Jazeera news Channel which called (Al Etejah El Moakes) or the Oppisite Direction , where two politicians or journalists or any 2 persons from Mass media field argue about a certain issue and both of them try to convince audiences by the materials they have, so by the end audiences must take the decision and choose who to support.
This technique makes the audiences think deep about their choice, at the same time it decides who is the best defence by how much information is gathered and which is possible to make the choice.
Testimonial is one of propaganda devices. It’s a technique to connect a famous or highly regarded person to support the product and state somehow that this product is good or bad.
It might use quotations or approval of those famous or any respected people from different situations. They could be either public figures or private citizens.
Testimonials are often used in advertising and political campaigns. The main focus of the testimonial should consider the qualities of the item separately from the person of organization giving the testimonial.
In the following example we could see that some testimonials advertisement may have bad effectiveness on people:
Example 1:
A very well known testimonial commercial ad is the one, which a celebrity promotes a hair coloring product “Garnier Color Natural.” The is being takes the style of a testimonial and it was given by Maya Nasri, Lebanese singer. In the commercial her mother was arguing her about the bad effect of the hair coloring products. Maya did a very good job in this commercial ad by testifying that the hair-coloring product never affected her hair in a bad way; moreover, it made her hair become more shiny, glittery and soft.
My Analysis: This ad was promoted in a good way it may make viewers like the product and try to buy it. However, realistically and also scientifically, all hair coloring products have a bad impact on the hair’s health.
Example 2:
Another example, a respected doctor testified in a commercial about pain killers drugs (Panadol). This ad showed that the doctor had a full working and busy day with lots of stresses, operations and patients who needed help. The doctor needed to relax so he took the pills while saying, “Panadol is the best solution to reduce my pain.”
My Analysis: In this commercial ad, a doctor was marketing a medicine. According to this commercial video, it’s okay for people to take painkillers anytime in order to make any kind of pain go away. They may also get used to having those kind of medicines because they are watching an important professional (and in our communities he is even a social) icon testifying that’s it’s all alright. Reality check, all painkillers have an effect on our health; because it’s a chemical medicine. And as we all know, medicines should be taken in very small amount including the painkillers otherwise it will cause damage to our health.
On the other hand, some testimonials advertisements may have a good impact on people, let see this example:
Example 3:
The famous celebrity, Lebanese singer, Elissa promoted LAZURDE gold Jewelry. In this ad her testimony is that I don’t like any thing, nothing satisfied me, nothing enough for me, the gold amazed me, only LAZURDE complete me.
My Analysis: Elissa promoted this product in a very unique and fashionable way. In this ad she made this statement about the LAZURDE gold that will make the product more popular between ladies. People may find it amazing because this gold will be called “Elissa Gold” and she gives it the glittery and valuable look. She also added a unique brightness to the product, which people will definitely look for. Well done Elissa!
Glittering Generalities Propaganda is the almost the opposite of the name calling propaganda ... name calling reflects the bad in someone or something, but the glittering generalities propaganda tries to show people that someone is good and he can be trusted without showing any proof . Glittering Generalities Propaganda targets our emotions, and changes our feelings toward something or someone, to win the affection and accept that person. For example, they say live the American Dream, they mean live in liberty and freedom ,but they don't include the taxes, expenses and the bad thing like the robberies which people go through, and happen in the country. The saying live an American dream which means live in harmony and safety and in liberty and trust, but that might not be true. it's just using the technique of Glittering Generalities Propaganda.
The Name Calling Propaganda, gives people the wrong impression of a person or a product, by giving them bad names. for example in photos, when Barak Obama visited Africa, for his campaign, he wore the african traditional dress, so people accused him of being a terrorist. Shahad Al Zarouni H00010625
As the name implies Glittering generalities is the technique of using words that are related to widely respected human values such as freedom, peace, honor, glory, love of country…..etc. Such values have a strong appeal to humans and when associated to a certain group or practice... etc. they help generate supportive and positive attitudes from people towards that particular group or practice even when it is used without any supporting information or justifications. The main characteristics of glittering generality technique centers around using words that are vague and have a positive emotional association to them (connotations). Words such as democracy or freedom which are commonly used in the glittering generality technique are very abstract and hard to disagree with and people generally agree with them without thinking. In the example below we can see how glittering generality technique was used by the Israelis to win the support of the International community. They used this propaganda technique to deviate attention from the atrocities they are committing against the innocent Palestinian civilians. By trying to give the impression that they are sincerely looking for peace and that they have good intentions for the Palestinians they win the International community support which shows how successful Israelis are in using this propaganda technique. Not give up: gives the impression that they are sincerely looking for peace and the problem is with Palestinians. Mediate: gives the impression that the negotiations are fare and between two equal parties. Real reconciliation, Palestinian Neighbors: both give the impression that Israelis have good intentions for the Palestinians when in reality they killing Palestinian women and children without discrimination.
As I understood, propaganda have the influence on people’s opinions, believes, thoughts and affects on the way they understand through what they hear and see. Some propagandas are totally true and some are not. For example, the affective propaganda in different TV channels where they influence there audience’s opinions and present the information in different behaviors such as Al Jazeera , CNN, and BBC. Where each of these channels gives the same news in several ways, some present it positively, and some present it negatively. Propaganda is used in everyday live and in different methods such as, Name calling, Glittering generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain folks, Card stacking, Bandwagon. Each one of them has a different way to affect on people.
Testimonial is one of the propaganda devices which we can see a lot in several places such as in the T.V, newspapers, radio, magazines and in the street.
“Testimonial means enlisting the support of somebody admired or famous to endorse an ideal or campaign. Testimonial can be used reasonably - it makes sense for a footballer to endorse football boots - or manipulated, such as when a footballer is used to support a political campaign they have only a limited understanding of. Whilst everybody is entitled to an opinion, testimonial can lend weight to an argument that it doesn't deserve: if U2's Bono condemned Israel for something that it didn't do, thousands would believe him, even though he was wrong.” http://utah.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/21813.php
what I understood through my research that It is technique of using some famous respected or hated person to promote, present and give the product or idea or program in a good or bad way for instance celebrities in ads. For example a famous female celebrity promotes a shampoo in the TV saying “it’s the secret of my attractiveness, and my beautiful healthy hair” although she don’t have a healthy nice hair. And the advertiser wants the audience to believe that she became a beautiful famous star because of the shampoo. The ad will affect on the audience who likes this celebrity positively and they will buy the product, but people who heat or don’t like this celebrity will be affected negatively and won’t buy the product.
As per my understanding propaganda plays a major role in politics in which its used mostly between nations for manipulate and promoting ideas through different techniques. Hence peoples’ minds mostly have a different reaction depending on circumstance. As we can see propaganda has migrated between nations t the usage on the people. Some propaganda devices are true, however, some are meant to mislead the audience intentionally. Propaganda has a combination of public relation and advertising techniques. Advertising and PRs can be perceived as a way of advertising for products, person or brands. There are many propaganda devises such as name calling, transfer, Glittering generalities..etc. Plain folk is a device which is mostly used by politics, business leaders and ministers etc. It’s used as a way of convincing people that they are being listened to and understood. Basically it’s getting holds of people’s emotions by making them feel secured when they are around. To clarify this there is a recent relevant example of Senator Hillary Clinton who is running for US presidential election, it’s well known that Hillary was losing the battle for Obama especially that the election results were in Obama’s favor, however, this changed when Hillary won most votes last Tuesday the 4th MAR. it’s believed that “Hillary Clinton's "red phone" commercial helped propel her to big win in Ohio this week” , according to www.TMZ.com The ad features a child sleeping on her bed; at night around 3:00 while the phone is ringing and question is paused who “who do you want to answer the phone” and suddenly Hillary Clinton answers the phone from the white house. http://www.tmz.com/2008/03/08/even-the-people-in-hillarys-ads-dont-like-her/
Definition: Testimonial it's a one kind of propaganda techniques which is refer to using popular person or celebrity to present a product or message to the audience to change an idea about a product or service. This will help the company or the communicator to get the trust of the audience or the other side in the conversation.
"Political parties know that a celebrity testimonial is worth many votes. They also make great use of testimonials from ordinary people to show that people like your and me. Advertisers, too, make great use of celebrities and credibly ordinary folks." http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/testimonial.htm
Example: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoom help in Dubai Care Campaign and used a clever technique to attract other people to donate for the campaign. Sheikh Mohammed sale some of this T-shirt and his fingers print on some objects for business men and for the public to reach the goal of Dubai Care Campaign.
My Comment: in my opinion, it's a helpful propaganda technique that I think it's more powerful technique to gain the aim easily specially for the community itself. It's a good way that Dubai Care Campaign used during the Campaign because lots of people gave attention and thought seriously about the issue. I agreed with this kind of propaganda just for the good reasons not the opposite.
Reference: www.propagandacritic.com Cartoons by Carol Lay
Definition of Testimonial: The use of a community celebrity, icon or model to support a certain message in order to promote a campaign, an event, a trend, a product, service…etc. Such an act influences people who use the icon as a model to follow his/her acts or opinion.
Examples e.g Angelina Jolie, a famous actress who was appointed by the UNIESEIF as a peace ambassador who fights poverty, her act which is being covered by media and exposed to her fans who follow her news will get more people to join and volunteer to help in fighting poverty in third world countries
effectiveness: More celebrities get engaged in similar activities e.g http://www.one.org/
Another common example is using celebrities to promote products such as cigarettes. In a lot of print and broadcast media advertisement tobacco manufactures pay a lot for a clip in a movie that shows the movie star lighting up a cigarette and smoking. The response from the teenage or the kid viewer is the desire for smoking like their role model (film star / hero).
effectiveness: Marlboro Cigarettes: sponsors Formula teams around the globe, the sports Champions have a wide fan base from different backgrounds and ages, to promote their Brand, new smokers will try Marlboro
Propaganda is defined as one of the techniques of influencing human by combining a range of messages that are aimed to change the behavior and opinions of people. The information are presented in order to influence its targeted audience by manipulating the truth and controlling the amount of messages going out to the people in order to get an emotional response more than a rational one. Propaganda goes back to 1622, and it was established by the church but it wasn’t known to the people until the World War II. Propaganda has seven devices that designated by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. Name calling is one of the seven effective devices in propaganda. It is a device where the propaganda campaign would label the object by using critical words that the public fear, hate or dislike and also raise their prejudice towards that object of propaganda. Propaganda often uses sarcasm and mockery. One of the successful propaganda nowadays is the stereotyping of Arab Muslims as terrorists after September/11. The incident of September/11 has changed many things in the world. The propaganda teams has managed through their campaign to reach out to people’s emotions before their mind and changed their opinions and behavior towards Arabs. Arabs are now considered in the west world as terrorist and murderers despite the fact that not all Arabs are to be held responsible or representatives of such behavior yet the propaganda device was stronger than logic.
Arabs, especially Muslims are now attacked in so many ways and linked to terrorism even if they were just defending their country as the Palestinians, they are and will always be terrorist in the eye of the western world. At the end, propaganda is a weapon that is used mostly in politics and I believe that a successful propaganda campaign could raise a nation or destroy one. Comment by Asma Mohamed
Testimonail device is using a very well known person in any specific area and this person persuades people to like or dislike a person or an idea or even a product.
For instance, using Alisa the well-known singer in the Arabic region for the commercial of LUX. Another good example is Pepsi. They are using the most popular singers in their ads from different areas to grab the attention of different people around the world. Pepsi used Omar Theiab, Britney Spears and many other singers.
I think that this device is extremely effective because many people like celebrities or some people want to be like some celebrities. Its like a chance for people to use something that celebrities use or do something that they do.
Testimonials are one of the most common forms of propaganda used by propagandists. Testimonial propaganda can be defined as a technique used to manipulate ways of persuasion directly or subconsciously for an idea. I chose to talk about it because it is one of the most common propaganda techniques that we face on a daily basis such as in political and advertising campaigns, or more simply, in our social environment.
Flipping a magazine page seems like a simple effortless task, however, your mind may be persuaded to have a different outlook on a political leader based on the advertisement on the page. Also, a magazine is filled with testimonials, therefore, it can change ones whole perspective on a subject like fashion by testimonial propaganda created by fashion industry through celebrities. So although reading a magazine appears to be a simple task, in reality it is an activity where your mind is faced with numerous persuasive and manipulative thoughts. Taking a closer look at a brand name product, one can see the effects and dependence of testimonial propaganda on projected sales. For instance, in an effort for Louis Vuitton to market a new collection of handbags, the company may take on several advertising techniques, such as magazine advertisements, posters and also endorsing celebrities to carry their handbags. This adds value in the company’s earnings since their advertising campaigns persuade people and subliminally influences their taste and behavior towards fashion and what they should be purchasing.
However, this is one small manipulative example of propaganda, small factors like the above examples could easily affect one’s major life decisions. Unfortunately, testimonial propaganda is almost always misused to manipulate and influence the public on a variety of issue and leads people away from reality. Fortunately, The Institute for Propaganda Analysis was organized to create public awareness of the methods of propaganda and to encourage people to think independently and critically about issues.
To conclude, I would like to quote one of the institute’s theories: “The art of democracy is the art of thinking and discussing independently together."
How is COMA402 related to you as a media practitioner?
1-Develop a basic understanding of a variety of mass communication theories, research techniques and findings and how they help improve our understanding of the communication process and enable us to predict and control the outcomes of mass communication efforts.
2-Critically analyze media content and understand the factors that affect the communication process as well as the effects of its outcome on individuals and society.
3-Appreciate the effects of your future work as a media practitioner and understand how communication theory is related to media professional practice.
4-Develop an ability to generate complex and meaningful ideas for media projects that reflect the pragmatic value and applicability of communication theories.
21 comments:
Plain Folks propaganda is a device or technique speakers use to persuade the spectators that their ideas are of and for the people; therefore winning them over. An example of plain folks is the current elections taking place in the United States. Politicians use this technique to win over voters, persuading them that their main interest is for the people, addressing issues that the country and society want to see a change in. And although these politicians campaigning come from wealthy backgrounds, they still market themselves in their campaign trails as ‘normal people’, making sure that they portray their image to the public as though they are one of them, who can or are going through the same things they are. John McCain uses this method of approach when he talks about his earlier days when he served in the navy, fought in the war in Vietnam, and was a prisoner of war for 5 years before returning to his homeland. So by this story he is telling the people that he is a normal citizen like themselves and fought for his country, therefore if he is elected president he will not show anything less than do the best for his country and people. I think that this method of approach is clever, and in addition to politicians advertisers also use it. However, I do think that this method should be presented wisely when approaching an audience, because it is what and how we want to represent ourselves to the viewer or spectator.
Ameera Alhamed
Card Stacking
By Khadeja Hussain Al Buloshi
March 10, 2008
03:16 am
It is one of the propaganda techniques that used nearly in all forms of propaganda, Mostly it seeks to manipulate our perception of an issue by being one sided and emphasizing one side to another. For example by creating media event using testimonials of the one side and also ignoring and omitting other important facts to the audience, most likely it is used in persuasive speeches. For example when the Iraq War started, Al Sahaf, Minister of information in Iraq used to come out to the media and proclaim the victory of Iraqi troops against Americans but the real situation was so different. So the best way to deal with this type of propaganda is to get some more information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_stacking
One of the clear examples that strike me is, when the American troops invaded Iraq, and they went with few people that they gathered who claimed to be Iraqi’s, to the Square that have Sadam Statue and worked hand in hand with them toppling the statute. That video piece was broadcasted all over the news in the Arab and western world, to stress to the point that this war is in the good of Iraq and they needed that liberation from sadam. The Americans thoughts that with this media show they will let the world believe that the decision of invading Iraq is the right one, and that might help them to get more allies toward this war. But the truth is not that, nor those people were Iraqies and nor that war was done In favor of iraq, that typically was made and set to manipulate the people. And that also raise another point that few people were writing about especially about the video intentionally being rigged off by the Americans.
Links to the video in Arabic and western media:
Al Jazeera Documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9ITuaJUDkc&feature=related
Fox News:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wss_urnuB7o&feature=related
Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyn8Kb_do8g
Another example is also involving the United States war in Vietnam, were they didn’t lose the war military but they lost it because media showed the civilians mass casualties and portrayed Americans horrible acts in Vietnam so under pressure American troops left Vietnam.
An Analysis of the Transfer Device
Propaganda is the formulating of a message that aims to influence audience by engaging them emotionally.
One device used in propaganda is called “Transfer,” which is the method of passing on the feelings associated with the public approval of something they admire, respect, and honor to something propagandists would have them approve of.
The Transfer device could be the most powerful device of all propaganda devices because it drives the public through stir of emotions using objects, images, phrases, and symbolic representations.
Ancient Symbol or Nazi Evil?
The use of symbols in the Transfer device is very common because symbols influence people from the very first sight.
The Swastika is an ancient symbol that illustrates good fortune and it has been used in many major religions such as; Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, and Jainism. (1) The Aryan people (the word Aryan means noble), who lived in Iran and North Africa, used to believe that they are a pure race and they used the Swastika symbol to represent that belief. In 1919, the National Socialist Party of Nazi Germany adopted, modified, and then used the symbol to illustrate the purity of race they believed they had. (2)
Numerous cultures used the Swastika to symbolize love, life, light and good luck; however, the world delineates it as a symbol of death, destruction, hate, and evil.
Handwritten..
Many phrases have a psychological impact on people; especially when associated with faith, spirituality and religions.
According to wikipedia, the flag of Iraq has had changed five times since 1921; the year of Iraq establishment. Although it is still unconfirmed, some claimed that the “Takbir” phrase (allahu akbar) was inserted on Jan 1991 in Iraq flag and written in Sadam’s own handwriting. Many in interpreted the change as an attempt to win the Islamic world support after the first Gulf War in Aug 1990. (3)
As many declared, Saddam wasn’t a religious man; even though, influencing people by the usage of a spiritual phrase had a significant impact on many parts of the Islamic world; excluding the GCC region of course.
A protected right!
Destroying a symbol doesn’t affect the symbolized object; however, it could stir emotions when the public relate to that certain object.
Flag desecration (such as burning a flag) is a form of protesting against policies, governments, or nationalism; or symbolizing hate towards the enemy and that could cause an explosion of feeling. (4)
Symbols are not isolated objects. A simple action like burning a flag can send messages about beliefs against the symbol and what it represents. In fact, flag desecration is a protected right in many countries; just like the freedom of speech.
To conclude:
Symbols, phrases and objects could create a significant meaning and formulate a distinctive message when being inserted in a specific context because it adds an emotional depth to the message.
Alia Al Shamsi
200322002
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
(2) http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/swastika.html
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Iraq
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_desecration
This lesson is too interesting for me, while reading and searching about Propaganda I realized that is around us everywhere we go in the Street, T.V, Internet or even children’s books.
As we discussed today the seven Propaganda Devices, and I would love to explain Glittering Generalities as I understand is the opposite of Name Calling it uses the effective and positive language to effect the emotions that makes the group believe the idea too easy with out even examining the facts.
To help me understand more I researched the internet and read more about Propaganda I learned that during the War Word Two the Americans targeted children’s little minds and emotions with making comics books by creating American’s Super Heroes who save the world from terrorism for example: Captain America, Superman and T-Man.
Here are some examples just klick on the links:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/comic/Superman.jpg
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/captain-america/2-3.jpg
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/captain-america/2-3.jpg
Latifa Al Marri
s200222269
Testimonial is one of propaganda devices. It can be used in political or advertising area. Celebrities appear in ads, which will convince the people to accept or reject the idea. For example: in political side Barak Obama has two celebrities that are supporting him and they are Opra and George kolony who have many fans. Fans will be convinced and accept Obama as a future President for US since their idols are supporting him. In the advertising area celebrities can be used in ads of products like Nancy ajrum sipping a can of pepsi. This will result in making Nancy’s fans prefer Pepsi as a favorite drink, and in the same time will have a positive effect on company’s profit.
Muna Al Marri
ID: 200221588
bachelor student
DWC
Testimonial propaganda
When a famous person or celebrity leads a campaign to attract people attention this was called a Testimonial Propaganda.
To ensure that the testimonial propaganda was effective, all sorts of tools were used to manipulate people, one effective tool was to use famous people to conduct a message in a persuasive way to ensure that it appealed to listeners, sometimes these messages were advertised in a way that made the bad sound good.
From my perspective, I believe that Testimonial Propaganda is deceiving and I am against it, great leaders throughout history have used this method and leaders today such as the USA leader has used Testimonial Propaganda to lead campaigns against Arabs and make them look like terrorists.
Unfortunately because these campaigns are so strong and well practiced throughout history the only way to defeat Testimonial Propaganda today is an undiscovered weapon to match injustice since the truth no longer has a voice.
Maitha Bin Owqad
In my opinion, (testimonial) propaganda device is very effective.
in which they use a celebrity or an important person to advertise
for a product or a program.
For example, Damas uses nansy Ajram a celebrity to advertise for their product. And most people would want to buy and have something related to their favourite celebrity. people who love Nansy Ajram would want
to buy something related to her.
Its a process made to control our way of thinking.For example:Name calling,which is when we have a bad idea about a subject just due to the media influence on us.It is like how foreigners call Muslims "terrorists",because Muslims are badly represented on television.Where as Muslims think in another way,which is defending their religion.
Words and images are used for many propagandists.The images that are shown on television can change a person's way of thinking.
When a person sees a Muslim carrying a weapon or killing a soldier,they will immediately have a "bad image" about all Muslims.So killing to them is related to Muslims.
Khawla Mugrin
200225189
What I understood from my research that propaganda is some of techniques may lead the person –propagandist-, who would like to influence other side ( in his opinion/ action/ behavior), to become someone, which the other side would like to see, listen or do, which makes his targeted audience agree on what he wants to achieve (thoughts/ beliefs).
There are many methods of propaganda such as;
1. Beautiful people, which means that propagandist uses name or picture of a famous celebrity to make his audience do/ buy what he is selling.
For example, Advertising companies, such as Lux White Glow, used Aisharya Rai, who is the most beautiful actress in India, as celebrity to do a commercial ad for its sop. Plus, Coca-Cola company has used Aisharya to do a commercial ad.
The effect of the technique led to promote Lux and Coca- Cola and get more profit for the company’s income.
2. Another interesting way of propaganda is Common man the "'plain folks”, which makes the propagandist behave/ dress/ act like he is one of common people; who understands others and counts people’s problems as his concerns. Example: Govenda, Indian actor, to become a politician in India and he visits poor people in their places and houses, which helped him to get more votes from people.
Latifa Darwish
200221614
one of the Propaganda Techniques is the (Card Stacking): which is considered as the most difficult technique between the seven ones, because the person uses all evidences and facts to totally support him self and to be totally against the opposite person or the opposite point of view, so by the end he gets all the attention and the acceptance from the audiences. It is hard also because people or audiences don't have all the required information to make the true choice and judge based on what the person have and that's why it calls card stacking.
For example: The Program that used to be shown in Al Jazeera news Channel which called (Al Etejah El Moakes) or the Oppisite Direction , where two politicians or journalists or any 2 persons from Mass media field argue about a certain issue and both of them try to convince audiences by the materials they have, so by the end audiences must take the decision and choose who to support.
This technique makes the audiences think deep about their choice, at the same time it decides who is the best defence by how much information is gathered and which is possible to make the choice.
Testimonials: by Haifa Nasser
Testimonial is one of propaganda devices. It’s a technique to connect a famous or highly regarded person to support the product and state somehow that this product is good or bad.
It might use quotations or approval of those famous or any respected people from different situations. They could be either public figures or private citizens.
Testimonials are often used in advertising and political campaigns. The main focus of the testimonial should consider the qualities of the item separately from the person of organization giving the testimonial.
In the following example we could see that some testimonials advertisement may have bad effectiveness on people:
Example 1:
A very well known testimonial commercial ad is the one, which a celebrity promotes a hair coloring product “Garnier Color Natural.” The is being takes the style of a testimonial and it was given by Maya Nasri, Lebanese singer. In the commercial her mother was arguing her about the bad effect of the hair coloring products. Maya did a very good job in this commercial ad by testifying that the hair-coloring product never affected her hair in a bad way; moreover, it made her hair become more shiny, glittery and soft.
My Analysis: This ad was promoted in a good way it may make viewers like the product and try to buy it. However, realistically and also scientifically, all hair coloring products have a bad impact on the hair’s health.
Example 2:
Another example, a respected doctor testified in a commercial about pain killers drugs (Panadol). This ad showed that the doctor had a full working and busy day with lots of stresses, operations and patients who needed help. The doctor needed to relax so he took the pills while saying, “Panadol is the best solution to reduce my pain.”
My Analysis: In this commercial ad, a doctor was marketing a medicine. According to this commercial video, it’s okay for people to take painkillers anytime in order to make any kind of pain go away. They may also get used to having those kind of medicines because they are watching an important professional (and in our communities he is even a social) icon testifying that’s it’s all alright.
Reality check, all painkillers have an effect on our health; because it’s a chemical medicine. And as we all know, medicines should be taken in very small amount including the painkillers otherwise it will cause damage to our health.
On the other hand, some testimonials advertisements may have a good impact on people, let see this example:
Example 3:
The famous celebrity, Lebanese singer, Elissa promoted LAZURDE gold Jewelry. In this ad her testimony is that I don’t like any thing, nothing satisfied me, nothing enough for me, the gold amazed me, only LAZURDE complete me.
My Analysis: Elissa promoted this product in a very unique and fashionable way. In this ad she made this statement about the LAZURDE gold that will make the product more popular between ladies. People may find it amazing because this gold will be called “Elissa Gold” and she gives it the glittery and valuable look. She also added a unique brightness to the product, which people will definitely look for. Well done Elissa!
Glittering Generalities Propaganda
is the almost the opposite of the name calling propaganda ... name calling reflects the bad in someone or something, but the glittering generalities propaganda tries to show people that someone is good and he can be trusted without showing any proof . Glittering Generalities Propaganda targets our emotions, and changes our feelings toward something or someone, to win the affection and accept that person.
For example, they say live the American Dream, they mean live in liberty and freedom ,but they don't include the taxes, expenses and the bad thing like the robberies which people go through, and happen in the country.
The saying live an American dream which means live in harmony and safety and in liberty and trust, but that might not be true. it's just using the technique of Glittering Generalities Propaganda.
Nada Juma Al Matrooshi
H00010615
The Name Calling Propaganda, gives people the wrong impression of a person or a product, by giving them bad names.
for example in photos, when Barak Obama visited Africa, for his campaign, he wore the african traditional dress, so people accused him of being a terrorist.
Shahad Al Zarouni
H00010625
Glittering generalities
As the name implies Glittering generalities is the technique of using words that are related to widely respected human values such as freedom, peace, honor, glory, love of country…..etc. Such values have a strong appeal to humans and when associated to a certain group or practice... etc. they help generate supportive and positive attitudes from people towards that particular group or practice even when it is used without any supporting information or justifications.
The main characteristics of glittering generality technique centers around using words that are vague and have a positive emotional association to them (connotations). Words such as democracy or freedom which are commonly used in the glittering generality technique are very abstract and hard to disagree with and people generally agree with them without thinking.
In the example below we can see how glittering generality technique was used by the Israelis to win the support of the International community. They used this propaganda technique to deviate attention from the atrocities they are committing against the innocent Palestinian civilians. By trying to give the impression that they are sincerely looking for peace and that they have good intentions for the Palestinians they win the International community support which shows how successful Israelis are in using this propaganda technique.
Not give up: gives the impression that they are sincerely looking for peace and the problem is with Palestinians.
Mediate: gives the impression that the negotiations are fare and between two equal parties.
Real reconciliation, Palestinian Neighbors: both give the impression that Israelis have good intentions for the Palestinians when in reality they killing Palestinian women and children without discrimination.
Comment by Afaf
As I understood, propaganda have the influence on people’s opinions, believes, thoughts and affects on the way they understand through what they hear and see. Some propagandas are totally true and some are not. For example, the affective propaganda in different TV channels where they influence there audience’s opinions and present the information in different behaviors such as Al Jazeera , CNN, and BBC. Where each of these channels gives the same news in several ways, some present it positively, and some present it negatively.
Propaganda is used in everyday live and in different methods such as, Name calling, Glittering generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain folks, Card stacking, Bandwagon. Each one of them has a different way to affect on people.
Testimonial is one of the propaganda devices which we can see a lot in several places such as in the T.V, newspapers, radio, magazines and in the street.
“Testimonial means enlisting the support of somebody admired or famous to endorse an ideal or campaign. Testimonial can be used reasonably - it makes sense for a footballer to endorse football boots - or manipulated, such as when a footballer is used to support a political campaign they have only a limited understanding of. Whilst everybody is entitled to an opinion, testimonial can lend weight to an argument that it doesn't deserve: if U2's Bono condemned Israel for something that it didn't do, thousands would believe him, even though he was wrong.”
http://utah.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/21813.php
what I understood through my research that It is technique of using some famous respected or hated person to promote, present and give the product or idea or program in a good or bad way for instance celebrities in ads.
For example a famous female celebrity promotes a shampoo in the TV saying “it’s the secret of my attractiveness, and my beautiful healthy hair” although she don’t have a healthy nice hair. And the advertiser wants the audience to believe that she became a beautiful famous star because of the shampoo.
The ad will affect on the audience who likes this celebrity positively and they will buy the product, but people who heat or don’t like this celebrity will be affected negatively and won’t buy the product.
Maria Al Rais
ID: 200321983
COMA 402
Communication Theory
Propaganda
As per my understanding propaganda plays a major role in politics in which its used mostly between nations for manipulate and promoting ideas through different techniques. Hence peoples’ minds mostly have a different reaction depending on circumstance. As we can see propaganda has migrated between nations t the usage on the people. Some propaganda devices are true, however, some are meant to mislead the audience intentionally. Propaganda has a combination of public relation and advertising techniques. Advertising and PRs can be perceived as a way of advertising for products, person or brands.
There are many propaganda devises such as name calling, transfer, Glittering generalities..etc. Plain folk is a device which is mostly used by politics, business leaders and ministers etc. It’s used as a way of convincing people that they are being listened to and understood. Basically it’s getting holds of people’s emotions by making them feel secured when they are around. To clarify this there is a recent relevant example of Senator Hillary Clinton who is running for US presidential election, it’s well known that Hillary was losing the battle for Obama especially that the election results were in Obama’s favor, however, this changed when Hillary won most votes last Tuesday the 4th MAR. it’s believed that “Hillary Clinton's "red phone" commercial helped propel her to big win in Ohio this week” , according to www.TMZ.com
The ad features a child sleeping on her bed; at night around 3:00 while the phone is ringing and question is paused who “who do you want to answer the phone” and suddenly Hillary Clinton answers the phone from the white house.
http://www.tmz.com/2008/03/08/even-the-people-in-hillarys-ads-dont-like-her/
Hessa AlSayegh
ID: 200322179
Definition: Testimonial it's a one kind of propaganda techniques which is refer to using popular person or celebrity to present a product or message to the audience to change an idea about a product or service. This will help the company or the communicator to get the trust of the audience or the other side in the conversation.
"Political parties know that a celebrity testimonial is worth many votes. They also make great use of testimonials from ordinary people to show that people like your and me. Advertisers, too, make great use of celebrities and credibly ordinary folks." http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/testimonial.htm
Example: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoom help in Dubai Care Campaign and used a clever technique to attract other people to donate for the campaign. Sheikh Mohammed sale some of this T-shirt and his fingers print on some objects for business men and for the public to reach the goal of Dubai Care Campaign.
My Comment: in my opinion, it's a helpful propaganda technique that I think it's more powerful technique to gain the aim easily specially for the community itself. It's a good way that Dubai Care Campaign used during the Campaign because lots of people gave attention and thought seriously about the issue. I agreed with this kind of propaganda just for the good reasons not the opposite.
Reference: www.propagandacritic.com Cartoons by Carol Lay
http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/testimonial.htm
Moaza Al Aghfeli
ID# 990022443
Definition of Testimonial:
The use of a community celebrity, icon or model to support a certain message in order to promote a campaign, an event, a trend, a product, service…etc.
Such an act influences people who use the icon as a model to follow his/her acts or opinion.
Examples
e.g Angelina Jolie, a famous actress who was appointed by the UNIESEIF as a peace ambassador who fights poverty, her act which is being covered by media and exposed to her fans who follow her news will get more people to join and volunteer to help in fighting poverty in third world countries
effectiveness: More celebrities get engaged in similar activities e.g http://www.one.org/
Another common example is using celebrities to promote products such as cigarettes. In a lot of print and broadcast media advertisement tobacco manufactures pay a lot for a clip in a movie that shows the movie star lighting up a cigarette and smoking. The response from the teenage or the kid viewer is the desire for smoking like their role model (film star / hero).
effectiveness: Marlboro Cigarettes: sponsors Formula teams around the globe, the sports Champions have a wide fan base from different backgrounds and ages, to promote their Brand, new smokers will try Marlboro
Propaganda is defined as one of the techniques of influencing human by combining a range of messages that are aimed to change the behavior and opinions of people. The information are presented in order to influence its targeted audience by manipulating the truth and controlling the amount of messages going out to the people in order to get an emotional response more than a rational one. Propaganda goes back to 1622, and it was established by the church but it wasn’t known to the people until the World War II. Propaganda has seven devices that designated by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis.
Name calling is one of the seven effective devices in propaganda. It is a device where the propaganda campaign would label the object by using critical words that the public fear, hate or dislike and also raise their prejudice towards that object of propaganda. Propaganda often uses sarcasm and mockery. One of the successful propaganda nowadays is the stereotyping of Arab Muslims as terrorists after September/11.
The incident of September/11 has changed many things in the world. The propaganda teams has managed through their campaign to reach out to people’s emotions before their mind and changed their opinions and behavior towards Arabs. Arabs are now considered in the west world as terrorist and murderers despite the fact that not all Arabs are to be held responsible or representatives of such behavior yet the propaganda device was stronger than logic.
Arabs, especially Muslims are now attacked in so many ways and linked to terrorism even if they were just defending their country as the Palestinians, they are and will always be terrorist in the eye of the western world. At the end, propaganda is a weapon that is used mostly in politics and I believe that a successful propaganda campaign could raise a nation or destroy one.
Comment by Asma Mohamed
Testimonail device is using a very well known person in any specific area and this person persuades people to like or dislike a person or an idea or even a product.
For instance, using Alisa the well-known singer in the Arabic region for the commercial of LUX.
Another good example is Pepsi. They are using the most popular singers in their ads from different areas to grab the attention of different people around the world. Pepsi used Omar Theiab, Britney Spears and many other singers.
I think that this device is extremely effective because many people like celebrities or some people want to be like some celebrities. Its like a chance for people to use something that celebrities use or do something that they do.
Maryam Ahmad Hassan
S200222661
Testimonials are one of the most common forms of propaganda used by propagandists. Testimonial propaganda can be defined as a technique used to manipulate ways of persuasion directly or subconsciously for an idea. I chose to talk about it because it is one of the most common propaganda techniques that we face on a daily basis such as in political and advertising campaigns, or more simply, in our social environment.
Flipping a magazine page seems like a simple effortless task, however, your mind may be persuaded to have a different outlook on a political leader based on the advertisement on the page. Also, a magazine is filled with testimonials, therefore, it can change ones whole perspective on a subject like fashion by testimonial propaganda created by fashion industry through celebrities. So although reading a magazine appears to be a simple task, in reality it is an activity where your mind is faced with numerous persuasive and manipulative thoughts. Taking a closer look at a brand name product, one can see the effects and dependence of testimonial propaganda on projected sales. For instance, in an effort for Louis Vuitton to market a new collection of handbags, the company may take on several advertising techniques, such as magazine advertisements, posters and also endorsing celebrities to carry their handbags. This adds value in the company’s earnings since their advertising campaigns persuade people and subliminally influences their taste and behavior towards fashion and what they should be purchasing.
However, this is one small manipulative example of propaganda, small factors like the above examples could easily affect one’s major life decisions. Unfortunately, testimonial propaganda is almost always misused to manipulate and influence the public on a variety of issue and leads people away from reality. Fortunately, The Institute for Propaganda Analysis was organized to create public awareness of the methods of propaganda and to encourage people to think independently and critically about issues.
To conclude, I would like to quote one of the institute’s theories: “The art of democracy is the art of thinking and discussing independently together."
Nora Al Mehairi
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