Glorious Mission: Social Media, Video Games, and Propaganda

Governments and social movements have long used information technology to promote their causes. In the past books, songs, radio, and television where used to persuade people that political and social actions where necessary. With the growth of information and communication technologies there are now new media that can be used for propaganda and persuasion. Technology such as Twitter, Facebook, and Video Games have emerged in the past decade as growing forces in protest movements and government propaganda.

This paper will discuss how new technologies have been used for purposes of propaganda around a number of political issues in Asia. Analysis is based on content review of Twitter archives, online newspapers, blogs, and Video Games associated with political issues in East Asia. The issues to be addressed will include territorial disputes such as the Dokdo/Takeshima islands, North and South Korea, and Chinese internet censorship. Results suggest that governments in East Asia have been quick to recognize the propaganda power of new media and have quickly organized to provide a government perspective on ongoing disputes. Protest movements may have had an initial advantage in recognizing the power of new technologies and new media, but government quickly responded to remove or reduce the political advantage they had. Even though new information technologies have become common the issues of public discourse and propaganda remain fundamentally the same. Propaganda through Twitter and Video Games has the same motivation as in the past, but presented using current and emerging technology.