News Literacy: Propaganda
Propaganda
What does that mean to you?
Propaganda is communication that furthers an agenda or influences people to act on something specific. Historically, we think of propaganda being used to influence people in terms of public health, war efforts, or to influence how we think of someone.
Modern day propaganda uses fear, conspiracy theories, misinformation, humor, and misleading spin. Digital propaganda spreads quickly, and is more grassroots (not as likely to come from the government - except in autocratic countries), and includes memes or images on social media.
Example
Examples of past propaganda:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
- "the goal of propaganda is no longer to make people believe lies — it’s to make information irrelevant altogether"
- "when you open the information space to every kind of conspiracy theory, you destroy reality"