Webster's dictionary defines the term propaganda as "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular cause or political point of view." Typically, when a person thinks of propaganda, visions of war posters and short videos come to mind stemming from where they were heavily used by the United States during the Cold War era. Techniques such as "constructing a false mental image", "creating a dilemma" and "instilling anger or fear through the misuse of information" are put together to sell the viewer a filtered, convincing and entirely one-sided story in the hope of creating a call to arms. However, what doesn't normally come to mind is something like Gabriela Cowperthwaite's Blackfish (2013); an expository documentary that included distorted facts, false experts, manipulative images, and a heavy reliance on the viewer's emotional response to present SeaWorld as a morally corrupt institution that would drive an orca to the point of insanity as to kill one of their trainers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay While it's still possible that SeaWorld may not have been completely guilt-free in the events that may have led to Dawn Brancheau's death, Blackfish is hardly a revelation in that regard. The documentary pairs audio of 911 calls from Brancheau's death with footage that has nothing to do with the event that took place. Not only that, but in the 911 call, the caller reveals that Tilikum still has Brancheau's arm and ate it, when in reality that never happened. They try to make the sheriff look like he was working with SeaWorld to cover up what happened with Tilikum, when it turns out that the sheriff's footage reporting the scene simply didn't contain the full story. The testimonies of former SeaWorld instructors are taken and made out to be eyewitness accounts, but SeaWorld claims that none of the instructors in the documentary were actually at the park that day and had no real responsibility in the matter. The biggest manipulation is that the documentary shows a lot of footage with trainers in the water with the orcas talking about Tilikum, but SeaWorld also said that no trainer has ever been allowed to be in the water with Tilikum at any time since he arrived at SeaWorld after being taken away from Sea Land, where he allegedly killed another girl. We were led to believe that Tilikum was solely responsible for the girl's death due to two eyewitness accounts, but the viewer was never presented with anything official: more emotional manipulation. The documentary continually relies on the viewer to think that SeaWorld holds the coach responsible for his own death due to the repercussions of not following safety standards, but SeaWorld felt that it was simply a very unfortunate accident. The documentary also suggests, through the voices of former trainers, that none of the staff are sufficiently trained to work with orcas. SeaWorld disputes such claims and reveals that each trainer is trained for years to work with animals and has numerous standards and safety standards that must be met to continue working with animals. Heartstrings are also pulled in an attempt to create outrage against SeaWorld when we are led to believe that the facility voluntarily separates mothers from calves for no reason whatsoever.