Question

In this discussion, you will consider the difference between persuasion and propaganda. Find an image the constitutes visual persuasion. Embed that image in your discussion for everyone to see. (If you have trouble with embedding the image, post it along with your text.) Post your text after the image. What aspects of the image are persuasion? Describe the aspects of the image that may be categorized as propaganda. What is at the base of the differences? Which do you think is more effective in terms of visual communication?

subject is visual communication

Answer 1

For this I will choose the poster, I want you for U.S army, the one with Uncle Sam on it, I cannot post the picture because of copyright issues. I choose this image because you can find it easily on web.

Now the reason behind choosing this poster was simple because it was one of the classic example of combining persuasion and propaganda together. The persuasion part was Uncle Sam pointing finger at you, saying he wants you for the nation and the people in that era were eagerly enthusiast to go fight a war. If you ask someone now that will he/she go fight in a war right now that most probable answer would be no, but back then people said yes. The beautiful thing about that poster was that it was not up to Uncle Sam to convince each one of you individually he worked on groups and community with this poster, people around you would enlist themselves and they will ask you to do the same, so in some ways it was peer pressure also. But nevertheless people fell for it so the persuasion part was easy. The propaganda was simple behind the poster, to increase the man power on the front lines which required more men, so the best way to convince people is to raise the patriot in them and ask them to serve for the country as it is a great honor. Now the main difference between propaganda and persuasion is, in persuasion you negotiate what you get and what you’ll give, it stick around some common ground, some truth but on the other hand propaganda is one sided that is meant to influence supporters, for examples in politics, a candidate may promise to tackle a situation that will be his/her propaganda for the office, whether it is done or not is another thing, but if can convince people to vote for him/her then it’s a win for his/her propaganda. That is why Visual aids are more effective nowadays because you may forget long speeches but you can always remember the visual aid, the poster for example to recall what the whole premise was about.