Free Essay. "Don't Be a Sucker" By the US War Department.

The video talks about a person who is easily persuaded, otherwise known as a sucker. Merriam Webster dictionary defines a sucker as a person who is easily deceived or cheated. The speaker puts forward different scenarios of men easily dissuaded and moved by other's agendas, which leads to eventual harm and loss on their part (Cooper & Dinerman, 1951). It also speaks of people who use the suckers to their advantage. People who claim to talk about truth and facts.

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Rhetorical strategies.

Rhetorical strategies are the use of words figuratively to convey a message. The video employs the following rhetorical strategies.

Hypo phone- The narrator asks a question and immediately provides an answer "This looks like a fake. Well, it is a fake."

Apophasis-The narrator, in a way, implies the lady is not beautiful while not saying it. "She looked kind of cute. After the first couple of drinks." In another instance, he mentions indirectly that Henry was facing some trouble "He couldn't see any harm in a friendly game of cards. What if the other men were strangers?"

The video convinces its audience by spiking a feeling of wanting to know when the narrator introduces the characters in the different scenes in depth. He shows what the characters own and how life is without the influence of the propaganda. He, later on, he reveals the consequences of the publicity. How life changes to the "suckers."

Propaganda

The video does constitute propaganda. Propaganda is described as Info, particularly of subjective or deceptive nature, used to support a political root or opinion.

Criteria used to understand propaganda.

The criteria that one can use to understand propaganda: Labeling, name-calling, and Stereotyping

This method attempts to stimulate preconceptions of an audience by cataloguing the item of the propaganda operation as something that focuses on audience doubts, loathes, hates, or finds detrimental (Saunders, 1997). The speaker wants to bring out American-American as more deserving than the Negros and other foreigners.

Scapegoating

"I see Negros holding jobs, meant for you and me." The character wants to manipulate the audience into thinking they are poor because of foreigners.

Hyperbole

"I see people with foreign accent making all the money." Foreigners certainly do not make all the money.

Conclusion.

It is essential to value the freedoms and rights of an individual, recognizing propaganda as what it is, to avoid falling for another person's schedule, which is just that "personal."

References

Cooper, E., & Dinerman, H. (1951). Analysis of the Film "Don't Be a Sucker": A Study in Communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 15(2), 243-264.

Saunders, K. (1997). 'An Instrument of Strategy': Propaganda, Public Policy and the Media in Australia During the Second World War. War & Society, 15(2), 75-90.