One of the questions my coordinators have been bugging me with is why now? How does propaganda affect us today? But before we can ask that question, we (don't worry, I’ll be doing most of the work, you can just sit back and read) need to ask IF propaganda affects us. And it does. It affects us far more than we realize. For example, the American government clamped down on the information coming in and out of the occupied zones in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. They didnt do a very good job, but they still tried to execute a PsyWar (psychological warfare) campaign. They used the PsyOps (psychological operations - individual battles, so-to-speak in the psywar) conducted in northern France for Operation Overlord as a basis for basic information control and broadcasting procedures. The goal was to demoralize the Iraqi Army and minimize resistance to smooth the invasion process. The shock and awe campaign conducted by the military, which is technically a form of PsyOp, but wasn’t under the purview of the Rapid Reaction Media Team did that for them. They were eventually able to get the American-controlled “Iraqi Free Media Network” off the ground, but it had little effect on the already demoralized Iraqi troops. Russia also uses disinformation through the internet to ease military conflicts such as those in Ukraine. Their PsyWar agency, the Internet Research Agency, or Glavset, is also responsible for the interference in the 2016 election, as well as troll and bot networks such as those on twitter. The US equivalent is Operation Earnest Voice, a network responsible for bot and troll networks such as the ones on various foreign language websites based in the Middle East. My goal is to show the development of propaganda from the patriotic posters of the past, to the memes and deception of today.
- Ash Fitzgerald
Logos, November journal #2
Updated: Dec 3, 2019
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