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LEAP Project #1: Propaganda in My Life
The first thing that pops into my head when I hear the word “propaganda” is my Rosie the Riveter poster that I have hanging up in my room. With mascara on her eyelashes and a red bandana in her hair, Rosie is posing in a way to show off her muscles under a banner saying “We Can Do It!” The poster was originally US propaganda used to motivated women, like my grandmother, to take up jobs that were left vacant by soldiers during WWII.
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Though I don’t live in the 1940s, this piece of propaganda motivates me everyday to work hard and reminds me that there is strength in femininity. It’s a piece of propaganda that I chose to have in my life. After reading more on the multi-faceted meaning of propaganda and keeping an eye out for examples of it while I scroll on social media or watch the news, I’ve come to find that propaganda has a much larger place in my everyday life that I haven’t noticed before. Below, I will describe six different examples of propaganda that have come to my attention, grouped into the following sections: Entertainment, Politics/Government, and Activism.
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Entertainment
On my personal Twitter account, my newsfeed has recently been flooded with tweets from Elijah Daniel, a YouTuber and social media influencer, about his recent publication. An openly gay man who was once shunned by his Christian church for his sexuality, Daniel rewrote the Bible word for word, using slang, pop culture references, and celebrities in place of important biblical figures. This reproduction is a form of satire, a genre which uses figurative language for humor, while also “calling attention to, and critiquing, perceived wrongdoing,” such as the often-overlooked negative sides of the Bible (Jack, n.d., 11). Further, this version of the Bible titled The Holy Bible...but gayer, could be considered a parody in that it “exaggerates notable features of a public figure,” such as Rihanna, who Daniel uses to replace Jesus (Jack, n.d., p. 11). Though I think this version of the Bible should be taken lightly, it certainly is a form of propaganda. It highlights the negative and hypocritical aspects of the real Bible and Christianity, and pushes the idea that gay culture should be taken more seriously.
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Daniel, who has a large Twitter following and is known to do things for click bait (such as become Mayor of Hell, Michigan), started tweeting snippets of his new version of the Bible to his followers. These gained large numbers of retweets and favorites. He then published his work to Amazon for purchase as an eBook, promoted the link on his Twitter account, and made his own website where a copy of “The Holy Bible...buy gayer” can be purchased. Soon enough, he was retweeting others who tweeted that they purchased the book, all while it grew to become a #1 Bestseller on Amazon in the Christian section. Other popular Twitter accounts wrote articles about Daniel’s publication, like the Huffington Post. Daniel’s success in using smaller social media websites and strategies to reach bigger ones and make more and more money along the way gives credibility to Holiday’s (2013) idea of “trading up the chain.”
A second example of propaganda in the entertainment media that I consume is in the clickbait-laden YouTube videos that I watch almost daily. One example is a video by David Dobrik titled “INTENSE STANDOFF WITH THE POLICE!!” that has nearly three million views. The thumbnail of the video shows a young man standing with his hands up, while two police officers stand by their cruiser pointing their guns at him. Upon watching the video, the truth is revealed that the police officers are paid actors; the whole “standoff” was just a planned skit.
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This headline uses disinformation and misleading clickbait (“police” in and of itself is a buzzword) to get consumers to watch the video (Jack, n.d., p. 3; EAVI, n.d.). This title is alarming (especially during a time of raised mistrust of police) and implies that there will be violence and graphic images in the video. For Dobrik, however, “A click is a click...a blogger [vlogger, in this case] doesn’t care how they get it” (Holiday, 2013, p. 73). In fact, Dobrik has incorporated the notion of clickbait into his own brand. In his vlogs, he jokes about doing something outrageous specifically to get a good thumbnail or a good title for clickbait. Dobrik uses these two things as his a part of his comedic sketches, his brand, and he even sells merchandise that says “clickbait.” He’s turned a negative, sleazy side of media promotion into a part of his brand; in a sense, this is an example of culture jamming, where he is critiquing the absurdity of these marketing techniques with humor, but also using them to his financial advantage (Jack, n.d., p. 11).
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Politics/Government
My Twitter account for class has proven very useful in finding examples of propaganda after following over 100 people that related to propaganda, public relations, journalism, and government. I made an effort to follow more conservative-leaning accounts, because I don’t normally see them on my personal Twitter account and wanted to keep my mind open. One very conservative account retweeted the following image:
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I see this image or meme as a form a agitprop, which tries to evoke intense nationalistic pride, fears of Islam, and dislike of liberals (Jack, n.d., p. 7). Further, this meme could be considered a form of gray propaganda, which “combines accurate and inaccurate content and sourcing information” (Jack, n.d., p. 7). What liberal(s) said that Muslims think the American flag is offensive? Did a Muslim person or persons actually say that the flag offended them? Though this information may be true for some Muslims or liberals, it probably is not for most. The lack of sourcing information makes it ever harder to believe.
Another similar meme showed up on my timeline in reply to a tweet regarding #MedicareForAll, a bill proposed by Bernie Sanders for single-payer health insurance. This bill would require the government to pay for everyone’s healthcare, an idea that many associate with socialism and it’s downfalls. The meme is pictured below:
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First and foremost, this meme caters to one of the biggest threats of propaganda: it appeals to the emotions (Jack, n.d., p. 8). It makes you sad for those living in run-down homes, fearful for people suffering in unsanitary hospitals, and then angry at the upper class for ignoring the poor while living lavishly. In context, this image is also misleading because it uses a single bill proposal with socialist principles to imply that Bernie Sanders is trying to shift the entire nation’s political-economic system from capitalism to socialism (EAVI, n.d.). This is partisan propaganda that promotes anti-socialism ideology, while ignoring the fact that capitalism is the ruling system that created the conditions pictured in the meme (EAVI, n.d.). In a way, this meme reminds me of gaslighting, because these terrible images (and even just the word “socialism”) really make a person wonder whether the humane notion of healthcare for all actually is a good idea (Jack, n.d., p. 9). As someone who works at a healthcare clinic and believes that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, the promotion of his kind of selfish thinking is very scary.
A third example of propaganda relating to religion in politics comes from a tweet that appeared on my timeline from The Daily Caller, a conservative-leaning online news publication. The tweet contains a link to a news article on their website, preceded by the article’s headline: “Report: Religious Freedom At Risk in America.” The image attached to the tweet is a photo of the hands of a caucasian person holding open a black, leather-bound book (assumed to be the Bible). A white cross that is tied to a bookmark dangles over the spine of the book. This headline is inflammatory and stirs fear in the hearts of all those who value their First Amendment rights. Again, it appeals to the emotions just like propaganda should. What’s more,The Daily Caller employed clickbait in the image--white hands, a cross--to target their audience of conservatives, many of whom are white, practicing Christians.
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Upon reading the article, one finds the headline to be disinformative (Jack, n.d., p. 3). While the headline implies that the First Amendment is at risk, the article simply talks about the recent increase in acts of religious intolerance and violence. Funnily enough, the article only mentions the incidences of religious intolerance towards Christians and one Jewish group, but fails to mention the increase in Islamophobia and acts of hatred towards Muslims that have spiked recently.
Activism (Government and International Politics)
The final piece of propaganda that I’ve noticed this week also comes from my personal Twitter account, which I use quite often. I have a friend that I made through Twitter who lives in the region of Catalonia, Spain. Currently, Catalonia is a legal part of Spain, but it has, for quite some time, been fighting for independence. There is a historic referendum vote for independence planned for October 1, but there has been numerous protests and legal fights over it during the past few weeks. As a Spanish major, this conflict is of interest to me, and I like to stay up to date on my friend’s retweets.
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She recently retweeted someone from Scotland, who posted an image of a pro-Scotland independence rally, where a large crowd of people filled a Glasgow square, under a gloomy, rainy sky. The protesters were waving two flags: light blue Scottish flags with white crosses, and the red and yellow striped Catalonian flag. The Scottish people were standing as one for not only Scottish independence, but for Catalonian independence as well. This act, and this photo specifically, is an example of partisan propaganda that supports the ideology of democracy, freedom, and national pride (EAVI, n.d.). Further, it was an act of public diplomacy, where the Scottish people were trying to “improve the country’s reputation with people in other countries,” like Spain (Jack, n.d., p. 5). Evidently, this act and tweet was effective; my Catalonian friend retweeted it in gratitude.
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Bibliography
EAVI: Media Literacy for Citizenship. (n.d.). Beyond Fake News: 10 Types of Misleading News. PDF.
Retrieved from https://propaganda2017.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/beyond-fake-news_colour_web-2.pdf
Holiday, R. (2013). Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. New York, NY:
Penguin Group.
Jack, C. (n.d.) Lexicon of Lies: Terms for Problematic Information. Data and Society Research Institute.
PDF. Retrieved from https://datasociety.net/pubs/oh/DataAndSociety_LexiconofLies.pdf
