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Showing posts from November, 2020

Propaganda 102: Evaluative vs. Informative Writing

by Hiram R. Diaz III Whereas our first exploration of propaganda was concerned with defining propaganda and exposing one of its more subtle forms, this article will examine the use of adjectives in propaganda. As I noted in the first article, journalists are trained to be objective reporters of historical facts. Such writing does not make for good entertainment, but that is not the point of journalism. Journalism is supposed to embody objectivity, which Walter Kronkite once defined as – ‘…the reporting of reality, of facts, as nearly as they can be obtained without the injection of prejudice and personal opinion.’ 1 This means that purported news articles which color our interpretation of reality by explicitly, implicitly, or suggestively demonstrating their authors’ prejudice and personal opinion do not qualify as objective reports of what was the case, is now the case, and will likely be the case, but are instances of

Propaganda 101: Objective, Subjective, or Pseudo-Objective?

by Hiram R. Diaz III When I wrote about the logical fallacies used to justify covid-19 “lockdowns,” 1 I did so with the aim of empowering Christians to confidently think for themselves and, consequently, rationally decide for themselves how they will respond to covid-19. Since then, as I anticipated would happen, covid-19 and “lockdowns” have once again been given a prominent place in the mainstream media's reporting. And, as I also anticipated, the same fallacious lockdown pro-illegal-detainment/house arrest arguments are used. Today, I want to begin a new series on how to spot propaganda. There is presently a dearth of understanding with respect to the nature of propaganda, and this is damaging for all people, especially Christians. If you desire to love God with all of your mind, then you need to be as wise as serpents yet as meek as doves. This means being able to think like the enemies of God, understand how t