Bowling for Columbine as Propaganda
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When Michael Moore's film, Bowling for Columbine was released in 2002, it was certainly a controversial film. Closely following the tragic incidents at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Moore's film set out to expose the root of the problems behind such acts of violence. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain. It is apparent that this film is not a mere documentary; it takes a leftist stance of anti-gun pacifism, and supports his views in a one-sided manner, with no balanced evidence to the contrary. It can certainly be argued then, that whether or not Moore's film can be defined as a purely propagandistic effort, Moore does employ various techniques of propaganda and persuashon to support hhs presupposed thesis. Here, we will examine Moore's use of propaganda, which will prove useful in defining Moore's work as propagandistic expression, rather than mere documentary. To define Moore's work as propaganda
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u have bad bre`th they're not going to talk to you, if you have pimples, the girl's not going to fuck you, and it's just this campaign of fear, and consumption, and that's what I think it's all based on, the whole idea of 'keep everyone afraid, and they'll consume', (Moore, 2002).
However, Michael Moore, in his documentary, exploits the same sense of fear to achieve a different end. Moore utilizes the mass media to promote his own ideals, just as he accuses the government and media. Jowett and O'Donnell explain that "Propaganda, in its most neutral sense, means to disseminate or promote particular ideas," (2). This is a mild description of Michael Moore's work.
The very fact that Moore himself is the disseminator of the information in this case, forces the application of a particular ideology. Moore is a well-known agitator of conservative and right wing politics. This must be taken into account when considering the nature of the propaganda. The sender and the audience are important aspects of the information transfer. Because this film, unlike most documentaries, was released in average public theatres, and not only elite screening rooms or art houses, we must consider that Moore wanted to get this message out to the large
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Approximate Word count = 1298
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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