Conclusion

              Propaganda is an inescapable aspect of contemporary life. Visual images and art works of persuasive intent penetrate our lives in every way. Whilst propaganda has been a present element of society throughout history it only seems to become increasingly corrupted and politically charged as time goes on. As demonstrated in wartime posters, the main purpose of propaganda is to influence people to adhere to or come to accept either an individual’s or an institution’s own personal dogma. Despite being disguised in a variety of ways, the motive remains constant, to try and convince people that the ideas or beliefs that you promote are the right ones to be adopting. To try and project and in turn sell your standpoint to the masses and gain some sort of following in response. Even in the case of street artist Shepard Fairey, who is simply communicating his own personal commentary on American politics, his is still adhering to this concept of addressing and trying to attract the masses.

            However, it is when propaganda is used by a certain political candidate or party itself that the truly brainwashing and all-consuming effects visual imagery can have become evidently clear. Some of the most prominent cases of which being concerning the regimes of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, as well as the communist Soviet Union and indeed the current President of the United States, Donald Trump. In each of these cases, when the basis of propaganda and the ideologies it strives to inflict are grounded in a totalitarian set of beliefs, its motives being to progress from the art of persuasion and into the realms of brain-washing. When we look back upon history and question why on earth the masses chose to support leader’s like Hitler and Stalin and adhere to their regimes, it is important to remember that in the political moment they were being fed half-truths by these wolves in sheep’s clothing. Such rulers package themselves in a mould that will present them as someone that people can trust, rely upon and believe in, all of which is perpetuated to society through the mode of propaganda. 

The representation and propaganda surrounding global issues in the media

    As focussed upon by Orwell, the representations of current affairs and pressing global issues that we receive everyday can never be taken at face value. There is always some politically charged motive in the way in which newspapers and propaganda convey and a reason as to why we are being fed certain information. In 2015, when political debate over the refugee crisis in Britain was already causing a great deal of uproar, the incident of the tragic death of 3 year old Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi sent the world into uproar. The horrific image of the young boys body washed up on the shore after drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
 
   The pictures of him that were published seemed to strike a cord with people all over the world and

he quickly came to be a 'symbol of the refugee crisis'( Enser 2016).
Despite the tragedy being so widely publicised, it is nonetheless important to remember that he was
not the first refugee to suffer such a fate and most certainly shall not be the last. What urged such wide spread of his image was undoubtedly the political disagreement on the matter that was occurring at the time; 'Cameron's intellectual case that advertising a scheme welcoming
refugees would encourage more of them to hear for Europe', whilst 'both morally
and politically, the EU had to act' (Grice 2015). The circulation of these powerful and emotive images thus aroused a lot of conservative opposition and ill feeling 


  Furthermore, another important factor of this issue was the manner in which the uproar soon died down and along with it people's sudden sense of compassion for the struggle of the refugees. In an interview with The Telegraph, Alan's father raised this issue. Stating that 'The politicians said after the deaths of my family: Never again!. Everyone claimed they wanted to do something because of how the photo touched them so much. But what is happening now? People are still dying and nobody is doing anything' (Enser, 2015). 

         Enser, J., 2016. ‘Photo of my dead son has changed nothing’, says father of drowned Syrian refugee boy Alan Kurdi [Online]. The Telegraph. Available from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/01/photo-of-my-dead-son-has-changed-nothing-says-father-of-drowned/.

Grice, A., 2015. Refugee Crisis : Where is your compassionate Conservatism now, David Cameron? [Online]. Independent. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/refugee-crisis-where-is-your-compassionate-conservatism-now-david-cameron-10497187.html.