Awareness

During my Media Law and Literacy class, we were split into groups and tasked to give a presentation on different topics. I found the group that presented on the topic of Awareness to be incredibly informative, and interesting. The topics they covered in their Power Point were propaganda, disinformation, Smith-Mundt Act, total information awareness, false flag, and five eyes. Some of these topics I was familiar with, and some were new information to me.

Propaganda: Propaganda is biased information to publicize a political cause or point of view. All advertisements that are being used to promote something are considered to be propaganda. There are a few different types of propaganda. There is bandwagon, testimonial, transfer, repetition, and emotional words. Bandwagon persuades people to do one thing or another because many other people are doing it. Testimonial is when words of a famous or popular figure are being used to promote a thought or idea. Transfer is linking a product with a well known figure to promote the item. This is used for many skin care items and attractive females or celebrities. Repetition is when the product name or idea is repeated many times throughout the advertisement so that it sticks in the viewers mind. Finally, Emotional words is exactly what it sounds like. It is the use of emotional or strong words to appeal to the audience.


Disinformation: Disinformation is the use of false information or lies to mislead a group or organization. This is used often times with propaganda.

Smith-Mundt Act: This act is the legislative authorization to use propaganda It was passed by the 80th congress under President Truman on January 27, 1948.

Total Information Awareness: Total information awareness is a program started in 2003. This is when the program gathers information about individuals to prevent crimes from ever happening.

False Flag: This is when a nation disguises the real source of responsibility. This creates a false appearance of a certain party or group that is responsible for some activity. 

Five Eyes: The five eyes is an intelligence alliance between the US, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.