Preview

How Does Ridley Scott's Use Of Propaganda

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1449 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Ridley Scott's Use Of Propaganda
The film Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott is an action packed war drama that supports the theory Americans risked their lives to end the civil war in Somalia, East Africa, 1993. Many propaganda techniques were utilised throughout this film to put the Americans in the good spotlight for a Western audience. Propaganda is defined as “information, of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view” (Definition of Propaganda, 2012). Throughout this film the director has utilised many techniques, these include stereotyping, euphoria, demonizing the enemy and bandwagon (Propaganda Techniques, 2007).

The 2001 film directed by Ridley Scott was applauded for his recall on the horrific events that occurred in Somalia,
…show more content…
This type of demographic can be defined as the type of people who are in favour for the military’s decisions in certain circumstances all over the world. This made the film very successful because it made the Americans believe that they had every right to be in Somalia. This audience are also to be believed supportive of the killings during this horrific event. “Considerations of public opinion influenced Bill Clinton’s decision on going into Somalia in 1993. Ninety-seven per cent of the American public agreed that Clinton made the right decision” (Publics opinion on use of force, …show more content…
(2013) [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.propagandatheory.com/types-of-propaganda/215/. [Last Accessed 02/11/2013].

Cinema vérité. (2008). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cinema%20verité. [Last Accessed 31/10/2013].

Propaganda Techniques (2013). [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques. [Last Accessed 1/11/2013].

Definition of Propaganda (2012). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/propaganda. [Last Accessed 4/11/2013].

American Patriotism (2013). [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_patriotism. [Last Accessed 3/11/2013].

Black Hawk Down, IMDb (2001). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/?ref_=ttco_co_tt. [Last Accessed 3/11/2013].

Media’s Influence, (2013). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.education.com/reference/article/media-as-influence-socialization/. [Last Accessed 13/11/2013].

Public’s opinion on use of force, (2004). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/mbaum/documents/Somalia_PSQ.pdf. [Last Accessed

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the article “The Media’s Role in Political Propaganda” (2011) the author claims that propaganda has been used throughout history and is continued to be used today by many countries. The author supports his position by providing historical and modern day evidence from countries all over the world. His goal is to explain the effectiveness of propaganda in order…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though increasing the movie company's advertising budget could potentially lead to higher sales, there are many leaps of logic made by the author that make a large return on investment a premature conclusion.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One specific type of propaganda used by the Nazis in WWII was the propaganda “fear”. The Nazis used this to persuade the Germans and everyone else if they don’t get rid of the jews no they will overpower and eventually destroy what they had accomplished. The Nazis would use “fear” by making posters, books, speeches, etc. saying if they don’t eliminate the jews the jews would eliminate them. The United States used the propaganda “fear” as well by claiming if they did not lock away the Japanese-Americans we would all be killed because they were “spies”. The United states used the propaganda fear to have the Japanese-Americans incarcerated and to have fellow people believe they were spies. As you see from history the propaganda fear that was…

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Neutrality In WW1

    • 2931 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, established the Department of Information to undertake the propaganda programme required. One section dealt with ‘white propaganda’ specifically designed to rally America to enter the war on humanitarian grounds, backed up in the media and another dealt with “black” propaganda designed to be used against their enemies.…

    • 2931 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    of power as a propagandist. If he so chooses to use his power to its fullest…

    • 2631 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay, I will be analysing the Bond film, Skyfall. I believe that the primary audience for this film is males aged between 15 and 80 because the younger audience will aspire to be like Bond and the older generations will relate to the films and become nostalgic as they most likely watched the earlier Bond films. But I believe that the secondary audience is females of the same age. This is because the younger women may watch the film for either Daniel Craig’s aesthetics, or because there are important female figures within the film that are empowering for younger girls. On the terms of the socio-economic scale, I think that people that are A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s are the most likely audience for this film, and not E’s because people who are in this group don’t necessarily want to watch a film about upper class people, and any class can watch the film. In terms of the Young and Rubican theory, I think that The Resigned and The Mainstream would be a main audience because The Resigned love nostalgia and The Mainstream like to follow the crowd.…

    • 868 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Propaganda is any information that is biased or misleading to make a person or persons think a certain way, popularize a certain point of view. Such propaganda is popular to be used in wars and times of conflict. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, while not misleading, can be characterized as social propaganda through its biased look at those struggling in the intercalary chapters and in the Joad’s life.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the US, propaganda was used to create sympathy for the Allies in Europe and antipathy against Germany. The means of propaganda were therefore: mass-production and circulation; using media and publications that were already popular; influencing those people who were already influential; harnessing the power of images; and appealing to values and characteristics that were important to the target audience (Cooke 1). Propaganda sought to evoke sympathy for war aims and fighting forces, and the dehumanization of the enemy (Cooke 1). The latter can be powerfully seen in the propaganda of the US, Britain, and France, which portrayed Germans as barbaric and animalistic (Cooke 1). This shows that the Allies and the US used propaganda to evoke sympathetic emotions from the people of these countries and gained support through the people. Because the people felt that it was their duty to help their country, countries became more unified, people conserved food and bought bonds, and people also wanted to go to war. Therefore, propaganda swayed society during the war and allowed for many beneficial things for nations at…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slaying the Beast

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Institute for Propaganda Analysis. "Propaganda and Emotion." The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing and Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2008. 760. Print.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Propaganda In Vietnam War

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The use propaganda is used by the politically powerful in America to expand U.S. worldwide influence. Brewer defines propaganda as the deliberate manipulation of facts, ideas, and lies (Brewer 4). It analyzes propaganda to rally public support by showing America that they can fight for their freedom, democracy, and economic opportunity. American government leaders have gone as far to say that we should fight to protect other country’s value systems. However, this definition is useful because it focuses upon the political cause or point of view. In other words, the very meaning of the term implies the dissemination of propaganda as a political strategy. The term is associated with a manipulative approach, but propaganda historically was a neutral descriptive term.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Propaganda is information published, often with bias, in order to emphasize a specific political viewpoint. Propaganda played a massive role in World War I in shaping the attitudes Americans had regarding foreigners. The World War I propaganda poster “Destroy this Mad Brute Enlist- U.S. Army,” depicts a massive gorilla wearing a German soldier helmet holding a club in one hand and a wailing woman in the other. The gorilla is meant to represent not only German soldiers but Germans and foreigners as a whole. The club held by the gorilla has the word “Kultur” which means “culture” in German. The poster uses the personified gorilla to show that Americans viewed foreigners, specifically Germans, as uncivilized and savage. Americans considered all “uncivilized” foreigners to be a threat to American democracy.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Propaganda, the art of persuasion and deception, has long been notorious for its ability to manipulate the opinion of the population - the holocaust was a gory testament to the atrocities that this machination is capable of. As early as in the 1930s, information had become a potent weapon in the context of total war, to which US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson had famously addressed: “In war, truth is the first casualty”. In spite of the smear and disdain that modern society has against propaganda, it is not to be neglected that during the great crucible of World War Two, the Canadian Government’s use of propaganda, backed by the War Measures Act, had made profound contributions to the Allied war effort. Even more so, it benefited the Canadian…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Webster’s College Dictionary, propaganda is “information or ideas methodically spread to promote or injure a cause, movement, nation etc, and the deliberate spread of such information or ideas” (Vidal). "The word “propaganda” comes from the Vatican. The phrase “congregatio de propaganda fide” (The congregation for the propagation of the faith) was used to support the catholic faith in response to the Protestant Reformation"(Vidal). Propaganda was a tool used to persuade the people to remain in their church. They would write, sing, and draw about the other churches having the devil in them. In this time the Catholics used the most common propaganda, "manicheanism which is portraying one side as good and demonizing the other as…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bibliography: Duffy, Michael. "Propaganda Posters - United States of America". Online. http://firstworldwar.com/posters/usa.htm. Accessed January 7 2006.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Media War Coverage

    • 1797 Words
    • 8 Pages

    From the beginning of time when humans started fighting wars regardless of the reasoning leaders discovered how important propaganda and the public’s opinion of why they were fighting the war. If the nation’s leaders believes in why they are fighting a war the Country willbe more likely to give their support and motivated to stay in the fight for the long haul. Edward R. Murrow, former reporter for CBS once said, "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment unpopular." A delicate balance exists between the military and the media censorship and evolution of wartime media from WWII through modern day WAR in Iraq.…

    • 1797 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics