War Made Easy (Final)

Propaganda has been used for centuries to gain the adherence of an audience regarding generally political events (especially war). In the film “War Made Easy” the Disinformation Company Ltd. takes a critical look at the use of propaganda in the creation and maintenance of wartime support. Many concepts regarding propaganda come up in the film, such as setting a precedent for how we are supposed to act as Americans during times of war (among others). Through clouding information rather than clarifying it, governments maintain adherence by keeping the public in the dark.

The media coverage of wartime events that society is permitted to see is rarely the whole story. “Media friendly campaigns” are strongly influenced by the government and attempt to make war (specifically the current fiasco in Iraq/Afghanistan) come across as more raw or real. By embedding civilian journalists with various armed forces groups, more in depth stories and video footage can be gathered. However, what makes it to the public is screened and crafted to create or maintain support of the public. As was seen in Vietnam, once the public/middle class loses faith in the war effort – a war is lost.

Events that don’t even necessarily exist can become blown out of proportion. The US was absolutely certain that Iraq was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. However, details regarding the sources of information were never released and the public was left to simply assume that the government was telling the truth. In this new "objective" media atmosphere, when a journalist questions the information shown to the public he or she is deemed unpatriotic and may be fired or censored. Anyone who is pro-war is considered objective and patriotic, whereas anyone anti-war is considered biased and unpatriotic. For this reason anything anti-war has been generally shut down. Shows have been cancelled by their supporting networks, and journalists and educators have been fired in order to save public face.

To conclude, we can’t always simply assume that everything the government tells us is absolute truth. As stated in the film, “nothing said by a government is automatically true.” For this reason, it is on the people to use some critical analysis and formulate thoughts and opinions for ourselves.