Smith-Mundt Act

When thinking about how many different cites there are where people get information, it is amazing to see how much they can learn from theses cites. There are news cites, social media apps, and even television channels that give information to millions of people everyday. The reason this is important is because people need to be aware if all the information is true. The world we live in passes along a lot of disinformation and propaganda that can affect the way we learn new information. 

The way the American Government tried to stop propaganda about America in other countries was with the Smith-Mundt Act, also called the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948. The main purpose of this act was "the creation of an information service to disseminate abroad information about the United States, its people, and policies." This means that America was going to spread information about itself to other countries to get rid of the propaganda about the country. This act was created in 1948 and was first introduced by congressman Karl Mundt in 1945. 

This may not have been the case. An article from NBC News talks about how The Smith Mundt act was being challenged because it was just spreading propaganda. There were many programs being funded by the United States based on the Smith Mundt Act. There are two sides to these programs. Some people were angry that taxes were going to these programs and believed it was propaganda while others believed they held good and accurate news. 

The Smith Mundt act has changed over the years a couple times. The latest change that has the most effect on the people today is called the Smith Mundt Modernization Act of 2013. This change to the act allowed the people of the United States to hear and be apart of the programs and broadcasts that they were not allowed to be apart of before. Many people did not like this because they said it was allowing propaganda into the United States and did not want to be apart of it. While others liked to see what these programs had to say so they could make their own opinions about the programs. This was seen up above when I talking about how people had two different reactions to this act.  Every time they change the act, there are always going to be people who like it and there are going to be people who do not like it. 

When looking at all the information it is hard to see if the Smith Mundt Act is actually doing what it was meant to be used for. When looking at the definition of the act it was stated that it was in place "to promote the better understanding of the United States among the people of the world and to strengthen cooperative international relations." seeing this definition it is easy to look back up and see how the United States has been mistreating this act. The reason is because it was meant to help people better understand the United States but instead it was used for propaganda and to mislead people.