Shaping Your Mind. Television as a Propaganda Tool (Essay Sample)

Name of Student Name of Professor Course Name Due Date Shaping Your Mind. Television as a Propaganda Tool Television has been used as a propaganda tool ever since its invention. Before Television, propaganda was spread through other media such as radio, posters and, newspapers. Over the years, television has been used to shape people’s thinking on a larger geographical area and it is evident in the way society thinks and acts after propaganda is broadcasted on TV in different countries. The popularity of smoking in the US today is because of propaganda campaigns on Television shows and films in the 1950s by tobacco companies (Jamieson 243-248). The tobacco companies sponsored actors in television shows to make smoking look cool and harmless. The idea was to make smoking tobacco look good while deliberately hiding the adverse effects on the human body in the long term. The promotion of smoking on TV has been reduced today but, the damage has already happened. The number of adults using tobacco products in the US was 49.1million people in 2017(Creamer 1013). In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has utilized TV as a tool of propaganda to portray a clean image of the party and China as a country. The government in China uses state-owned news channels such as China Global Television Network to push the narrative that the government wants to its people and the world. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China used its press to try and shift the responsibility of the pandemic. Molter shows how China state-owned media only highlighted the positive side of the government in containing the outbreak. The propaganda helps shape the thinking of Chinese citizens and the world about the CPP and China. Television is a powerful tool in shaping the way society thinks. Most households in the w...