Someone Asks A Question “What Piece Of Media Is Just Straight Up Propaganda?”, Gets Responses From 30 Folks Online

Fox News

feel good stories, like “8 year old kid saves up $3000 by working to help sister afford her surgery”

America’s Got Talent. It promotes the idea that talent goes hand in hand with struggle, so much so that genuinely awful acts make it through on the strength of their sob story.

People have a hard enough time accepting the work that goes into being a creative without having to attach a tragic backstory to it.

Drug ads tbh. You don’t realize that until you talk to people outside of America about commercials and ads. Our advertisements pushing drugs for every single ailment are just propaganda for big pharma. Disclaimer: not an anti vaxxer or anything, I trust the science, I just would rather take sativa edibles than get onto some anxiety medication named Amphaproxogarbageorenazine. I think it’s kinda sick how we market medications.

Business articles on LinkedIn that talk about how people should stop seeking work/life balance and start embracing work/life integration.

No thanks.

Day planners. They always have an agenda.

Any modern war movie featuring real military equipment. To get access to the equipment, they need to work with the Department of Defense. For them to allow it, they need to approve the script. For them to approve the script, the movie needs to give a positive portrayal of the military.

EDIT: Everyone commenting can f**k off with the devil's advocate b******t. Of course there are exceptions to everything, but you all know what I'm saying is true overall. You all know there's a huge connection between Hollywood and the US military. You all know war movies (and video games, possibly to an even greater extent at this point) very frequently partner with the military for equipment, promotion, funding, etc. You all know that in those partnerships, the military has a ton of control over the movie/game to make sure it portrays them in a way that will entice 18 year olds to enlist. You all know that mentioning an exception doesn't change any of that.

This is technically media: but forced recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance for US public school kids.

I love Top Gun. It's a huge guilty pleasure of mine and I can't wait to see Maverick in theaters. That being said, it is 1000% propaganda for the Navy, to the point where the Navy had a lot of say in the script and they set up recruitment booths outside the theatre.

A surprising number of big-budget US films get funding from various branches of the military to portray them as good guys and peacekeepers.

In exchange they get extensive creative control over the script and in some cases final cut privileges. The filmmakers get access to money, shooting locations, vehicles, advisors, logos and uniforms, and of course money.

You could argue that of course if you were offering this kind of support you wouldn’t want your image to be disparaged in any way. But we’re not talking about Captain America holding a can of Coke.

Imagine it as product placement, but the product they’re selling isn’t the military itself, but the thematic connection between the military and heroism, righteousness and moral good.

Every single bit of Murdoch Media....

... from printed to digital media, newspapers, TV, and all forms of media. Particularly the wastes of space in Sky News.

Anything dealing with forensics. A job in forensics is boring. You know when they match a fiber sample and can exclude it from 5,000 other samples? Someone had to compare the fiber in question 5,000 times and say, “Nope, next.” Not to mention, the paperwork required is painful.

Source: Three years working in forensics. To this day my signature looks like a doctors from all the chain of custody documents I had to sign.

The entire concept of "spreading democracy" is propaganda from the Woodrow Wilson days. It was how he sold WW1 to the American people, via the PR genius Edward Bernays.

Mediocre source I know, but Bernays book *Propaganda* is a good read and goes into detail.

The entire "cop show" genre. It goes back to the radio drama days and spans drama, comedy, infotainment, documentary, and multiple other genres, but it almost always presents the police as being the white-hatted Good Guys out to stop the Bad Guys.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Undercover Boss

90% of media you are exposed to is owned by one of four or five companies, may even be three now. The same companies that make your movies and TV shows make your news.

News falls into three categories:"Clickbait" - we're selling advertisements, use the headline that generates the most outrage and keeps the most viewership. You'd think this would be the most harmless, but they're actively distorting the truth to whatever narrative is most profitable. This is especially harmful when covering mass shootings, terrorist attacks, etc. Making the body count the headline and providing 24/7 coverage of the shooters themselves inspires more shootings to occur. They may as well be advertisements to the unhinged- commit horrible atrocities! Your name and your beliefs will be remembered forever! People who were unhinged by the rage-bait news they pumped out in the first place. Depending on your news source you can live in an information bubble completely isolated from people who get their news elsewhere. This is one of the biggest sources of disruptive controversy and division in our nation and you're better off shutting it out than anything else.

"Narrative" - This is propaganda in support of the owners. Why wont fox ever criticize an oil company? Why does ABC always side with disney- and use disney fun facts to fill empty coverage? Why does the new york times write articles in defense of billionaires? Narrative is shaping the truth not to generate direct profit, but to support the goals and needs of it's ownership.

"Sponsorship" - this is propaganda in support of the contributors. Essentially, they'll run any propaganda piece you pay for so long as it doesn't conflict with their narrative. For the conventional propaganda, the DNC, GOP, and Federal Government are frequent customers.

Good luck finding an unbiased news network

Mein Kampf. Author seemed very bias.

American Sniper. I’m still mad that I got tricked into thinking it was a movie about PTSD.