Analyzing the Film Food Inc and the Propaganda Message for Positive Change

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Society tends to associate propaganda films with issues such as Nazi Germany and their film messages for their country; however, it is also possible for small independent companies, groups of like-minded people and individuals to use the media of film to incorporate messages for our society (The Independent, 2010). These messages are often in relation to changes that individuals should make in order to improve the standards by which they live their lives and changes to everyday habits that will benefit the individual, the individual’s family, a group of individuals or even a single person (Barnhisel and Turner, 2010).
Food Inc. is a documentary displaying the United States food industry in a negative light by revealing the inhumane, eye opening, worst case scenario processes of commercial farming for large corporate food manufacturing companies. Food Inc. discusses, at length, the changes that society and the audience at home can make to their grocery shopping habits to enable a more sustainable future for all involved.
Food Inc. addresses many political issues during the film to draw in the audience. Issues such as: the environment, education, workers’ rights, health care, climate change, energy control, to name a few. Director Robert Kenner exposes secrets about the foods society eats, where the food has come from and the processes the food went through. It is these issues that are used as politics of affect in both an extreme visual representation and a strong audio representation that has the biggest impact on the audience and their connection to what they are being told. This paper aims to discuss the film Food Inc. and the propaganda message for positive change, as well as, the differences between seeing food and deciding...

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...f television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's food attitudes and preferences. Social science & medicine, 65, (7), pp. 1311-1323.
Foothilltech.org (2013). BASIC ELEMENTS OF PROPAGANDA. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.foothilltech.org/rgeib/english/media_literacy/basic_elements_of_propaganda.htm [Accessed: 12 Nov 2013].
Powell, L., Harris, J. and Fox, T. (2013). Food Marketing Expenditures Aimed at Youth: Putting the Numbers in Context. American journal of preventive medicine, 45, (4), pp. 453-461.
Schirato, T. and Webb, J. (2004). Reading the visual. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
The Independent (2010). Power to the pictures: The evolution of propaganda. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/power-to-the-pictures-the-evolution-of-propaganda-2075321.html [Accessed: 11 Nov 2013].

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