Propaganda By Images vs. Art

      Imagery exists everywhere I turn and it’s nearly impossible to hide from it. Whether we like it or not, we are being exposed to images produced by the media. Imagery has the power to mold our way of thinking and allows businesses to brainwash us into becoming their consumers. I can’t think of a better example than the San Francisco Giants and their recent “World” Series Championship win. Today, a million people attended the Giants’ Championship parade and celebration ceremony in San Francisco. All these people were covered in their Giants’ merchandise, which consisted of orange & black clothing, fake beards, “SF” caps, jerseys, towels, and pom-poms. “Okay … Giants won it all. So, what? Why is it so important?” I say. When I think about it, the Giant’s championship really isn’t that important to me or any of us. After their win, it’s not like the Giants’ are going on a parade where they pass out money to everyone. Instead, the Giants’ are the ones who want to take our money! Those one million attendees of today’s Giants’ celebration have fell victim to the imagery produced by the Giants and the media. One million people skipped class or took a day off from work so that they could attend a ceremony that they believed was “important” due to image propaganda. This image propaganda was developed and broadcasted through ballgames at the ballparks, live coverage of Giants’ games on TV, billboards on buses and bus stops, catchy slogans like “Fear The Beard” or “Come See The Freak”, ad campaigns, and local news stations skipping their regular programming to cover the Giants’ hype (which only farther contributed to the Giants’ hype). These Giants fans were made to believe that they are buying a “superior” product through this aggressive propaganda through images.

      After reading “The Image Culture” by Christine Rosen, I asked myself: “Are images a completely negative influence on me?” My answer is “no” because I believe there are positive aspects of the image culture that Rosen does not go into. In Rosen’s article, she mostly attacks the image culture by saying that we lose our ability of judgment by allowing the media control our thoughts and actions through the use of images. I agree with Rosen that imagery may be used as propaganda, but Rosen misses out on the use of imagery as an art form that artists may use to express and share their images with the public. Art is another form of imagery that doesn’t act as propaganda, but allows its viewers to interrupt the image for themselves instead. There are paintings that are viewed by numerous people and each viewer will give their own interpretation of the painting when asked. After viewing Inception (film), I came out of the theater with different ideas and analysis of the movie than my brother. Artistic imagery inspires the viewers to construct their own thought processes, whereas image propaganda almost completely constructs uniform thought processes in their viewers.


Article Source: "The Image Culture" by Christine Rosen