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Introduction
Advanced technology has rewritten the future of the world. Technology is getting advanced day by day and these technologies decide the life of the people. It has been applied in every sphere of life especially in the field of mass communication. Propaganda persuades people to a cause or position and the role of mass communication in its propagation is pivotal. Nowadays, governments declare their propaganda through mass media. The rise of mass communication has been of great help for the declaration of propaganda. This paper presents the role of propaganda in current affairs and it has reviewed one article to assess the role of television on world affairs.
Purpose of the Paper
The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of mass communication in the circulation of propaganda, the relevance of television in mass communication, and to know the role of propaganda in current affairs in the twentieth century.
The role of propaganda in the conduct of affairs in the 20th century. “Propaganda is a form of communication that attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. Persuasion is interactive and attempts to satisfy the needs of both persuader and persuade. A model of propaganda depicts how elements of informative and persuasive communication may be incorporated into propagandist communication, thus distinguishing propaganda as a specific class of communication.” (Jowett, Jowett & O’Donnell, 2006, p.4).
Propaganda had a great role in molding the attitude of the people till the twentieth century. This term was very familiar to Christianity since the Vatican, the center of Christianity declared numerous propagandas. Propaganda can influence two factors and they are behavioral change of the people and the public opinion. It communicates lucidly about the concerned matter. Since the propaganda is presented logically, people would believe it.
Therefore, it may lead to behavioral change of the people. The main objective of the propaganda is to create a public opinion. If people are not aware of a particular issue, the concerned authority will issue the propaganda to persuade the people towards its position. “Propaganda is designed to manipulate others’ beliefs and induce action in the interest of the propagator by drilling the message into the listeners’ heads. It involves the use of images, slogans and symbols to play on prejudices and emotions. The ultimate goal of propaganda is to entice the recipient of the message to come to ‘voluntarily’ accept the propagandist’s position as if it was one’s own.” (Brahm, 2006, para.2).
There are a few components that have to be addressed in the propaganda. There must be an ideology behind the propaganda to convince the people. It will have a target which is the audience and these people may belong to a particular group or set. But in this advanced world, the role of propaganda has diminished. Now people have various accesses to accurate information or knowledge. People have started to think globally and they have become very liberal. People like to collect information about many issues by themselves. There is no need to convince the people about an issue. People will have their own opinion collected from different means. That is why propaganda loses its importance in current affairs.
Review of the Article
“A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication” (Harris, 2004, p.1) is the book that is reviewed in this paper to understand the role of television in world affairs, elections, and wars. Mass media is a very modern concept. It is a new technique that emerged in society. It is used to spread the information to a large section of people in the society such as a nation or a state. Television plays a vital role in influencing human affairs and wars. The Residents of the United States spend 15 hours of their average 39 hours of free time watching television. “Every day people worldwide spend over 3.5 billion hours of free time watching television.” (Harris, 2004, p.1).
Sometimes, the media act as the only way to provide information. Televisions depend completely on advertisement revenues for financial support. This means that the advertisement is reaching out to the people successfully for marketing of the commodities. Television acts as the agent of value transmission. The values that it spreads may not be right. In chapter 7 the article claims that there is a chance of divergence of reality in news. The news is the most accepted form of mass communication to retrieve information. Here, the editor’s choice is also influenced. Politics is the major part of the news in all cultures. Each political party has its news channels to promote the news which is favorable to them. In politics; television has done drastic changes about the election campaign.
Conclusion
Propaganda influences the attitude and behavior of the people and now the government and other organizations communicate their propaganda through different means of communication. Television is one the finest ways to communicate propaganda. It had a pivotal role till the twentieth century. But now, it has been changed and people started to collect information from various means instead of making them convince.
Reference List
Brahm, E. (2006). Propaganda. Beyond Intractablity. Web.
Harris, R. J. (2004). A cognitive psychology of mass communication. Routledge, p.1. Web.
Jowett, G S., Jowett, G., & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and persuasion. Sage, p.4. Web.
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