Propaganda

So we have recently been talking about propaganda and the different types. Propaganda, as we defined in class, means "one sided information that 'sells' you to the maker's viewpoint." I really enjoyed that lecture on Tuesday because it was both surprising and interesting to see different people characterize the big figures of WWII in different ways. For example, one of my favorite pictures in that power point was the one paralleling the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. For me, it was my first time hearing this term, but I was surprised to see the parallel the cartoonist made with the Bible in that way. Basically, all of the ones under the "enemy" headline really struck me how as very interesting, because I loved seeing how different people portray the enemy. For example, one of the drawings showed Hitler with a huge body and a tiny head, and right away, we could tell that the artist had the idea that the enemy had the "do not think, just do" persona, or that they are small minded.
On Wednesday we looked at the McCain video. Mr. O'Connor kept bringing up the word "parody." During class that day, I just thought it meant "satirical" or "funny," but the actual dictionary definition is "a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing." Now i understand why he was calling it a parody: because everyone took the Obama video so seriously, and this one was just like an imitation.<--my "blond" moment. We discussed if this video is propaganda or not. I believe that it is not propaganda, because it was meant as something satirical.
To me, propaganda is something that has to be sold, not needs to be sold because it is so often that you see on tv something that has the power to be propaganda...if that sentence does not make sense to anyone but me I am very sorry...it happens a lot.