The Usage of Propaganda - Essay Example

? Propaganda Insti Propaganda Introduction Propaganda is simply the information spread deliberately in order to harm an individual, an institution, a group of people, or even a government. The cultural dictionary defines propaganda as legal and official communications of the government to the public in order to influence them politically. The images associated to propaganda found in this course highlight some of the instances of practice of propaganda. This images include, the image displayed in the third lesson about the young imitating Hitler’s steps and actions, what the Chinese postage stamp implicated in relation to propaganda and finally, the jobs. Looking at how best the practice of propaganda has taken root in the areas of jobs, studied in lesson six and the Chinese postage stamp, studied in lesson five. The post agency of china released stamps with six different designs during the National Tourism Day. The designs showed the picture of the islands of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa, which Chinese occupied illegally (Chong, 2002). The post agency also released postcards and envelops with the same pictures. This is propaganda and the china post agency accepted that was a mistake and thus Vietnam has legal claims for the act. It also follows that in the Postal Service Department, china Postal Agency has trivialized the law. Therefore, Vietnam protested against china and demanded for removal of the images of the island. Vietnam claimed that china used propaganda to prosper their tourism industry by posting the images of the islands of Hoang Sa. The rate of practice of propaganda in employment firms is high in the United States of America. Most of the employees are quitting their jobs and instead of the media houses enlightening the citizens with what is real and the facts about the job sector, they are advised to say that the quitting of employees indicate development in the economy sector of the United States. The reporters stated that the growth of hiring and quitting of the employees suggests that the job market is stabilizing and thus America is regaining its economy (George, 2008). The department of Food Services and Accommodation, in the United States, registered the highest number of job quits because of low wages, which do not deserve the work done. It is absurd to think that the people who quit their jobs in this sector got promotions. Therefore, the government continues propaganda in this sector to restore its self-image. Both in china and the United States, the issue about the stamp and the quitting of jobs by the employees in the two countries respectively, are forms of propaganda. These are similar in that both are deceptive. In china, the China Postal Agency deceives the tourists about the ownership of beautiful sites such as the Vietnam Hoang Sa islands published as a design of stamp and posted on envelops and post cards. On the other hand, the government of the United States gives a false statement on the employment sector. The reporters got instructions that instead of reporting that the economy of America is unhealthy, they report the opposite, the economy of America is very healthy (George, 2008). In real sense, the quitting of jobs of citizens is due to the low payments on high wage jobs. These two countries want to achieve good self-images for their governments, illegally. The extent of the propaganda practiced in the two countries differs in the intensity. In China, the postage stamps affected the country in general. The Vietnam had legal allegations towards China Postal Agency; it did not cause many adverse effects to the citizens and the economy of China. On the other hand, the propaganda practiced in the United States causes adverse effects to both the economy of the country and the citizens (Chong, 2002). Citizens quit the jobs because of low payments with high wage jobs, low living standards thus tempering with the economy, they cannot afford school fees, and basic needs of their families and this in turn affects greatly the economy of the country. Another difference comes in; America’s propaganda main achievement is to protect their government image at the cost of the citizens. The low-income earning citizens suffer a great deal since they have no other option. On the other hand, China’s propaganda was mainly to improve on their economy as a state. They wanted to earn more foreign exchange in the tourism industry. The theory of Utilitarianism is in relation to America’s propaganda. The main ideas discussed in this theory are the morals of actions an individual portrays, in this discussion, to refer to the government of the United States, determined by the happiness or the unhappiness of the people affected (Marlin, 2002). The government of the United States should consider the happiness of the low-income citizens, at least thrive to make everyone happy and to give an equal treatment to all citizens. There are other instances of propaganda practiced in Canada. In clause one of the Ad Complaints Report, stated that advertisements should not contain false or inaccurate information or any other details incorporated in the clause should be true. The clause also forbid omission of relevant information in the advert and the advert should be clear to the recipient hence there should be no contradicting information (Marlin, 2002). The clause also required clear identification of the advertiser. However, in 1999, many complaints were recorded. The clause violated the rule, which stated that depictions and portrayals were unacceptable. Six complaints recorded out of the 1075 complaints received that year came from Clause 14. One of them stated that a woman’s photograph was printed out identifying her as the new sex symbol at a men’s’ campaign, for the advertised product. The advertisement is offensive which is against the conditions stated in the Clause. Another instance of propaganda is the six complaints recorded the same television manufacturer showed a person that participated in the partaking of a religious sacrament (Marlin, 2002). The argument behind this is that this trivialized the sacrament and thus people who adhere to the idea of part taking the sacrament felt betrayed. Conclusion Propaganda can be either positive or negative depending on the results obtained. A part from the types of propaganda mentioned above, there are also many other types of propaganda practiced in the world. Especially in politics, political leader use propaganda as a bridge to success in politics. Citizens are mostly won over by propaganda. Indeed that is how far most citizens go. Without propaganda, the political leaders will never win their political races. References Chong, W. L. (2002). China's great proletarian cultural revolution: Master narratives and post-Mao counternarratives. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. George, S. (2008). Hijacking America: How the religious and secular right changed what Americans think. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Jowett, G., Jowett, G., & O'Donnell, V. (2012). Propaganda & persuasion. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE. Marlin, R. (2002). Propaganda and the ethics of persuasion. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press. Read More