Well, what can I say? The video we (Masters PR class at the University of Westminster) saw on Wednesday 20th January 2010 certainly kicked the term off in an interesting and shocking manner.

I was always aware of the issue of spin when it came to our modern day wars, however I was completely unaware to the extent. The BBC programme ‘Correspondent’ certainly was an eye-opener. The video highlighted the extent and depth of the role PR and propaganda from the U.K and U.S played in the recent Iraq war.

Considering myself to be a fairly intelligent person, I wondered why had I failed to notice during the time of the Iraq war, exactly just what was going on. The more I read up on the subject, the more horrified I become. How was it possible for the U.K and particularly the U.S to convince us that Iraq posed an “imminent threat”? How did they do it so effectively? Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnel, in their book, Propaganda and Persuasion say “Propaganda is the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”

The Americans and the British definitely managed to do this effectively e.g by showing us images of soldiers warming to the local children and playing a friendly match of football with them and by portraying the army as ‘nation builders’ instead of fighters. These are all very subtle but extremely effective tactics.

Through these tactics both Governments managed to persuade the public (maybe not in the long run) that they were on the right side of the war.

Links

Global Issues Blog; Iraq War Media Reporting, Journalism and Propaganda

Independent; The US propaganda machine: Oh, what a lovely war