Government Propaganda Through The Media example essay topic

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 it's denotative and connotative meanings. This report is going to show us it's 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 it's 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 world's stability and peace".

For this reason people say we are "meant" to help and serve our country, in it's 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 country's people. TV news, TV shows, newspapers, radio transmissions and magazines articles shows us facts of all around the world. If people doesn't 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. Let's 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 government's enemies. They censure some crude images with the excuse that the general public shouldn't 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 aren't 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 1990, the Gulf War started. The coalition started a war which included US government propaganda. During the Gulf war period.

President Bush made sure that his government propaganda influenced people so that they didn't remember the embarrassment of Vietnam but the victory in the WWII. US government was trying, with the Gulf war propaganda to create new war history. The President himself called it: "The new world order", placing themselves in the top of this world order. They used the Gulf War to highlight their power over most of the world. The propaganda was basically to put the whole world against Saddam Hussein.

The coalition was one of US government successes in the war. It consisted of Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Honduras, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Syria Turkey, The United Arab Emirates, The United Kingdom, and the United States. The US job consisted in convincing people that their common enemy was Saddam Hussein. They did this by manipulating the media and showing images of Hussein and his regime highlighting the negative and cruel aspects of it. This basic idea of " us = good, them = evil " noted by Foss and Littlejohn, can be taken to a step further. It can translate into things such as: we are responsible, our leaders are good, our soldiers are well prepared and brave, the damage we cause is well justify; their side is irresponsible, their leaders evil, their soldiers badly prepared, and the damage they do is random and includes civilians.

These are some basic ideas of the US propaganda and psychological warfare during the war. With the immense power that US media had and still has in and out of the US, it was very easy for their government to spread their propaganda and psychological warfare. What the US and pro- American public remember from the Persian Gulf War is a fair and successful military operation with few casualties, technological war in which laser-guided missiles destroyed buildings not human bodies. These images we have of the Gulf War are due to the media coverage of the war. Some critics believe that the public was left with an image of pinpoint bombing from the pictures of the computer guided "smart" bombs. It seems as if the media coverage of the war was more like a sports event rather than a war were actual human beings are being killed.

The idea of the media missing coverage of the human loss in the war is nowadays evident for us. They presented the conflict to us as a bloodless conflict. Studies done by a UCLA student, made to compare the censorship of this war to other wars have come to a conclusion that the media failed in its job of giving impartial information to the public, and that in the other hand it seems as if it worked like a puppet for the Pentagon and US government. Images of death and destruction showed in the media were of 18.8% for Vietnam war and 3.0% for Korea, and for people in life threatening situations 17.4% for Vietnam and 3.6% for Korea.

This kind of images for the Gulf War have a lower percentage than the ones shown by the media in the Korean conflict. The pictures of the Gulf war presented by Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News and World Report in the total of 21 issues printed during the Gulf war, were 583. Out of this 583 pictures only 6 showed death, blood or destruction. 35% of the pictures were of the equipment and technology of the US army in the conflict. These facts shows us that the US government was censuring media to make it almost look as video game for the viewers, and they were showing their new powerful and intelligent weapons which were supposed to have only killed enemy soldiers and not innocent civilians. The images of the US planes bombing Iraqi buildings with either civilians or soldiers, were shown as video games in the media.

This gave the general public an idea of an antiseptic bloodless war. In government propaganda president Bush, General Powell, and General Schwarzkopf were always pictured in positive ways. For example news reports, newspapers and magazines pictures of President Bush were shown with his wife at church in prayer. The President was also shown walking thoughtfully with other governmental leaders in the White House Garden.

Powell was usually making a press briefing, showing him in charge and clearly competent. Shwartzkopf was shown surrounded by cheering soldiers. This images and pictures shows us that the leaders were always good, patriotic and caring people. Saddam Hussein was always represented as a military leader of a middle east world regime. Hussein's photographs that were showed in magazines during the Gulf War were almost always dark and in black and white. He was portrait as the villain and the US leaders as the heroes.

The idea of them = bad and us = good is corroborated by these photographs. The US political leaders are not only being portrait as the right and necessary leaders, but they are also being contrast with the eastern world dictator, Saddam Hussein. This way the US government was showing the US citizens and Western World countries, that their enemy was Saddam Hussein and that they were able to beat him and his regime therefore they should support them. In the pictures above both president Bush (with Barbara Bush) and general Powell, seem calm and in control of the situation. Magazines, news reports and newspapers portrait this good image of the US government during war.

Saddam Hussein was always showed in dark pictures or in a way all the picture was centered in him and in the evil he has doing. These images of US leaders and the Iraqi leader shows us two opposite sides. One is showing US government members as heroes and in the other hand Saddam Hussein as the villain. US efforts to manipulate the media and spread their propaganda were successful.

The media patriotic coverage of the conflict and the censorship showing it as a bloodless war, influenced people, making them believe that the war actions taken by the US and it's allies were well justified. The media portrait US as a powerful country before, during and after the war. With the help of the media and its psychological warfare we can say that US and the allies had already won the war even before one shot was fired against the enemy. The media and the US government also manage to portrait the conflict as a bloodless war although there were about 200,000 causalities and 10,000 of these were innocent civilians. We can conclude therefore that the Gulf war is one example of how military propaganda has an influence in our society.

Governments justify their military actions against another country, race and / or culture by spreading propaganda to have in control all the American and pro American audience. The military propaganda and psychological influences people in order to support their country or a specific country during a war. The main purpose of the military propaganda and psychological warfare is to spread the idea of "us = good they = bad" in order to justify and find support of the mass audience. The media is the medium through propaganda accomplish these purpose. Private media is manipulate by the government in order to manipulate people. This manipulation happens because of different pressures applied by the government.

The nation which controls the global media has a bigger chance of wining a war, although it also needs economic and military resources to win it. As the Gulf War shows, the countries which have the largest economic and military power are the ones that have bigger global media power. We can say that the Gulf War conflict was won by the US even before a bullet was fired. This is due to it's immense power over the media that is connected with it's economical, political and military power.

ANALYSIS The propaganda and psychological warfare analysis in this report was directed to the general public using simple language and simple sentences when necessary so that the text is easily understood by the common English reader. It is meant to succeed in it's task to present Gulf War as an example of propaganda and psychological warfare and the role of media during war time. My report is a criticism against the media and the US government during the Gulf War. In these analysis I have made a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives present in the first pages of the report that suggest this tone or mood. Nouns: Media, confrontation, devastation, hate, raze, culture, propaganda, warfare, enemy, power. Verbs: Belief, act, help, respond, associate, experience, support, follow, censure, influence, manipulate.

Adjectives: Immense, impartial, good, evil, brave, irresponsible, unfair, successful, bloodless, enormous. The lists of words above suggest that the report is about: War propaganda and its enormous power over our society by using the media to influence us. There is a feeling that the mood based on these few word is going to be a strong critical mood and tone. This report was meant to create some conscience in the reader about the reality media shows us and the real world's reality.

The propaganda and psychological warfare are direct examples of how the government of a country manipulates the media to control the people of their country. This manipulation using propaganda, is only another of the realities that we are meant to believe from the media. I was trying to show, that the immense power of media lays in the power of communication, and that this power induces countries' governments to manipulate and control the media. I think that this task was fulfill in my report.

Bibliography

- Yahoo search for Gulf War propaganda. - Google search for Gulf War propaganda. - History Channel: "The Gulf War" - web - Altavista pictures of the Gulf War.