Monday, March 5, 2018

Week 2: Can You Recognize Propaganda When You See It?


After viewing the resources on recognizing propaganda in the week 2 module, please find a website that you believe contains one of the propaganda techniques listed on the Recognizing Propaganda page.  Please provide a link to the website and explain which technique you believe is being used there and why.

23 comments:

  1. Technology creating a diversion in families.

    Diversion: When a major issue comes up that is embarrassing or threatening, so a diversion is created so attention is directed away from the issue.

    This diversion has grew over time due to the increased use of technology among children. First, children’s absorption in “technology, from texting to playing video games, does by their very nature limit their availability to communicate with their parents.” A researcher found that when the working parent arrived home after work, his or her children were engaged in technology that “the parent was greeted only 30 percent of the time and was totally ignored 50 percent of the time.” Family time was reported to not be affected when technology was used for school, but did hurt family communication. Children who spent much time on a popular social networking site indicated that they felt less supported by their parents.

    Second, as digital immigrants, parents can struggle to gain proficiency and comfort with the new technology that their digital-native children have already mastered. This diversion in competence of children’s lives makes it more difficult for parents to assume the role of teacher and guide in their children’s use of technology. Because of the lack of technological trends on the part of many parents, they lack the authority, at least in the eyes of their children, to regulate its use. They may be unwilling to assert themselves in their children’s technological lives. Because of their children’s sense of superiority and lack of respect for parents’ authority in these matters, children may be unwilling to listen to their parents’ attempts to guide or limit their use of technology.

    Third, “computer and mobile technology have provided children with an independence in their communications with friends and others”. Consider this. In previous generations, if children wanted to be in touch with a friend, they had to call them on the home phone which might be answered by a parent. Thus, parents had the opportunity to monitor and act as gatekeepers for their children’s social lives.

    “Times have changed; new technology offers children independence from their parents’ involvement in their social lives, with the use of mobile phones, instant messaging, and social networking sites. Of course, children see this technological divide between themselves and their parents as freedom from over-involvement and intrusion on the part of their parents in their lives. Parents, in turn, see it as a loss of connection to their children and an inability to maintain reasonable oversight, for the sake of safety and over-all health, of their children’s lives. At the same time, perhaps a bit cynically, children’s time-consuming immersion in technology may also mean that parents don’t have to bother with entertaining their children, leaving them more time to themselves.”

    References
    Psychology Today. (2018). Is Technology Creating a Family Divide?. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201303/is-technology-creating-family-divide

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  3. I do know that this propaganda tactic is used quite a lot and is quite effective. It is using a celebrity to sale a product or an idea. We are bombarded everyday on social media or through t.v. commercials and print ads with some celebrity trying to convince us to pay this or pay that simple because they are promoting it. This propaganda really works, simply because the consumer may like the celebrity that is selling the product and want to support them. It could also be because they want to be like the celebrity and want to have anything that they celebrity has so they can say they have the same item the celebrity says they own as well. Also by using celebrities it makes you remember the product because of which celebrity was promoting it. You may pass a display window and see some cute shoes and think, oh I like those shoes, I will have to buy them later and forget about them. But see those same shoes on a celebrity you like and you will definitely remember them or it could even be on a celebrity you do not like. These are just some of the reason that using a celebrity to help sell or promote an item works. I copy a link that shows a commercial using a celebrity to sell an item.

    References:
    https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wWUY/capital-one-venture-hard-truth-featuring-jennifer-garner

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    1. Hello Felicia,

      Also, the Apple website uses the bandwagon technique to sell their products. On the home page, there are pictures of all the newest devices and underneath them are quotes. Under the new iPhone X they have “Say hello to the future”. Under the new iPad they have “Anything you can do, you can do it better”. Under the iPhone 8, they wrote “A new generation of the iPhone”, implying that this is the next best thing and everyone should buy it. Under the new iMac, they wrote “Available now” as if it won’t be available later or will sell out.

      https://www.apple.com/

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  4. I used testimonial as my propoaganda. You see celebrities everyday on t.v. and in magazines advertising for weight loss, morning sickness, clear skin, and shiny hair to try and see to the public. they give great testimonials of how the product has made them look skinny or lose 30 pounds in 3 months, yet they fail to discuss what is in their product or how it may affect you or even what all the extra work they had done to accomplish the weight loss. For QuickTrim by the Kardashians, they praised this product for their slim figures and lifestyles. Yet, in reality, the product is laced with tons of caffeine that can cause a major affect on your body in numerous ways. They tempt you by telling you that it speeds you metabolism and helps you become more active and eat less, when in reality, I'm going to eat what I want because no pill without excersice can make you drop 100 pounds and look like they do. I see everyday one Kardashian sister wearing waist trainers around and all the time posing in workout clothes on magazines, that within its self defies that their pills do all the work. Below I have posted a link to the Kardashian QuickTrim website, which claims they got slapped with a 5 million dollar law suit in false claims. That is enough to show the puplic that everything that glimmers isn't gold.

    Reference: https://sites.google.com/site/quicktrimproducts/home/quicktrim-kardashians

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    1. Hello Anna!

      The website above will take you to Doctor Oz’s webpage. On this webpage you will find testimonials from other patients and celebrities, confirming the data that Doctor Oz reports on. This webpage relies highly on distortion of data though. Many of the reports Doctor Oz talks about, distort data to strike fear into the person reading. Many of the studies that he links are reported before all the information is released, but it draws viewers to his show so he posts these studies as soon as he hears them. He’s been known on many occasions to have been proven wrong, and will also give false information on certain “good for you” products because the companies that make them are paying him money to “advertise” for them.

      http://www.doctoroz.com/

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    2. You are correct Anna, celebrities are famous (no pun intended!!) for giving testimonies that are not the entire story. It concerns me that so many young girls and boys will do and try things based on the celebrities that they follow. There needs to be more serious consequences in place for those who mislead our young children.
      - Althea

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  5. I decided to use name calling or stereotyping as my propaganda because its so noticeable in today new. The website I decided to use is CNN, because CNN has been known for being one sides or showing different things that could be consider this in other opinions. I decided to use the latest new about the man being aggressive to a women for wearing a Puerto Rico shirt. Even though this women is an United State citizen. There was no direct reason for him being rude and slanging this women for her shirt. However, he was doing it to show how he felt how he was better then her and shouldn't be allowed to wear such a thing in the United State. This is showing how this man, like many different American now, believe they are better then those around them. CNN used this to remind us of the issues of what was going on this is world today. They maybe not have done it on purpose, but they used it for their advances with this type of propaganda. By showing the way the officer handed it also, its showing the issues that the citizen and officers are still having. That their are extremely dirty cops, just like their are people, not willing to step and help in areas like this. CNN like to use propaganda, they might not use it directly, but they like to use different videos and clips to do it.
    https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10/us/illinois-puerto-rico-park-officer/index.html
    Jamie Bunting

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  6. I'm sure most of us have seen the ads on Facebook for FabFitFun boxes. The ads are always a video of a female celebrity that makes a big deal about opening their box to show you all the cute stuff that is inside. They always give you a promotion code to use to get a discount on the box. This type of propaganda is testimonial propaganda.

    Refrence: https://fabfitfun.com/

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  7. Demecia Parks

    Believe it or not, propaganda is all over the globe today. We watch tv, listen to the radio, navigate on the web and even cross paths with individuals, places, and items that promote propaganda and do not realize it. I was thinking how is propaganda used in my day to day life and I came to a perfect conclusion. I notice how places promote specific brands and I said to myself what place supports propaganda at its finest, the dentist. I believe the bandwagon technique is being presented in this Oral B website. I think the bandwagon technique because the site is trying to get individuals to buy oral b toothbrushes and they are using the dentist to get their advertisement across, by saying number one toothbrush used by dentists worldwide. I believe the purpose this website is trying to achieve is to prove how this toothbrush brand is different from the others, and how effective it works. I also remember other website advertisement used years ago that would say over a million people have tried the oral b toothpaste and went on to say go pro and make the switch today.

    http://www.oral-b.co.in/

    -Demecia Parks

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  8. The Grove Collaborative: https://www.grove.co/home

    The Grove Collaborative is a website that sells healthy home and personal care products, that are delivered to your house. They use virtue words and glittering generality on their website, as propaganda to dupe or lure customers into accepting how much better their products are over the ones that can be purchased in the store. The use phrases like “the best healthy home and personal care products”, “absolutely and uncompromisingly healthy”, “natural, organic and transparent ingredients”, “sustainable and transparent supply chains” and “optimized for sustainability”. While that sounds great, they do not go into detail about how their products are sustainable, natural or healthy. They use those key words on almost all the pages on the website and the web page that should explain their values, has a short list filled with those key words and leads you back to the login page so start shopping.

    They use transfer to enhance their natural and organic products with corporate certifications. Stating they are a “B Certified Corporation” with the certification symbol appearing on every web page. This means they are supposed to meet the highest business standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability (www.bcorporation.net). While they don’t use celebrity endorsements for testimonials, they do have a slew of testimonials on their website. They also use plain folks, like moms on social media, to promote their cleaning products through Facebook live, including links to sign up for their service, with potential discounts and free products.

    They use words like organic and healthy to get people to think they are using high quality products in their home. This is what most people want, especially if they have kids in the house, because they don’t want to use products that could hurt them. Which is probably why they are using moms on social media to promote the products. Moms are usually the ones buying the cleaning products so they can get other parents to think, if a mom is promoting it, it must be a good product. Symbols and logos indicate how good a product can be, just look at how popular the Nike logo is. So Grove is using the B certified symbol to show environmentally conscious customers that they are taking their business a step further by being certified by this type of organization.

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  9. As a first time mother, I decided to focus my propaganda research on baby food. There are so many companies that use propaganda in order to appease mothers into buying their products. I actually feed my son beech-nut naturals so I decided to look up there website. After viewing the list of propaganda techniques, I now believe that it is because of the company’s use of virtue words and glittering generality that persuaded me to buy their food products. The website utilizes the words: natural, organic, homemade, delicious, highest-quality, classic, real, green, honest, and mother nature. Phrases, such as “Real food is for everyone” and “Nature is always right” are stated. I did not think twice when purchasing these food products for my son because of these virtuous words, which was the company’s intention from the start. I automatically accepted and approved the products without examining any true evidence to back up what they were stating.

    I noticed that the website is also displaying the propaganda technique plain folks in the statements, “We make it like you make it” and “Future generations can be healthier”. These remarks are made to convince us that their products are good, that we can influence the future by feeding our children this organic food, and that the majority of all people think the same way.

    Companies, such as Beech-Nut, use a mother’s honesty of wanting to feed their children the best of the best to persuade them into purchasing their products by using virtue words and glittering generality. They use this propaganda technique to attract more consumers to their products in order to increase their profit margins. When someone hears the words natural and organic they are inevitably more accepting of the item and the likelihood of them buying it is greatly increased. This is because organic products have higher nutritional value, do not contain pesticides or chemicals, viewed as healthier and more ethical, and often taste better.

    The propaganda technique plain folks ensures mothers that they are choosing the appropriate and healthiest food for their child because the company states that they make it just like mothers do. Who would not want to purchase a natural product that is made the same way they would make it? Beech-nut persuades us to think that their food will provide such efficient nutrition that it will affect future generations which results in more consumer encouragement to buy their food products. They instill the thought into our heads that everyone around us thinks the same way about these healthy items, so why shouldn’t we?

    This website examination made me realize that propaganda is everywhere around us. Companies, websites, and stores only utilize propaganda for their own profit gains. They only state, write, or show what they think people want to hear so that consumers buy their products. From now on I will be doing more research instead of automatically accepting statements without verifying evidence.

    Reference

    Beech-nut baby food-real food with simple ingredients. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.beechnut.com/

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  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHJQddhyHEE

    The propaganda example I chose was a testimonial. For my example, I used Adam Levine endorsing the facial cleanser, Proactiv. The commercial opens up with Adam talking about his acne issues and how he overcame them with Proactiv. At the end of the ad he says, "If acne is your problem, Proactiv is your solution. Bottom line." The commercial shows Adam singing on stage and enjoying being famous. Nowhere in the commercial does he tell you what is in Proactiv, how it works, the scientific data to back his claim or anything close to that. Proactiv wants you to relate to Adam's struggle with acne and show a picture when he was young with acne and is now acne free and famous. Propaganda is interwoven into every ad, news story and website article. Marketers are vying for our attention and will use different propaganda tactics to capture it in hopes it will produce sales. Propaganda is used to create controversy, gloss over issues, confuse and manipulate towards the opinion of the person creating the propaganda. I would hope that teenagers would understand that clear skin does not make you rich or famous. However, I think Proactiv is hoping the opposite after the ad.

    Kasandra McDaniel

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  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64G5FfG2Xpg

    The propaganda types that were used during the video were Testimonial and Plain Folks. Famous and high profiled celebrities are being used as a way to make people see the worse in situations where gun violence happened. They are using these celebrities to promote the initiative to end of gun violence. There is an obvious stance where all the celebrities agree that gun violence needs to end and that all people feel that way. For example, many celebrities in the video say "As an American", suggesting that we should feel the same way as them because we are American. This is also an implication if you have opposing views you are not "An American" or "A human being", This is an example of Plain Folks.

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  12. The propaganda that I chose is a L'Oreal makeup commercial. This commercial specifically has Jennifer Lopez advertising a specific foundation from this company. This commercial is a perfect example of a testimonial, since Jennifer Lopez is talking about this product. All she does is mention that this product and shade is a perfect match for her. It does not describe the product at all. We really know nothing about the product other than it is a foundation. The purpose of this advertisement is to use a celebrity's endorsement to promote a product, with no information of the product itself.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWlPZKXh2R4

    Haven Clippinger

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  13. The propaganda example of transfer also known as, guilt or virtue by association was found on the Oral B website. This website claims they are the first electric toothbrush brand accepted by the ADA (American Dental Association). They also state that it is 'designed with dentists for the best possible clean,' I believe that these propaganda techniques are being used to convince anyone with teeth that this electric toothbrush is the best, (if not the only) method to maintain healthy gums and white teeth. Terms like, " Whitens from Day 1" "Up to 100% More Plaque Removal" and "100% Brushing coverage" emphasize the importance of their point, and place a guilt and shame on those who do not use the Oral B toothbrush. Whenever I see a product that say 100% more, It makes me conclude that I'm not doing enough and I can do more, because I associate 100% with being perfect! The Proctor & Gamble company, who makes the Oral B electric toothbrush ultimately wants to increase sales, and grow their client base.
    https://oralb.com/en-us

    By Althea Simmons

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  14. https://www.instagram.com/teamiblends/

    I believe this website absolutely uses propaganda to help the sells of their items. Teami blends uses Instagram famous girls such as Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Emily B to display ideally perfect bodies. Testimonials by these famous individuals are given very often telling regular girls that this product is how they gained their perfect physiques. However, when you look more into the way these women lost weight and gained their ideal bodies surgery, working out, healthy diets, and pills are always involved. The tea of these individuals did not give these women their bodies. Sadly, their products are still marketed that way disappointing the women who buy into this propaganda.

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  16. crystal Patterson

    https://activatedyou.com/

    Activated You by Akasha Naturals, created by a Dr. De Mello and actress, Maggie Q is a website with celebrity testimonials. There are several celebrity endorsements, including Julia Roberts, “Akasha Naturals is my go-to for supplements. I especially love the immune-support [when I feel] sickness coming on." Jason Maraz has a testimonial stating, “My work is in the public eye, therefore being supported by the Akasha Center gives me confidence whether I am performing onstage in front of large audiences, or one-on-one as I did last year in villages in Ghana.”


    Activated You is a line of wellness products and approach to overall wellness including Digestive Health(probiotics), Mind + Body Wellness, and Whole Body Wellness. The creators of Dr. De Mello and Actress, Maggie Q are using her celebrity status as well as the other celebrity testimonials to make the product a household name/make more sales.

    Activatedyou.com. (2018). Maggie Q and Dr. de Mello present ActivatedYou. [online] Available at: https://activatedyou.com/ [Accessed 15 Jul. 2018].

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  18. https://www.globalresearch.ca/ is known for conspiracy theories. They publish a lot of opinion as fact and state it as news. They publish stories such as "The Raqqa Exodus: The US Coalition’s “Secret Deal” to Allow ISIS-Daesh Terrorists to Escape…" which is obviously not true. There are probably some facts in there that make the authors opinion sound like fact but that just isn't the case. There are many propaganda techniques being used on this website. They use fear, deification, and definite misuse of statistics. Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the articles posted on this website, none of which have any real news being reported.

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  19. Week 2: Can You Recognize Propaganda When You See It?
    When reading the instructions for this blog post, the first thing that entered my mind were all of the corny commercials that were aired on T.V. when I would watch cartoons growing up. These commercials all encouraged you to buy that certain product by using propaganda. One item that I remembered the most was the “ShamWow” towels. This is their website:
    https://www.shamwow.com/SHMWOW/6.0000/Index.dtm?otsid=9912
    This website uses the bandwagon propaganda technique. This urges you to “Order Now” and “ShamWow Now”! This makes the audience feel as if they will miss out on a fantastic opportunity if they do not order this product.

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  20. Propaganda is used quite often in this world today and it is extremely effective in persuading people one way or another. We can do this buy getting celebrities to do ads or commercials to buy a product. We can do this buy simply stating on the news what the president, senator, etc is doing and why it is good or bad and then everyone likes or dislikes the idea and blows it out of control. We stereotype people everyday based off what we see in the media whether TV or things like Facebook or instagram. Below are two links that will clearly show stereotyping and jumping to conclusions propaganda.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/17/trump-hits-ex-cia-director-brennan-for-calling-putin-news-conference-treasonous.html

    https:www.facebook.com

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