Media 111 – Module 4 – Weekly Essay

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Bad Photoshop and Star Wars Innovation

Right-wing propagandist view of Biden's America vs. Trump's America
Right-wing propagandist view of Biden’s America vs. Trump’s America.

Influence via Photoshop – 

First off, I would like to begin by saying that I am a very non-political person and am not taking any sides here. I consider myself to be a centrist. I personally feel like using Photoshop to influence individuals to vote a certain way, is completely inappropriate, biased, and unfair. I would go as far as saying this photo is right-wing propaganda. For starters, I feel like we have seen events from both sides of the image happen under both of the different presidents’ tenures. I remember a time when cities were on fire under Trump. I also know there have been happy times under Biden. Both of these individuals have their ups and downs, pros and cons. Something else that really stands out about how this was photoshopped is how the “artist” manipulated colors and levels. You can see on Biden’s side it’s very dark and gloomy, while on Trump’s side it’s very bright and warm. This work of art sends a biased and one-sided message. I feel like biased and one-sided messages can influence people in negative ways.

How Art Advances Technology – 

Art advances technology. In the case of Star Wars, it would appear that the brothers, John and Thomas Knoll, came up with the desire and drive to create Photoshop because they needed a program that would better and more efficiently help them express their works of art. Over the years, as Photoshop is used more and more, other artists find areas that are lacking or come up with new ideas of features to add to the software that would help them with their art. I am just using Photoshop as an example here. I would say that this concept applies to innovative technological advances in the arts as a whole.

Media 115 – Module 8 – Weekly Essay

Posted on by jesse

Red Dawn’s Motives

The propaganda piece I chose is John Milius’ 1984 film, “Red Dawn”. This fictional film is about a hypothetical invasion of the United States by Russian and Cuban soldiers. While the events that take place in this film are not completely impossible, the chances of them actually happening are slim to none. This film was used to incite fear of Russians, Cubans, and anything or anyone who was affiliated with communism in right-wing conspiracy theorists.

The creators of this piece obviously had a biased view and agenda when making the film. This becomes apparent in a variety of ways. One of these ways is how the invading soldiers are portrayed. We definitely see the invading Russian and Cuban soldiers being cast as unprovoked villains. There is also a part of the film where captured American civilians have been put into a detention camp inside a drive in movie theater where they are shown a propaganda piece themselves in an effort to convert them.

It is obvious that the director had hoped to stoke the tensions and fears of individuals who were already scared due to the Cold War era, and prey upon this with every opportunity in this unrealistic and purely fictional film. I feel that they probably succeeded with their targeted demographic, but flopped with others.