Fighting Misinformation with Awareness and Analysis

The Propaganda Inquiry

About

My name is Brian Levy, and I am a 15-year-old living in New York City with a deep interest in history, politics, and media.

I created this site because the Middle East has been going through an extremely unstable period, and with that instability has come an immense amount of propaganda spreading across social media and more traditional forms of media, such as news outlets. Misinformation has become one of the most powerful tools in shaping how people understand events and which side they take, and I wanted to do something to help others recognize it. By studying both past and present propaganda, my goal is to identify the common themes and strategies employed to influence public opinion. Propaganda is not new; it has always been a weapon, and by looking at how it has been used before, we can better understand how it works today.

My goal is to make this knowledge easily accessible so that readers can critically analyze what they see and avoid being misled. Learning to spot propaganda is one of the most important skills that there are today, especially when so much information is consumed online. Through this blog, I want to provide resources, analysis, and examples that demonstrate how narratives are constructed and spread. I hope this project educates and empowers others to think more critically about the media they consume. This is not just about history or politics;, it’s about helping people protect themselves from manipulation, and see the bigger picture more clearly.

Mission Statement

The goal of this organization is to identify recurring propaganda techniques and encourage critical thinking and media literacy. In an era in which social media influencers often gain more trust than verified experts, I felt it was crucial to educate the public, especially young adults, who are often online for hours a day and exposed to a constant feed of information without learning how to question it.

I’ve seen how easily friends or classmates of mine believe and share misleading posts without checking the source. This kind of education is key to creating a society that can think for itself and resist manipulation.

In order to achieve this goal, I hope to explore the trends of propaganda over time primarily in the 20th and 21st centuries. This includes analyzing how propaganda appeared in wartime posters, radio broadcasts, political ads, and now, in the vast amount of content from influencers. Artificial intelligence will play a pivotal role in this by analyzing large volumes of data with precision beyond human capability. More specifically, the features it will be looking for will include: visual elements, certain phrases, or even minute details such as the music in the background.

Along with the raw analysis of AI, I will interview experts in propaganda to contextualize my findings and provide deeper insight into why certain techniques are effective.

Ultimately, this website will serve as an educational blog, helping users recognize historical patterns in propaganda and apply that understanding to navigate today’s convoluted media landscape and think more critically about what information they choose to believe and spread.