Propaganda and Journalism

Throughout our daily routines we pass by thousands of different propaganda and journalism. They can be found everywhere from busses, to television and even buildings. Telling whether something is propaganda or journalism is fairly simple because they have noticeable differences. As a reader, one can tell if the article is propaganda if they feel as if they are being told to believe in a certain way. Propaganda tries to convince its readers into agreeing with the Authors views. Propaganda is simply a biased point of view. Journalism is the presentation of news in an unbiased way. It explains a situation or idea while presenting facts, and leaving it to the reader to make their own conclusions.

In the article The Insurgents Tale, the author wrote about the life of a jihadi. It explains the role a veteran foot soldier had in the jihad, and why he is questioning his actions and reasons for continuing to fight. The author tells the story of the solder, Khalid, and the suffering he went through to fight for his personal beliefs. The Article is journalism because while it does contain some sympathetic views towards Khalid, the author doesn’t force his opinion onto the reader, leaving it to the reader to make his or her own judgment. In the article The Case for Calling them Nitwits, it is quite the opposite. From the beginning of the article the author creates a negative view towards the terrorists calling them such names as “fools and perverts.” While the author does explain why portrays them as that, he doesn’t leave the option for them to even be considered anything but fools and perverts. The author continues to give reasons why terrorists are bad, without explaining their point of view at any moment, creating a biased view.

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...ed to believe that terrorists are bad and immoral without hearing their side of the story, which makes this article Propaganda.

Works Cited

Byman, Daniel, and Christine Fair. "The Case for Calling Them Nitwits - Magazine - The Atlantic."The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Food – TheAtlantic.com. Web. 09 Dec. 2010. .

Doyney, Tom. "The Insurgent's Tale." Latest Articles. Web. 09 Dec. 2010. .

Rosen, Christine. "The New Atlantis » The Image Culture." The New Atlantis - A Journal of Technology & Society. Web. 09 Dec. 2010. .