Lights, Camera, Propaganda
By Thomas Hibbert
Movies: you love them, you hate them.They can move us to inspiration, terror or
joy. They can also involve manipulation of one’s opinion.
The setting is 1986,Top Gun has just been released to critical acclaim.You
watch, spellbound as actors act and the American flag flags. It's cool, fun, and
slightly humorous, but it also doesn’t talk about the mental or ethical challenges
of conflict, but who cares about that? These cool men are serving their country,
having fun in a cool setting flying even cooler planes at the speed of sound.
They're heroes, could you see yourself doing this? It's a great movie and you
begin to fantasize about if you perhaps joined the Airforce.You leave the cinema
and there are some army recruiters targeting the in bored teenagers or idle
men who have all enjoyed themselves in what is a highly patriotic bit of content.
Some join, but most at least pick up a flyer. Perhaps you’ll have a look at it later.
You might start to see things in a
slightly different light - you may
become pro-military and actually join
a fundraiser for the army or retired
veterans, as you now see how brave
they are.
Cultural propaganda has been readily
embraced by the Chinese market. Think back to Transformers 5. That movie got
a green light viewing in China because it made the Chinese government seem
very capable and Chinese characters are portrayed as the coolest citizens of the
Earth who led the charge against the very bad, uncool, mean aliens (it also
helped that the Americans were then seen as foolish idiots who spent most of
the movie running around without a cohesive, well anything). This pro-Chinese
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