Why you think it is important for students to learn about propaganda.?

Question

Why you think it is important for students to learn about propaganda.?

Answer 1

Propaganda is important to be able to pick out in everything from toothpaste ads to election speeches.  It's all around us, every day - if students don't learn how to identify and deal with it, they stand to make incredibly poor decisions later in life.

Hundreds of thousands of people willingly followed Hitler because they were unable to identify his propaganda techniques...and millions of people died because of it.  Not all cases are that extreme of course, but our choices do affect others - sometimes they even affect the course of history.

The founders of America clearly stated that a government like ours can only be effective if people are able to think and make decisions for themselves - to effectively govern themselves.  If we're unable to pick out propaganda, we basically become little "sheeple" that will willingly follow whoever is the most charismatic speaker.  Scary.

Answer 2

The most important thing any student can learn is to examine who wrote a text and why. Nothing that is written is done so from a neutral point of view. The biases and beleifs of the author are always present.

Propaganda is simply the worst example of this phenomenon. If people do not realise they are being manipulated every time they read, hear or watch something they will never be able to intelligently form their own opinions.

Answer 3

so they know how to pick it out and not get brainwashed.

Answer 4

It is very important. People need to take information in, but be objective about it. In the political world, propaganda tactics are used all the time. In advertising, it's a method to separate you from your money. A recent example is just this last week, we're being told that Polar Bears should be on the endangered species list. One source claims that the bear population has been increasing since 1974. With the high fuel prices, there is talk of drilling oil in Alaska. Is this a ploy to block possible drilling here? As with logging and the Spotted Owl of the 70s?  The source of information usually explains the motive of propaganda. Good question.

Answer 5

So they learn to evaluate and decide what is being said or written is actually truth or fiction.

Answer 6

Like all of us, students are bombarded with propaganda daily.  News stories in the US are almost always tainted with it.  What passes for "science" is corrupted with it.  There is NO source of unbiased information.  The student is forced to evaluate the bias of the source no matter what that source is.

Watch a news article on a disputed scientific issue and you will see statements that induce fear in the reader.  (e.g. "the most terrifying film that you will ever see")  "Fear" is a propaganda technique.  Most information sources present only one side of a disputed issue (bandwagon), or present the opposing view so that it appears to be ridiculous (also bandwagon).

Don't believe me.  Watch the news.