C – 29

“Information and propaganda: express your opinion.”

Propaganda and information have a common aim: to spread news by radio, TV,
newspapers, and so on. Although they have the same goal, propaganda aims to reach
and mantain the consensus of public opinion.

Propaganda has been a strategic tool since ancient times, and it has been used to
spread correct, false or partly true news. When we use terms such as white, black or
grey propaganda, it depends on the kind of news we are going to spread. This kind of
activities were used a lot especially after the World War II, during the Cold War, by
the United States of America and the ex – Soviet Union in order to mantain the
control of the International scenery through the threat of nuclear weapons that should
be used in case of crisis in the World. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the
bipolar system disappeared, we opened our society to globalization, that caused the
collapse of the State’s concept because cancelled the perception of space and time.

Through the Internet all borders have disappeared, and it is possible to find any kind
of news spred by expert or not. For this reason it is difficult to tell the difference
between propaganda and information today.

Although many people think that the Internet is a good thing, I believe that it is
dangerous at the same time. Terrorism is a clear example of the bad use of this new
instrument. While it is true that the Internet could be used for useful activities, such
as e-learning in the developing countries, I think that a strict control it is important in
order to avoid the manipulation of the reality. Although some people say that it is
illiberal, however I believe it is necessary.

In conclusion, I think that the use of good sense is important to mantain the correct
distance from every kind of truth source.