Propaganda Essay

Propaganda can be seen as a form of information; be it through a poster, video, newspaper article, film, or any other media form it takes on, which aims to communicate a certain idea or message to a specific group of people. The use of propaganda is usually examines to reinforce or change the mind sets of people and gain their support for what is being propagated. It is also used in an effort to cause the target audience to feel strongly enough to take action in favour of the cause or idea put forward by the propagandist. “…“Propaganda” is a case in point. No one questions the power, often dangerous, that something commonly called “Propaganda” has in shaping the lives of men, their beliefs and their actions….” (Taylor 1942:555). Taylor’s words

The ‘reproductive fallacy’, as named by Andre Bazin, examines the modality levels in all we are exposed to and influenced by, including advertisements which we are bombarded with daily and most of which have a low modality or omit information making them unreliable. “…[Keeping] to the modern period [I will] say a few words about…why and how the problem of media and disinformation enters within [the] context [of propaganda]….” (Chomsky 2002:10). This quote by Noam Chomsky on propaganda and the media highlights the fact that propaganda is of high use in the media and causes a lot of misleading information to be portrayed to the

depicts an advertisement which is taken from an advertising campaign for the well-known international clothing brand Dolce & Gabbana. The advert has received a lot of negative feedback due to its shocking and sexual nature. Although it was not said to be the intention of the advert it is seen by many people to show a scene depicting a young woman about to be gang raped and this is put in a positive light and shown as a ‘cool’ scenario. The visual of the advert shows a photograph of three men standing around, encircling a fourth man who is forcefully holding down a young woman by her arm. Her outfit and the posture of her body are provocative and sexual. Although her facial expression is not that of being scared she looks placid, perhaps even more worrying, and like her mind is elsewhere as if she has accepted what is going to happen to her and is trying to mentally escape the situation. The placement of the other three men, onlookers yet the impression that they will soon be involved in violating the women can be argued, focus the eye toward the central man holding down the woman. His right arm which holds her down then draws the eye downwards to the bottom right of the frame where her face is. Although the men are also somewhat exposed as two of them are shirtless and all of them are wearing fitted clothing the woman is still the main element being objectified in the advertisement. There is a definite element of sexism in the advert and it also boarders on a positive