1. Where do we as society draw the line as to what we should believe? And how does the “terrain of influence” impact what we perceive as right and wrong?
2. At what point does information become propaganda? And where do we draw the boundaries of persuasion.
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2. Just like we talked about in class, there is a definite line between information and propaganda, but only if you define information as pure fact. Government officials could tell us plenty of facts, but they might be so shrouded in propaganda (or framing, or a "terrain of influence," or whatever you want to call it) that we can't recognize them. I think we've pretty well established that the point of political speech and policy is less to communicate facts than it is to persuade, so I don't think we can reasonably expect the officials who provide our information to stick to just the facts. We didn't elect them just to share information; we elected them to do something about it. So overall, I think some "propaganda" is necessary - it's just when it starts to truly obscure the facts that it needs to be addressed.
I think we shouldn't take the information that we hear to heart. We definitely need to filter what we believe as truth and what we believe as propaganda or just exaggeration. Even if something isn't meant to be propaganda, it still might be biased and we take information that is twisted to suit the story or intended purpose. For instance, the news currently covers the Middle East non-stop and all the terrorism that occurs within this region. All the information we are hearing tends to make people believe that the whole Middle East is "terror" region. This isn't true. Even if it wasn't intended propaganda, people assume because it is what they hear from the Media and the media is a big influence on people. We just need to listen to what we hear and be careful to seperate out the false information from the truth.
#2 I think that we can safely draw the line at misinformation, tricks or misleading statements. If you are purposefully misinforming individuals you cross a line from persuasion into falsehood. I know that spreading half truths can often be more effective than taking the time to fully explain a situation or set of circumstances but when it comes down to important matters we have a duty to provide accurate and truthful information. Unfortunately I find that more and more often political advertisements play to America's ever shorter attention span. I was listening to a campaign strategist and a former congressional aid turn politician at a round-table discussion a few weeks back and they were talking about how campaigns are strategically marketed around a marketing window of 11-15 seconds. 11-15 seconds is the time it takes a person to walk from the mail box to the trash can, or the time the average person spends watching a political ad on TV before turning the channel. Now I ask you, how honest can you be if you only have someones attention for 11 seconds?
This time window feeds campaign strategists ability to tell you, or spin, what they want you to know about their candidate, and especially what they want you to know about their opponent. This strategy lead to lies about then Senator Obama's faith calling him a Muslim(in the midst of the Rev. wright scandal no less), accusing former President Bush as being prejudiced against Arab individuals while at the same time being the puppet of Saudi Arabia, or saying that former President Bush lied to get to Iraq while at the same time trying to convince people that the Vice president is really the one pulling the strings.
(#2)
There is a great song by 3 Doors Down called "Citizen/Soldier". It's a really good song, but the music video boarders propaganda. It is a U.S. military driven music video, sponsored by the U.S. military. Any time the government has a hand in the main stream media, it should be considered propaganda. Because there is always an ulterior motive behind whatever they sponsor.
The difference between information and propagananda is very different i think. Information is given out to all people so that they can better their knowledge about a specfic topic. This would help people in the world with specfic things. Propagananda is limited information given by certin people on that specfic topic that only they want to be heard. This is not good for the people because only side of a topic is seen in many cases.
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