CTQ 8

With the advancements in technology that our modern days present to us, we have perfected
our communication means in the forms of different tools, channels, and strategies. While, on
the one hand, this has enabled us to speed up and extend the influence of information and
ideas, it has also given certain people a quick and effective system for the dissemination of
their beliefs. Thereby, now more than ever, we have the incredible opportunity to spread both
peace and welfare as well as chaos and inhumanity. It all depends on us, our moral system,
and worldviews how we would employ these resources. Having said that, propaganda in
today’s world plays a huge role in persuading people and further promoting certain political,
social, business beliefs, and etc. by evoking emotional responses from the target audience.

As my first example of a contemporary propaganda, that has been circulating through various
media channels, I choose the 2019 campaign to elect Nigeria's next president. Among the two
instances of propaganda that we need to provide, this is the one that I don’t agree with. Both
of the main political parties have told BBC Reality Check their rivals are involved in the
spread of disinformation and have been the target of videos containing dubious or inaccurate
information, being shared online.The political parties support and encourage the
dissemination of divisive 'fake news' on their behalf but have little control over its
development and spread. Written posts, photos and videos have been shared on social media
platforms, publicly on Facebook and in private WhatsApp groups, spreading unsubstantiated
rumours about the candidates in order to swing the vote of the Nigerian society. I believe this
campaign can be characterized as propaganda as it is institutional in nature, it heavily relies
on mass persuasion for its success, and it is also rooted in ethically suspect methods of
influence such as distortion and misrepresentation of important information. The factual
characteristics of this propaganda lie upon the true stories of events that have taken place in
within the borders of Nigeria, however, the truth has been omitted and instead people get a
distorted picture of reality. I believe that people from other cultures may experience
difficulties in understanding the significance of this propaganda as they might not have a
vivid personal example to compare it to. Even though, in most countries, political parties do
use propaganda in their campaigns to attract and retain supporters, their approach may not be
as prominent to the public as it is in this case. Hence, if you don’t have a personal experience
with political propaganda in your own country, you may find it hard to fully understand the
significance of this type of disinformation.

The second example of contemporary propaganda, which I have chosen and that I strongly
agree with, is the “Black lives matter” social movement. The BLM movement is based on a
hot topic that has been ongoing for decades, namely the suppression, brutality, and unjust
killings of African Americans by police and other authoritative figures. The purpose of the
movement is to push forward the demand that society respect and value the lives of Black
people as much as it values the lives of white people. Recently, propagandists had an outlash
with the violent death of George Floyd and began fiercely promoting the rights of this ethnic
group through social media channels using hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter,
#AllLivesMatter, #GeorgeFloyd, #BreonnaTaylor, etc. The descriptive characteristics of this
propaganda include a strong ideological bent, as it refers to the specific view that those
people in particular have been marginalized, omitting the fact that there have been numerous
occasions on which Afro-Americans have treated poorly, harassed, and even killed innocent
white people. There is also the mass persuasion aspect as the movement heavily relies on
different mass communication channels so as to publicize and promote its ideology.
Moreover, BLM is institutional in nature as falls within the social movement category. The
factual characteristics encompass all the examples of African Americans who have been
brutally beaten by policemen and that is no secret to anyone. Cultures who are not closely
related to this ethnicity group can have difficulties understanding the significance of this
propaganda as they might not acknowledge the same level of brutality against Black people
in their own culture, thereby failing to perceive it as an underlying issue of great importance.