please don't think i'm trying to discredit the article by calling it propaganda (or pick a fight with anyone here). I don't know enough about the EU and how it works to form an opinion on it or britians position in it.
i'm using the word propaganda not so much in the oxford dictionary's definition as in the one given on Wikipedia, which is worded far milder and with less negativity attached.
i'm normally rather cynical when it comes to anything with a 'political' message and we are currently in the leadup to an election here in Australia, it is a particularly messy election too. more so i'm in a seat being contested by the current deputy primeminister and an independent candidate (that held the seat for the previous two terms with 70-80% primary vote) who has come out of retirement specifically to try to knock off the deputy pm. both lay claim to the same demographic so the campaigning locally has gotten really brutal and everywhere you turn it is in your face. hence i'm even more cynical than usual.
as I said I don't have a position on the britian/eu vote, but i'll pull the video apart to point out some of the ways I think he is working things to emphasise his point of view. as well as why I think it is well crafted with the amount of different methods used.
he is orating it at first in the style of the great british documentary makers, using his tone, facial expressions, the camera angles, his dress and the background of an oldworld styled library to imply he has great knowledge (and impartiality).
note the emphasis he puts on the word 'facts' at 15 and 24 seconds, seeming to say 'fact'=truth. steamrolling the concept that a fact, while being true, can be manipulated by what facts are presented and what are not. the work 'fact' will continue to be repeated throughout the presentation to remind the viewer that what is being said is truth.
at 30-40 seconds he gives the depth of knowledge given in the tomes shown behind him then presents himself as a keeper of that knowledge.
at one minute on he drops in some facts, highlighted in text form to show it to be true and give credibility to all his future statements as being equally researched, based from documentary sources. one is even labelled fact no2!
about 2:09 I love the eyebrow raises on the word 'important' (repeated at add emphasis)
2:13-2:30 we get a nice visual depiction of what he is saying, times to match the concepts as he introduces them.
2:30 on, we get some wild eyebrow action along with facial expressions and head tilt/straightening to add seriousness when needed and mock the works of the politicians of the time as he repeats them.
3:20, slight pause then arm out and lean in to the audience.
now we get some more info with nice supporting examples. followed around 4:00 by a little more informally given statement about the former chancellors views (note the change in body language and camera angle).
the two examples given are about cheap beer (the EU attacked our beer!) and lower taxes on energy saving equipment (surely energy saving equipment is a good thing so what are the EU?)
some more stats then 4:38-4:42 note the change in the level of language when speaking from the viewpoint of 'the defenders of the EU' and how the wording infers they don't care about the dismal rates of success in the courts. he is now dividing people into us and them, placing himself and the viewer on the 'us' team and painting 'them' as having negative qualities and dropping names of politicians on 'their' side.
5:00 he repeats again for emphasis then asks the viewers to check his credibility 'don't take my word for it', it is in a documentary so has to be true... pity the clip is cut so short we don't know if the figures given are about the EU-british laws or the percentage of dog owners who pick up poo on a sunday.
6:15 we move outside to a more open informal location and so the tone and language changes getting more and informal. (we are now part of the inner circle!) the comments on the EU and how it works get more and more disparaging.
7:31 'great country!' starting to introduce the concept of national pride and doing so with someone elses words in a clip, nicely done that man.
and so on and so forth.
again i'm not shooting down his message, i'm sure there are pro EU pieces using exactly the same methods to try to draw in the undecided. I find it interesting to pull things like this apart and watch for how people are trying to alter the way others see the world.
Absolutely Peter, sick to death with bullshitters...............just give us the facts.
If it turns out the REMAIN lot have won it tomorrow,. all I ask is that they learn from their mistakes and put back Border Controls and the 2000 officers jobs at our ports, and reinstate the offshore Border Agency boats they chopped this year.
I saw the cheeky bugger who bought it cheap at £100K fully kitted out, is trying to sell it back to them for three times the amount because they made " an error of judgement in premature sale" smats of aircraft carriers without planes to me : The Former HM Customs Cutter Sentinel - Field Textiles Ltd
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
If we do pull out of europe, (hopefully we do) then the next step is political and constitutional reform for government and the political elite. We can no longer have the type of politics we have been having in the last ten or more years. How do we know that the next government who comes to power is not going to sell us down the river again on a silver platter to the highest bidder. There should be accountability, rules and laws for those at the top who lie to the people and treat us with contempt and who waste tax payer hard earned slog like tap water, and get away with murder like Blair and Cameron. I think the people living here know what i mean. Under EU rule we cant do anything, if we win out then hopefully the momentum will make people push for the next step, its long overdue.
please don't think i'm trying to discredit the article by calling it propaganda (or pick a fight with anyone here). I don't know enough about the EU and how it works to form an opinion on it or britians position in it.
Henry,
Can see where your coming from and will certainly be no fight, but regardless how he does it, I thought it was well presented..........lets face it, he wasn't going to cobble it together and with blokes like that and other editors of such publications they don't care much for politicians, remember the Line in the Film Hunt for Red October, they are in a big meeting and at the end Jack Ryan is approached by a senior member " Mr Ryan, I'm a politician so that makes me one of the biggest Liers there is" that has always summed it up for me.
Like some here, I'm a Queen and Country man and would like to keep it that way, Be ruled by our rules which a lot I don't agree with but If we stay the next thing we know we will have to start driving on the wrong side of the road....... I,d up sticks and be heading your way when that happens. ( has been on the cards for sometime, I prefer NZ its the boss who wants Oz)
It will be a most interesting television spectacle tomorrow to see David Cameron trying to give an explanation if Brexit win by a landslide; one would expect it to be at least enough to take the silly smile off his face.
No matter what the outcome there is a split in the UK that may never heal. NO ONE is going to be happy, it will be interesting to see how the winning side attempts to bring the losers back into the flock.
This entire episode was started out of people being fed up with the status quo...can't blame those people! Every gov't in the world is literally out of control, no longer listen to the electorate and deserve to be tossed, issue is the opposition often is a larger nightmare, a fundamental change is a must!
Why use a 50 pound bomb when a 500 pound bomb will do?
For those of us in the U.K. who are also involved in classic car/bike use and home restoration we had a problem with the E.U., some years ago, trying to ban the use/sale of cellulose paints and certain other types of paints that home restorers use for restoration purposes in the home workshop. It was similar in some ways to the current interference/fiasco from the E.U. concerning de-activated guns. The paint saga went rumbling on for many months and at one stage it was looking like an end to home resprays unless the home restorer wished to invest in water based paint spraying facilities costing a vast amount of money. Eventually a compromise solution was found and home restorers/classic specialists were allowed to carry on much as before provided they didn't go over a certain usage limit.
No matter what the outcome there is a split in the UK that may never heal. NO ONE is going to be happy, it will be interesting to see how the winning side attempts to bring the losers back into the flock.
This entire episode was started out of people being fed up with the status quo...can't blame those people! Every gov't in the world is literally out of control, no longer listen to the electorate and deserve to be tossed, issue is the opposition often is a larger nightmare, a fundamental change is a must!
I have noticed that politics these days seems to be my side is right or you are a idiot. There is no comprising and usually the next party in undoes everything the previous party did (and when the next one comes in they do the same).