museumuesum:Juan DowneyCorner, 1985Newspaper clippings on wall, Articles from Granma (leftist Cuban
museumuesum:Juan DowneyCorner, 1985Newspaper clippings on wall, Articles from Granma (leftist Cuban newspaper) and El Mercurio (rightist Chilean newspaper), Variable dimensions“Disinformation is a technique used by the printed and electronic media in order to create national opinion and consent. It is a technique of half-truths, bias editorialism and deletion pertinent information. It pretends to be objective and fair. Most importantly, it place on people’s belief in a ‘Free Press’. Propaganda, On the other hand, is government sponsored ideology which is forced on a people for the of ‘education and their own good’ (as perceived by the State). Those living in totalitarian (authoritarian) state like El Salvador, South Korea, China and Russia know that the State forced specific information on them. Unfortunately those of us living in ‘free Western democracies’ are often under the misguided assumption that we get ‘all the news that’s fit to print’. the truth is that both disinformation and propaganda serve the same purpose: control of a population by feeding it approved information”.For this exhibition Downey chose a corner, where he placed several press cuttings from two different, and opposed, media –on the one hand the Marxist periodical Gramma Weekly Review Publisher in English in Havana, and on the other the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio,published in Spanish and favorably inclined towards the Pinochet régime. The clippings, dated between the years 1983 and 1985, referred to contemporary political events in Chile. In this way, headlines such as “Chile: An Imprisoned Nation”, “Pinochet Steps up Repression and Received More U.S. Economic Aid” or “Praise for State of Sedge” marked a strong contrast with others such as “En el Exterior se Miente de una Forma Grosera” (Gross Lies Pronounced Abroad), “Renovado el Solemne Juramento a la Bandera” (Solemn Oath to the Flag Renewed) or “Presidente Pinochet Reafirmo Compromiso con la Democracia” (President Pinochet Reaffirms Commitment to Democracy) are a clear example of how concrete political interest receive careful attention and are presented in a positive way, while other political and social issues that are critical of the government are not granted much coverage. Consciously manipulated though the editorial line, the suppression of certain objective content are filled with key words or phrases designed to disturb or deform the alleged ‘information’. -- source link
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