Here is the definition of propaganda:
prop·a·gan·da/ˌpräpəˈgandə/
Noun:
1. Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
2. The dissemination of such information as a political strategy.
This article describes propaganda techniques.
Recognizing Propaganda--Guide to Critical Thinking--Academic Support
Propaganda Techniques
What are Propaganda Techniques? They are the methods and approaches used to spread ideas that further a cause - a political, commercial, religious, or civil cause.
Why are they used? To manipulate the readers' or viewers' reason and emotions; to persuade you to believe in something or someone, buy an item, or vote a certain way.
What are the most commonly used propaganda techniques? See which of the ten most common types of propaganda techniques you already know.
This is followed by a list of 10 common propaganda techniques, followed by descriptions of Errors of Faulty Logic, Errors of Attack, and Errors of Weak Reference.
If you are going to continue to read about electronic cigarettes and other forms of tobacco harm reduction, it is a good idea to learn all you can about propaganda techniques and how to recognize them.
Now read the press release written by the US Food and Drug Administration to communicate their findings when they conducted toxicology testing on only two brands (out of hundreds at the time) of e-cigarettes. Not entirely coincidental was the fact that the Agency selected the brands of the very same companies that had filed a law suit against the Agency.
Each company sold four different levels of nicotine in a number of different flavors, and the Agency needed to test both the liquid in the cartridge, and the vapor produced from each type of cartridge. If the liquid was tested, it could not be used to test vapor for that type, because testing the liquid used up the sample. Even if there had been only two flavors sold by each company, to cover the permutations involved, the agency would have needed to test a minimum of 12 cartridges from each company. It probably would have been better to test several samples of each type of liquid, and test several samples of each type when vaporized. They tested a total of 18 cartridges.
As the "control" for only one aspect of the testing, they used a cartridge from a pharmaceutical nicotine oral inhaler (Nicotrol). Keep in mind that people using the products had not been switching from Nicotrol to an e-cigarette. They had switched from combusted tobacco cigarette smoking. Yet, these conventional cigarettes were not tested at all to paint a picture of which practice, smoking or vaping, is more likely to be harmful to health.
FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes
Pay particular attention to the choice of words: carcinogens, toxic chemicals, an ingredient used in antifreeze.
What emotional effect are these words and phrases intended to evoke in the reader/listener?
See if you can spot any examples of the Faulty Cause and Effect propaganda technique.
Hint: Sold in shopping malls; available in different flavors
Now read the report written by the scientist in charge of the testing, as opposed to the press release written by a professional press release writer.
By the way, you have to hunt around the FDA web site to track down this report. Perhaps they didn't want the public to have easy access to the report, because the public might compare the report wording to the wording in the press release. For example, do a search for "carcinogens" and "antifreeze" and "toxic". They were not in the report. How did they end up in the press release?
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ScienceResearch/UCM173250.pdf
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I submit to you that a group of interested parties making a film about their subject does not necessarily turn the work into propaganda. There must be an intent involved to to lead the audience to false conclusions. There must be blatant use of propaganda techniques. There must be a careless disregard about who gets hurt from these false conclusions.
Otherwise all you have is advertising and/or public relations.