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Throughout history leaders across the globe have used propaganda, and they have used it incredibly effectively. They have used propaganda in a number of different ways, such as motivating or influencing public opinion. The media in general is easily manipulated, and Ryan Holiday author of Trust Me I’m Lying, addresses this point directly. By using numerous tactics regarding the media, in particular bloggers who are a major component in the information circulating. There is a simple mathematical breakdown of why this group is most easily manipulated, revenue= advertising x traffic. Consequently this means that the motivating forces regarding publishers and advertisers is, traffic by any means. (Holiday, Ryan) Holiday gives a number of ways people manipulate the media and bloggers in particular, who in their position are more than willing to do whatever it takes in order to increase clicks on their page. Holiday goes a number of easy ways to manipulate the media to do what you want. Holiday starts off with bloggers are poor, help pay their bills and ends with just make stuff up everyone else is doing it.
While Holiday writes to inform about the beginnings of propaganda within media, David Welch writes about the types of coercion that occur within the propaganda itself. In his book Propaganda power and persuasion, he talks about how within all propaganda their are motivating ideas. Every piece of propaganda is meant to attach itself to you in some way, whether it create a sense of national pride or raising troops for a war effort. Recently the election brought a lot of attention to the political stage, as President Trump ran for office. Over the course of the election there was enormous amounts of propaganda both negative and positive that people were essentially forced into being a part of. While the candidates ran the media took full advantage of the huge viewership they could earn while such an overly dramatized event took place.
Once President Trump was elected, there was war propaganda released in order to calm the waters of the highly sensitive campaign that just took place in the United States. In a website called the intercept, there is an article that addresses this specifically. It shows a short video of President Trump's speech and of the wife who is grieving over her husband who passed away at war. While this site is essentially a form of propaganda itself, the war propaganda that the United States is releasing, follows a similar pattern of other presidents before. This pattern is quite simply taking advantage of an opportunity to use loss, sadness, powerful emotions to create a huge swing from political uproar, to national pride. Taking advantage of an opportunity to turn the tides is a method Americans have seen before during World War II. Posters would be dropped everywhere, directing people to join the cause or motivate women to do extra while the husbands were away at war.
This piece of war propaganda uses aspects of stereotypical war propaganda in order to achieve a sense of unity within the country. At this particular moment in time, people are finally willing to take their focus off of President Trump and put it on this grieving widow. This exploitation of vulnerability that this woman and her family has, is an important aspect of propaganda. David Welch in his book power and persuasion, addresses this embodiment of the nation which President Trump is doing here. Although he may genuinely care about this woman and her family he is taking this moment to make Americans feel victimized rather than the oppressor, Glenn Greenwald writes in his article for the intercept. in 2007 Barack Obama during his Union of the State address he had wounded soldier join the stage. The similarity between Barack Obama's use of war propaganda and President Trumps is the use of intense emotions and national pride, creating a shift in the audience's perspective. President Trump mentions in this speech that, “there is no greater act of love then to lay down one's life for his friends.” This sense of unity the President is poking at is then followed up with comments of, “our freedom” and how this soldier's sacrifice makes him apart of this country's history forever.
During this 2007 state of the Union address previously mentioned, Barack Obama who was the president of the time, uses another piece of war propaganda in order to motivate the American people and bring them together during an endless war. While President Trump addresses a woman who lost her husband, Barack Obama addresses a wounded soldier. Similarly, these speeches address unity, a typical war propaganda feature. Unfortunately these tragic stories are apart of a greater scheme, making these people tools of war propaganda. Both President Trump and Barack Obama, speak about these people's qualities as if they knew them personally. In both speeches, these soldier are victimized. Although there are many other people hurt during the war, nothing is said about the people that the troops are there to kill. Nothing is said about why in some foreign country, way away from here, these soldiers are being attacked, as if they are not there to kill to.
Presidents throughout American history have made speeches similar to these, they follow these patterns which show how when they need to they break out the tragic story to reignite the American pride flame. Some major differences within these speeches have to do with the way these speeches are presented and who they are presented about. President Trump is new to the white house, he chose to commemorate a man who passed away and left his wife behind. This desperate use of this woman and her life as a tool for war propaganda is what differs these two speeches greatly. The entire setting within the speeches is entirely different because of the immense sadness that goes along with death. While Barack Obama uses a soldier who made it home, although seriously and permanently injured he made it home, a dream a lot soldiers never achieve. This sense of sadness that is overwhelming during President Trump's speech changes the atmosphere entirely and the effect. Both presidents are using this type of propaganda in order to encourage and influence people, however by using this highly emotional piece of propaganda, President Trump shifted the focus of this speech from strengthening America, to asking citizens why they would ever send their loved ones to war with the possibility of being left like this widow. Barack Obama uses a motivational story to create a bond between Americans with this idea that there is an alliance or brotherhood that goes along with being an American.
While these two pieces are war propaganda, they have impactful differences. Not only does President Trump attempt to impact you, he uses this widow of a war hero as his tool for shifting an intense focus on him to a coming together of Americans. Barack Obama uses this veteran survivor as a way of encouraging Americans that this country has your back.
References
Greenwald, G. (2017, March 01). Trump's Use of Navy SEAL's Wife Highlights All the Key Ingredients of U.S. War Propaganda. Retrieved from https://theintercept.com/2017/03/01/trumps-use-of-navy-seals-wife-highlights-all-the-key-ingredients-of-u-s-war-propaganda/
Holiday, R. (2013). Trust me, I'm lying: Confessions of a media manipulator. NY, NY: Portfolio/Penguin.
Welch, D. (2013). Propaganda: Power and persuasion. London: British Library.
