OSHER 149 - Understanding Propaganda

Our expanding technology has caused greater exposure to propaganda than ever before. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine coupled with advent of talk radio, 24-hour cable news, and social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter has led to the asymmetric division of the media into two sections that each promote different narratives. A grim side effect of this has been the delivery of growing amounts of misinformation, disinformation, partisan messaging, and conspiracy theories. Because democracy relies on a well-informed citizenry, the ideological sorting of the public into two audiences with different visions of how to pursue truth and facts, has brought us to a point of division that threatens our democratic process. One remedy to the situation is media literacy, and a greater understanding of how propaganda functions to influence human actions.