The power of our word

This week’s readings by Bernays and Lasswell opened my eyes to what propaganda really means and how powerful our words and the intentions behind them are. I had not thought about propaganda and public relations as the same thing. Truthfully, my ignorance about this term caused me to think about propaganda in a negative way without even thinking about how it can be used for positive influence. As I researched the definition of propaganda this week, even though I have heard the word so much, I learned it comes from the word propagate, which means to spread. I learned that propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing attitudes toward a position. There are many ways that influence is spread in positive ways, like raising money for health campaigns. According to Lasswell, both propaganda and public relations “define and affirm meaning (p. 267)". Both can influence a public about thinking or acting in a specific way.

This month, I finished reading the new novel by Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna. It is a story about this boy who ends up living with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera when they were hiding Leon Trotsky in Mexico. It discussed how Trotsky was not given a fair trial because of all the propaganda that was being created about him by Stalin, even in the United States. And this boy has to deal with the same fight when he grows up to go live in the United States. His life as he knows it is ruined because people in a position of power lied because of their own fears. I feel enlightened with the realization the propaganda is not necessarily a bad thing it just depends on what you are trying to convince people of. We have the power, especially if we are in a position of power, to influence others and fashion and project “credible renditions of reality” (Bernays, p.16). It is interesting to me how powerful our words are, whether in everyday conversations or in political campaigns.

P.S. I look forward to watching the CBC documentary now that I’m back in Canada.