To Start Things Off

As a requirement for a rather interesting class I am taking this semester I am starting this blog to produce a rolling commentary on the topic if propaganda. Like most of the classes I take, I entered this class with little to no understanding of the topic save what I picked up in random conversations. After my first class I decided to simply google the word propaganda to see if I could gain a general understanding of what my semester would look like. Though it is not part of the assignment I would like this blog to grow in its knowledge of this topic as I grow. Though I hate being the one with little to no knowledge of a subject I understand that I am not alone in my lack of understanding and so would like to start out by giving a defenition of propaganda:

prop·a·gan·da /[prop-uh-gan-duh]–noun
1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
3. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or
movement.

This is the dictionary defenition of propaganda. However, I would like to discuss the word in more specific terms. My recently found understanding of propaganda is that it is a decided set of messages produced in and by any sort of medium that is aimed at influencing the opions and actions of a large group of people. Propaganda is not neccessarially telling a lie to the masses but instead selectively presenting facts in order to influence them. It also is the use of certain words, phrases, or images that are garunteed to produce an emotion that will most likely produce a desired action. Propaganda's main use is to change how consumers feel about a certain product, person, or event in order to get them in act accordingly.

- Both of these commercials are examples of propaganda in the advertising industry

Here is a vintage Pepsi commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWQkf0w5JR4
Here is a current Apple Macintosh commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWTcVHdSFo