Propaganda 101

Media and propaganda exposes me to social issues and persuades us into buying all sort of things. Looking back while living in Vietnam, I wasn't exposed to propaganda or the media. I had a different lifestyle because we just worry about foods and to survive. Compare to living here in Washington, I am bombarded by media, promoting unrealistic images, and promote consumerism greed. But in the end both places helps me make the right choices as an adult by logically and reasonably showing me to be smarter consumer.

In the past few weeks, I have been watching all sorts of media videos. Some of the videos that I watched are Tuning Into Media, National Desk "The War on Boys," News Media Under Fire, Global Media, and The Psychology of Mass Persuasion. I hope that some of these videos would help us to prove my point. I watched these videos so that I could have a better sense what propaganda means.

I noticed that propaganda is most likely to succeed when it meshes with prevailing interests and trends.

The reason is that when I lived in Vietnam, the media just wasn't always in your face and my life seemed simple. To show you how innocent I was, I don't know what people looked like when they kissed or that I don't even know what the shape of Vietnam look like.

For example, I would need money to buy a TV or a radio to be informed with the events in the world. As for newspapers and magazines, I didn't have enough money to buy them or even check them out at the library.

Living in Vietnam gave me fewer choices and less freedom to choose since the country is in poverty cause by many wars. But overall, I do end up...