Propaganda Machine: Difference between revisions

Line 102:

* If "demonization of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany before and during World War I" is something you find curious, [http://hnn.us/articles/1521.html here] is a good summary. Or perhaps if you are curious as to where Orwell found that idea of official image of the world being routinely subjected to U-turn revisions via Memory Hole:

{{quote|Even worse was ''The Kaiser, The Beast of Berlin'', which opened on Broadway in the spring of 1918. The content more than justified the title. The man whom the ''New York Times'' had acclaimed as the Prince of Peace in 1913 was portrayed as gloating over slaughtered Belgian civilians and torpedoed ships. }}

* One ~~of the rare examples~~ of this ~~Trope~~ being used for good was the Abolitionist movement in 19th-century America. They mobilized a truly massive Propaganda Machine made up of everything from newspapers to novels (''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'') to public speaking in order to wake white America up to the horrors of slavery.

* One example of this trope being used for good was the Abolitionist movement in 19th-century America. They mobilized a truly massive Propaganda Machine made up of everything from newspapers to novels (''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'') to public speaking in order to wake white America up to the horrors of slavery.

* By its widest definition, just about every political entity practices propaganda; namely, making themselves look as good as possible while either downplaying or downright denying any good qualities in their opponents. The negative aspects of this trope come in when this is the only form of news anyone has access to...

* By its widest definition, just about every political entity practices propaganda; namely, making themselves look as good as possible while either downplaying or downright denying any good qualities in their opponents. The negative aspects of this trope come in when this is the only form of news anyone has access to.

* It could be said that the difference between propaganda and Public Relations is that the bad guys engage in Propaganda, while the good guys do Public Relations. Indeed, the [[Voice of the Resistance]] is likely considered propaganda by those who don't agree with them. How much of the content is truthful and how much isn't depends on who is producing it.

* Australian PR firm Crosby/Textor makes extensive use of [[Divide and Conquer|wedge politics]] on behalf of its mostly [[Strawman Political|neo-conservative]] clients.

* Almost any state media news organization in a dictatorship will get used in this way.

* If you believe Noam Chomsky then all media is part of a propaganda machine. The argument goes that all media is profit motivated and as such their profit is the only thing in the universe that matters to them. Their revenue far and away comes from ads, not the quarter you put in the newspaper vending machine. Timely information about governments comes from the military and the police, and the little access they do get is revocable if they inconvenience their sources. It gets to the point where even Wikimedia, which repackages ad-bearing information without ads, reads "police said this, police said that, the military said the other thing, high ranking government employees yada yada yada". Also, the owners of almost all media groups are rich and are picked for their gender, politics and race, help run the government and they can dictate who gets employed and what they write (or at least fire them if they do it the wrong way). Add all of that up and it means that we only hear about what our various governments want us to hear about. Sure people complain about those stories, but that just helps to create the illusion. The idea is that in the end you can't even imagine that other bad things could be happening. Television rots your brain anyway.

* If you believe Noam Chomsky, then ''all'' media is part of a propaganda machine. The argument goes that all media is profit-motivated and as such their profit is the only thing in the universe that matters to them.<ref>This Mod would like to state for the record that [[All The Tropes]] is designed to operate at a loss covered by the personal finances of a noticeable fraction of the moderation team, and is intended to not be able to turn a profit.</ref> Their revenue far and away comes from ads, not the quarter you put in the newspaper vending machine. Timely information about governments comes from the military and the police,{{verify}} and the little access they do get is revocable if they inconvenience their sources. It gets to the point where even Wikimedia, which repackages ad-bearing information without ads, reads "police said this, police said that, the military said the other thing, high ranking government employees yada yada yada". Also, the owners of almost all media groups are rich{{verify}} and are picked{{verify}} for their gender, politics and race,{{verify}} help run the government{{verify}} and they can dictate who gets employed{{verify}} and what they write{{verify}} (or at least fire them if they do it the wrong way).{{verify}} Add all of that up and it means that we only hear about what our various governments want us to hear about.{{verify}} Sure people complain about those stories, but that just helps to create the illusion. The idea is that in the end you can't even imagine that other bad things could be happening. Television rots your brain anyway.

** Not a very competent propaganda machine, though. The occasional story on CBS 60 Minutes about US-now-Turkish warplanes destroying entire Kurdish villages or on Fox News about New Orleans residents interned in the Astrodome and so forth gets through. It's pretty easy to avoid the propaganda, you just turn the TV and radio off and make sure when you find ads in something, if it's political, current events, historical, ethics, or religious, stop being exposed to it. Wikipedia often toes the party line, but if you study 20th century history, sociology, and political science, you can draw your own conclusions.

** Not a very competent propaganda machine, though. The occasional story on CBS ''[[60 Minutes]]'' about US-now-Turkish warplanes destroying entire Kurdish villages or on ''[[Fox News]]'' about New Orleans residents interned in the Astrodome and so forth gets through. It's pretty easy to avoid the propaganda, you just turn the TV and radio off and make sure when you find ads in something, if it's political, current events, historical, ethics, or religious, stop being exposed to it. Wikipedia often toes the party line, but if you study 20th century history, sociology, and political science, you can draw your own conclusions.

* Imperial Japan during World War II actually did such a good job with this, that it actually came as a colossal ''shock'' to the Japanese people on the home islands when they surrendered, because up until then they'd been told that they had been winning the war.

* Imperial Japan during [[World War II]] actually did such a good job with this, that it actually came as a colossal ''shock'' to the Japanese people on the home islands when they surrendered, because up until then they'd been told that they had been winning the war.

** This is not dissimilar to what happened to the Germans after World War I, which in part set the stage for World War 2. All the good news from the front lines had been let through by the censors, but the tales of defeat were not. Since the Germans leaders surrendered before the Allies actually invaded Germany itself, some people thought they'd been betrayed by their leaders while they were winning the war.

** This is not dissimilar to what happened to the Germans after [[World War I]], which in part set the stage for World War II. All the good news from the front lines had been let through by the censors, but the tales of defeat were not. Since the Germans leaders surrendered before the Allies actually invaded Germany itself, some people thought they'd been betrayed by their leaders while they were winning the war.

* ''[http://www.unz.com/runz/our-american-pravda/ Our American Pravda]'' article on The Unz Review describes peculiarities of the late American version (the historical roots are mostly covered by [[Mark Twain]]).

* "[http://www.unz.com/runz/our-american-pravda/ Our American Pravda]" article on ''The Unz Review'' describes peculiarities of the late American version (the historical roots are mostly covered by [[Mark Twain]]).

* In June 2018, Ralph Peters, a former military analyst for [[Fox News]] made headlines by [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/business/media/ralph-peters-fox-cnn.html declaring that the channel has become a "destructive propaganda machine"] doing a "great deal of damage" to the United States, and that it was "assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law".

* In June 2018, Ralph Peters, a former military analyst for [[Fox News]], made headlines by [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/business/media/ralph-peters-fox-cnn.html declaring that the channel has become a "destructive propaganda machine"] doing a "great deal of damage" to the United States, and that it was "assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law".

Line 119:

[[Category:Fame and Reputation Tropes]]

[[Category:The Index Is Watching You]]

[[Category:~~Propaganda Machine~~]]

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]