serendipity, 5/11

I found the Chomsky and Jameson readings pretty difficult, but class definitely helped to clear it up for me. I especially liked how we were split up into groups and had to think of examples for each of Chomskys propaganda model steps. It really helped me to understand how propaganda, and therefore media, could be such a huge part in convincing the population to think a certain way. For example, during world war two when propaganda was used, it was shown as the norm, so people didnt think of it as an atrocity. Also, now during the Iraq war, the word terrorism is used so often. Nobody is going to be "for" terrorism, it just makes sense in anyones framework in the mind that they should be against terrorism, and more patriotic. Therefore we "should" be for whatever the government believes, with no questions. The way the war is portrayed is also propaganda because it is showing it to us from one point of view, and isnt giving anyone a chance to make their own decision by showing the truth, and both sides of the story. However, this goes both ways, I am fairly sure in Iraq they are making America look bad and the popuation probably has negative feelings towards us as a consquence. This is related to Benjamins notion of "the camera lies" because everything is framed in a way that makes the audience think a certain way. We seem to forget this, and just take everything that is on TV and especially on the news as real when in reality there is a reason for everything that is being shown, and that is for us to think in a certain point of view.