Political Propaganda

Hot Topic for Week 3: Political Adds on Facebook and Their Accuracy

The political add above shows simple-minded candidate bashing with little evidence to back up the claim. I researched into the organization cited at the bottom of the add, curious if they were a reliable source or if they took grapevine hearsay and turned it into blind propaganda. Most of the articles about Mitt Romney include guesses at possible bigotry, but had hardly any evidence to back it up. For example, the line, “Because Romney looks out for Wall Street types like himself, the middle class would be forgotten in Mitt Romney’s America,” was not followed nor was preceded by any factual evidence that Romney would “forget” about the middle class.  

When facts were found, their sources were either convoluted or unreliable. The organization included many hyperlinks within the articles, citing the sources used to gather the information presented. However, at least a third of the links did not work and took me to a page that said, “URL not found,” or something of the matter. Most of the hyperlinks that do work lead the reader to essays or articles written by authors who use sources such as Yahoo! News, ABC News, or the New York Times. These cites are not direct, reliable sources with which to quote without further research into where the information obtained therein originated. Yet, no further research seems to have been done. The first thing I noticed once I was at the cite were the giant red buttons that screamed DONATE! Why does this organization need donations? What are they going to spend their money on if they don’t research anything further than from the mouths of popular news stations?

The stories on prioritiesusaaction.org, as well as the ones used in citation for their information, list off tax cuts and economic decisions that are said to hurt the middle class, yet provide no explanation as to how the middle class would be hurt. If you are pushing propaganda and making a claim, you should be able to back it up. But parts of the audience obtaining the message, especially through a social networking cite like Facebook, do not delve into where the message came from. Absorbed blindly by media illiterate consumers, the information does not have to be accurate to be believed.

http://www.prioritiesusaaction.org/mitt-romneys-america

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/obama-says-mitt-romney-would-make-things-worse-for-middle-class/

http://www.prioritiesusaaction.org/about