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Now playing on the Net: War propaganda
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"People of America, we wish to share with you our thoughts on the events we experienced," says the narrator of "Iraq--the truth?" The narrator claims to represent those opposing the U.S. in Iraq. "Despite the madness we have endured we see no harm in presenting you with the criminal nature of your newly elected emperor."
It's impossible to say for certain who created the video, but it's no doubt part of a growing and surprising trend at video-sharing sites. The democratization of online video through sites such as YouTube, Metacafe and Ogrish.com is allowing combatants on both sides of the battlefield to make their version of events public.
The Web offers any individual with Internet access the means to reach out to vast audiences with little or no regard for geographical borders. The number of people watching the propaganda videos is still small: About 14,000 people have viewed the "Iraq ? the truth?" video, which was posted in May. By comparison, the most popular video currently on YouTube is "Tila Tequila," which has been watched more than 800,000 times.
But experts say such material could be a harbinger of the future.
"The enemy is taking propaganda straight to the American people," said Nancy Snow, associate professor at California State University at Fullerton and author of "Propaganda Inc." "You have to give them credit for utilizing the power of this new medium. They're using cheap technology, but today anybody with a video camera can make his own movie and broadcast it."
Bush administration officials have noticed. In a speech last February, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said al-Qaida and other extremist groups have adapted faster than the U.S. to fighting information wars on the Web.
"There's never been a war fought in this environment before," Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations, according to a transcript of the speech. "Today we are fighting the first war in the era of e-mail, blogs, BlackBerries, instant messaging, digital cameras, the Internet...The U.S. government still functions as a five-and-dime store in an eBay world."
Propaganda, the practice of tailoring a message to sway opinion rather than to present impartial information, is not new to the Web. Sending e-mails to promote one political philosophy or another is as old as the Net. But when it comes to influencing opinions, video packs a greater emotional punch than text or photographs, said Snow, a former staffer at the U.S. Information Agency, which was once responsible for explaining U.S. foreign policy to the world.
The power of video to communicate ideas to large audiences has not been lost on politicians, corporations or the clergy in this country. Many have begun posting commercials or sermons on user-submitted sites.
Figuring out just how many people can be reached via online video is still unclear. San Mateo, Calif.-based YouTube, the largest of the video-sharing sites, attracts more than 16 million viewers per month and presents 100 million videos a day. The company was lauded recently for providing an unfiltered view of the fighting in Lebanon.
These sites are quickly becoming a bully pulpit from which any agenda can be pushed.
Video: War clips on the Web
Combatants on the battlefield in Iraq post video clips of the war on sites such as Guba, YouTube and Ogrish.
Anyone performing a search of the word "Iraq" on YouTube can locate scores of clips about the war, including those that show Americans being attacked by snipers or with explosive devices. One clip shows what appears to be U.S. soldiers being shot by a sniper known as "Juba" or "Juma." The text and narration in these videos are rarely, if ever, in English.
In contrast, "Iraq - The Truth?" features very little graphic violence. The narrator speaks English as somber orchestral music plays in the background. He argues that the war in Iraq is unjust. There is also a veiled threat that the U.S. will face nuclear attack. He finishes by complimenting Americans on their ability to produce great leaders with a subtle suggestion that they violently overthrow the current administration.
"We believe that a nation which once gave the world John F. Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington...will not fall short of giving true leaders of substance and dignity," the narrator says. "We advise you to take matters into your own hands."
Such material is unlikely to change the minds of anyone who strongly supports the war, Snow said. But for those people who are unsure or oppose the effort, the images may prove powerful.
Average American soldiers also have begun communicating their take on the war. It's a take that may not please the Pentagon.
See more CNET content tagged:
Iraq, YouTube, war, online video, Bush Administration
90 comments
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Obviously a pufferfish approach to make a little support seem a lot bigger than it really is.
"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion.
Now is the time to be active and voice Israel's side to the world. 1. Download and install Megaphone desktop tool, 2. Receive desktop alerts on key articles and surveys, 3.Click alerts to easily voice your opinion"
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://giyus.org" target="_newWindow">http://giyus.org</a>
It even translates polls into English French Hebrew and Spanish, so that visitors in foreign languages can handily vote for Israel without understanding the foreign language article. Nice.
But it also gives the game away, because the kidnapping of the two soldiers was on 12th July, but the blog has an empty folder from June 2006.
Look at the right side here.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://blog.giyus.org/" target="_newWindow">http://blog.giyus.org/</a>
"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion."
Nah, surely they mean that next months planned conflict is won by public opinion.
Now the fact that you have thrown in a completely irrelevant website makes me wonder about your bias in the matter. However I would like to thank you for wasting precious seconds of my life (the time it took to realise that you are an idiot).
"Obviously a pufferfish approach to make a little support seem a lot bigger than it really is."
- And the fact that a service that allows people to keep up with current events about a topic they are interested in must be those damn jews spreading their lies to the world again?
I wasn't going to post this because I could think of better things to do with my time, scratching myself for instance, but i decided against it. Turns out scratching mosquito bites just makes things worse.
Let's see if scratching this mosquite bite helps...
>Nah, surely they mean that next months planned conflict is won
>by public opinion.
Exactly.
If you are suprised by a July 12th 'kidnapping' of your side's soldiers and wish to show support for your side, the work would have started *after* July 12th and there would be no June folder -> strong indication of preplanned attack.
Likewise the polls attached to foreign language articles, they have no way of reading the article and hence are not voting in response to the article.
I feel strongly that Israel should be paying the $230m war reparations, not USA. Yet Bush has committed USA to paying both Lebanons and Israels rebuilding costs. At the very least he could deduct it from the billions you send Israel each year.
It also requires seeing both sides of the story, and using critical reasoning skills to discover the truth in the middle (something else that seems to be utterly lacking in the media - whether it be institutional bias or the lust for drama --facts be damned-- I'll never be able to accurately guess).
/P
views "Propaganda" and Well the German Goverment found a way to combat it.
Ogrish for example...."YOU ARE VERBOTEN" to get to that site,PERIOD! Now I am for the American cause of bringing down terrorist,and bringing freedom to a
war ravished region.But dont cut down on my freedom
to choose what I want to read or watch without causing anybody harm.
this is a war on us.. liberal minded netizens.. support the troops!! the ones that fight for you!!
information they are exposed to everyday.
The program's budget was cut, the course is no longer available.
I think oneof the most important thiings to realize about these
videos is CONTEXT.
/P
The "chimperor" sounds like something that you would hear Russ Feingold or Howard Dean say, or perhaps Al Zarqawi or Bin Laden...
Well, I say bring forth the voices of terrorists and extreme liberals. If we KNOW the hatred of our enemies, we will be more successful in crushing our enemies.
The far right spreads what? Anyone? Anyone! That's right, the same thing!
It is just all so sick. Wake up.
Dianne
As they say:
"Today's conflicts are won by public opinion.
Now is the time to be active and voice Israel's side to the world."
Except here's the page showing that the blog had had entries from June. It looked like a slipup to me, as though they had been working on it a month earlier and remembered to delete the test messages but not the folders they were in.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/june-screenshot.gif" target="_newWindow">http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/june-screenshot.gif</a>
Here's a typical example of what that site does:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/turf_digg.gif" target="_newWindow">http://nigeljohnstone.com/images/turf_digg.gif</a>
"I ask you to sign in and digg the following stories...of course , going around the site's politics and news sections and digging other pro-Israel stories is encouraged"
Odd don't you think, that a war that was supposed to be caused by the capture of 2 Israeli soldiers had it's PR campaign in progress at least a month earlier.
<br>
<a href="http://cognitivelabs.com/ww21939.htm">Germany invades Poland</a></b><br>
With MemoryTV, you exercise your <a href="http://cognitivelabs.com">memory</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://cognitivelabs.com/pearlharbor.htm" target="_newWindow">http://cognitivelabs.com/pearlharbor.htm</a>
Poland 1939:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://cognitivelabs.com/ww21939.htm" target="_newWindow">http://cognitivelabs.com/ww21939.htm</a>
I wonder how well our "born again" president sleeps knowing that tens of thousands innocent civilians are victims of the war he started. But his conscience cannot be bothered - he doesn't have one.
the sake of propaganda. Its not new, its not a surprise and they
are certainly not the only ones doing it. It seems that the news is
filled with propaganda. This is not an insult, it is how wars have
been won for centuries. Everyone spread propaganda. During
the world wars it was widespread, it continued during vietnam
and it goes on every time you watch the TV.
So no big surprises there.
The thing that I am surprised by is the fact that the author of the
article failed to consider the possibility that SOME of these
videos may be anti war videos by people that are actually doing
nothing more than voicing their opinions about a war that they
believe is wrong.
Note that I am suggesting that this is SOME of these videos.
In a country where freedom is valued, people still have the right
to express their opinion and this is clearly a new way that people
are doing that. People are entitled to express their support or
opposition and should be allowed to do so.
The American people will foot the bill for reconstruction. It should be the people who made the money off of the armaments that foot the bill.
Dianne
America are the terrorists!
Yes, you both agree. Now get back in your Burqua before you are caned.
The weapons of mass destruction are the U.S. bioweaponery that has been already unleashed on the world. A little slight of hand by the circus hucksters.
Dianne
You make my argument for me. Tell me that Bush is the terrorist. Tell me that America is the killers of babies.
You are a perfect liberal... I hope you train your children to be effective suicide bombers. Our shock-troop marines have enough armor that your baby should be carrying no less than 20lbs of C4 to make an impact.
How is it that Liberals CONTINUE to blatently IGNORE the fact that we actually DID find chemical weapons in Iraq? Its just baffling... as if they are living in outer space and the world is whatever they imagine it to be.
And still... they want us to believe that George W. Bush has revoked our freedom of press. Wake up and get a fargin clue. Just because you get angry watching TV doesn't mean your rights have been infringed upon. What a hark. The only scumbags I see are the ones trying to scare me into thinking that I've somehow lost freedoms when I'm as free as I was 10 years ago. Get a clue.
The sooner people realize that there is no way to determine truth in material available from ANY SOURCE - internet, print, broadcast - the sooner they will have a more realistic view from which to judge surrounding events.
I've read for years statements to the effect that "history books are rewritten by the winners of war"... the internet changes that to "history books are rewritten by anyone with an internet link".
3 million people in the U.S. will die this year because of Pharmaceuticals.]
The U.S. government has approved the use of pregnant women and children for experiments with pesticides and fertilizers.
The U.S. has the highest medical costs in the world, yet the people are very unhealthy and quickly declining.
The FDA approves the sale of drugs that kill people, accepting fraudulent research, knowingly.
Vioxx killed 60,000 people.
You do not have the right to refuse chemotherapy, if you do you can be arrested and taken from your parents and confined against your will. Your parents will be put in jail.
You do not have the right to refuse to be drugged with Ritalin, if you are a intellegent kid.
The Federal Government with their programme TeenScreen, is criminally diagnosing thousands of American teens with potent and dangerous psychiatic drugs, serving the Pharmaceutical Companies up a whole new lot of customers.
Some of the newest pschiatric 'illnesses' are poor math, poor spelling, poor writing skills. I think these simply reflect poor education. They are not mental illness. Yet, the government not only allows this, but promotes it.
Yeh, who is the terrorist?
I am not a supporter of Bin Laden. I am not a terrorist. I am not a victim of the military propaganda you so willingly swallow. War equals profits for the 'industry'
Dianne
You sit here and try to mumble something about how we are just as evil as that... a moral equivalency... youre a sick lady. mentally sick... but I do hope you can convince your far-left congresspeople to use the same language you use. Obviously, your viewpoint is way into the fringe, but it would help us immensely if you can keep saying that up until election time. Thanks!
Oh, and by the way - 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq when you look at the facts. Actually, the people who hijacked the planes were from Saudi Arabia!
peace," Snow said.
So blowing up buildings, and killing people, is about rebuilding
and peace? Yeah, right. Pigs fly - and Bush, Cheney and
Rumsfeld bring peace and prosperity to Iraq.
Or if not, which I suspect lots of you Bushites still don't, here it is just like the subject line says: you don't get willing footsoldiers for ANY kind of uprising when people are fat, happy, and well governed. You do, however, find willing recruits fairly easy to come by from among the desperate, the disenfranchised, and the hopeless.
Add in a little fundamentalist religion, including Christianity (KKK, Nazis anyone?), and you've got a powderkeg.
Guess what we're doing in the Middle East? Making a LOT of people who used to be largely ambivalent about us (in the end, everybody really just wants to live their lives, have some hope for tomorrow, and be left the $%#@ alone by their government) desperate, disenfranchised, and hopeless, all in a land with easy access to a highly fundamentalist religion and tradition.
In other words, we've just single handedly created a HUGE new crop of terrorists or at the very least terrorist recruit candidates by our completely unnecessary and unrelated to the "war on terror" adventure in Iraq. Once those of you on the right admit that this was a colossal mistake and misjudgment and had nothing to do with 9/11 or anything else, then I'll seriously listen to anything you have to say, but until then...
Want a peaceful Middle East? Quit trying to enforce capricious WW1 and WW2 geographic boundaries on ethnic groups that would rather not live together, pour the vast sums of money we're currently using to fight a war (against whom, by the way?) into school/hospital/infrastructure grants to a peaceably elected government(s), and then treat the countries in the region the same way we do China and Mexico -- trade with them, build relationships where they have more to lose by fighting us than by co-existing with us. If you can give a generation of young Middle Eastern men the hope for a stable, middle class family life, a decent job, and decent security, they will have FAR less reason to take up arms against anyone.
Taking out Saddam did nothing except let loose a civil war; taking out Bin Laden will feel good, but it will make him a martyr. If you can marginalize the fanatical leaders, they lose the army they seek to lead. Hitler was successful because he had a really willing audience and could point to the ways the Germans were being oppressed. Guess what Bin Laden's doing? We must remove the crux of their argument, whether it be Bin Laden's, Hezbollah's, the Palestinians' or whomever. We do that by being a force for economic empowerment to the second/third world people (Middle East or otherwise) and by refraining from trying to tell them what form of government is best for them and where they should draw their borders.