facebook2While I made my observations of musical artists’ publicity-propaganda on my Facebook page feed over a week ago, I observe this activity daily in my personal life so these observations are ongoing and continuous.  Facebook is just the latest, but not necessarily the greatest addition to self-promotional-propaganda.  There are thousands of platforms on the Internet that all foster this ethic.

Facebook allows for small group conversations around all sorts of topics, fostering these small group gatherings through the avenues that are used to advertise on Facebook through the “Likes” of individual, band, product, and even company web pages.  Daily, hourly, this happens, and it happens often enough where I see multiple friends talking about a product or service (defined as the above page “likes”), “liking” it and telling additional Facebook friends.  This is promotional- and advertising-propaganda in small groups, specifically unintentional propaganda.  While this has always happened in public spheres, the Internet has made it more visible and has caused corporations to reassess and implement additional creative means to promote themselves.  Viral video contests sponsored by these corporations are another means of promotional-propaganda from person to person.

While I see this activity on Facebook and elsewhere, between small groups of Internet friends, I also see it in public places with small groups of friends, even in the sociology department before classes, talking about a musical artist, talking about a TV programme, and even about particular branded food from a restaurant.  This is the very same unintentional but promotional propaganda.  I would also like to talk about the mythology and the semiotics involved with promotional-propagandas and their requisite discussions and social constructs in the ways that promotional-propaganda is presented, but that is a deeper discussion for another day.

Perhaps, I should obtain a video camera and videotape the seemingly casual discussions that occur day to day that are always peppered with unintentional promotional-propaganda and other types of propaganda and use that as part of a larger study?