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Rationale In this report I am going to explain how propaganda and psychological warfare influences and manipulates people to make them support a country. I am going to show how does the media works as the medium through which the governments spread their propaganda. The government manipulate masses using pamphlets, speeches, morality and priorities. This manipulation is done through the media. Media and subjects like censure and impartiality of it are going to be discuss in this report. I will show how the Persian Gulf War can be set on as an example of the media spreading government propaganda and psychological warfare.
This report also includes a semiotic analysis on propaganda and its denotative and connotative meanings. This report is going to show us its effect and importance in our community and society. PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR AND PROPAGANDA All of us, know about the horrors and the devastation that are a result of wars. Despite these horrors, we act indifferent towards war and its effect on the world community. Countries governments manage to manipulate us and make us think that their war actions against another nation, race or culture are well justified.
Nations make the members of the society belief, that they are doing the right thing and that this military action against a declared enemy is the most desirable thing to do in order to keep the worlds stability and peace. For this reason people say we are meant to help and serve our country, in its war against their enemy which automatically changes into being our enemy too. Propaganda and psychological warfare are elements which are used by the government to accomplish their war objectives and win the war. Propaganda is when a one side statement is shown to a mass audience.
This means that propaganda is meant to show a statement from only one side, for it to manipulate and influence a mass audience. In order to reach a mass audience, government rely upon mediums of communication, the media. Psychological warfare is specific propaganda which intends to influence and manipulate people by the use of morality, patriotism and priorities. It is an indirect form of propaganda which is often use to convince people without making them feel being influenced by someone. War Wars are conflicts and confrontations between groups of people that are defending their own interests.
They kill each other using weapons to destroy the enemy which is seen as an obstacle to their interests. Ambition and competition are human characteristics. These characteristics can create conflicts in our society due to feelings such as envy or hate. Feelings like these, are expressed by a person or a group of people because of cultural, ideological and / or social differences. So conflicts are a result of the intolerance towards different people in our society. Conflicts can end up in confrontations.
These confrontations are actions in response to a conflict. When these actions involve two or more sides and weapons are use to physically attack the opposite side, in battlefields, it is understood to be a war. We as humans compete against each other to make our interests happen. In the same way, countries compete against each other for power or supremacy. This competition could lead to improvement and development, but it also leads to wars. We associate wars automatically with destruction.
This association is due to the experiences we have with wars throughout history. Although we seem to be aware of the horrors and destruction caused by wars we are brain washed so that we act indifferently towards the immense live loss. An example of this brain washing could be We even support and get involve in these actions. We are tricked in order to follow some ideal of freedom and / or liberty. An example of this could be the Persian Gulf War. The coalition differences with Saddam Hussein's regime pushed them into this war.
The immense live loss that was over 200, 000 was totally ignored by most of the audience. The US government used propaganda and psychological warfare as a weapon to win this war and brain wash American and the western world people. War media The media is the medium through which information is spread. We are constantly surrounded by media. It is where we take a look at what is happening in the world we cannot see. The media has an enormous power.
This power is the result of the way we trust it. For example a wide majority of people take TV news as truth. They do not question the veracity of them or judged if they are right or wrong, because the TV news job is supposed to give real and impartial facts and information. Although some of us know that all the information showed as facts on TV news are only one side point of view. Governments are interested in manipulate the media in order to manipulate the wide majority of people which trust it.
It is the easier and most effective way of spreading their propaganda and psychological warfare. The media is a very important weapon of wars. The manipulation of the media is essential in a process meant to manipulate people. It is the connection between the government of a country and the countrys people. TV news, TV shows, newspapers, radio transmissions and magazines articles shows us facts of all around the world. If people doesnt have another point of reference to compare this facts to, they take them as the truth.
When media is controlled or manipulated by the government of a country (like in US case) what we see, hear or read in the media, is taken as if it was true. During war time periods, governments use the media as a weapon. Using media as a weapon to spread their propaganda sometimes makes the difference between winning or loosing. The country which has more control over the media will have a bigger chance of winning the war. Usually the country that was more control over the global media (media of all around the world), is the country which was greater and better armed army and greater economical influences. The US is the most economically, politically and militarily powerful country.
They own the biggest multinationals of news and information including CNN, ABC, New York Times, CNN international. These huge TV networks, newspapers and magazines not only influence people in the US. They are the media for the pro-American countries media, which obviously also includes Colombia. Lets take Colombia as an example. Colombian newspapers and TV news programs principal sources of information are American media. Almost all the international news transmitted in Colombia are based on the news reports done by American networks.
The same thing happens in the international section of Colombian newspapers. These newspapers (such as El Tiempo, Portfolio etc. ) international news are translated versions of American newspapers. American newspapers spread the US government propaganda and so, this propaganda is also spread in Colombian and all pro-American countries. For these reasons we could say that the government of a country manipulates the media and us during war times for two main reasons.
First of all, they want the people of their country to understand, justify and support the war and to recognized their common enemy because of belonging to the same nation. Morality and priorities in phrases, such as you should defend your country defend your family, support your country, are constantly repeated by government propaganda through the media or speeches transmitted by all the TV networks. Also the government controls the information given to the whole world public in order to keep a low profile of the images showing innocent civilians involve in the conflict. Impartiality and censure of the media Impartiality and censure of the media is a very important way of psychological warfare and propaganda. US government use these elements to influence American and the Western World. US media is totally partial in aspects concerning their government.
If the reputation of US government is in risk the media will not show it, and consider this censorship as patriotism. For example CNN agreed with the government to show Osama Bin Laden videos after government intelligence translate them and edit them in order to cut out the parts in which the US government reputation is in risk. During wars, the images presented to the general public are limited and restricted. These images are always showing the US side of the story to convince people that the bad guys are US governments enemies.
They censure some crude images with the excuse that the general public shouldnt have a look at the terrible loss of life. The real purpose of this is to avoid a negative reaction of the public against US because of the live loss due to the bombing and armed confrontations. For these reason innocent civilians killed by US troops arent showed on TV, newspapers or magazines. Individuals let the governments control private media because the government puts pressure on them. This pressure could be in economic, constitutional and moral terms. Economic pressure is the pressure placed to the media multinationals by the government.
This pressure could be cutting economic preferences or subsidies to private media. Government can also pressure individual that own the media using the constitution. Although the constitution says media should give impartial information, the reality is that the information given to mass audience almost always is manipulated. It is a paradox how the law say that the information has to be impartial (press liberty) but in the other hand controls what information is adequate for the public and how this information is shown. Moral pressure is another way on controlling private media. Patriotism and sense of belonging are part of this kind of pressure.
An action of this kind would be seen with good eyes both from the government side as from the general public side. Gulf War Propaganda The Gulf War is a perfect example on how the US government used propaganda and psychological warfare to win a war. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2 of 19...
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Research essay sample on Persian Gulf War Majority Of People
