March 9, 2014: Iranian propaganda officials have become heavy users of PhotoShop (to edit photos) and machinima. The widely used PhotoShop software can quickly change a photo. This use of PhotoShop is widely known but easily uncovered as a fake by anyone with some experience dealing with computer graphics. Machinima is more of a cult thing and uses video games that allow scenario creation. Actual machinimas are short movies, featuring a playback of a scenario, with the creators using spoken dialog for the game characters (whose actions are controlled by the scenario creator.) All the Iranians do is use video game editors (which many video games have as a component) to create a situation where American (or Israeli) warships, troops, aircraft or cities are shown being attacked by Iranian weapons and blown up. Looks great on TV and this sort of thing is popular with many Iranians.

Iranian TV is showing a lot more of this stuff lately, in an effort to counteract all the talk (on the state-controlled media) of the possibility of Israeli or American air strikes on Iran. There’s no shortage of young Iranians who know their way around video games and machinima and if you’re one of these guys and looking for a job, the propaganda ministry is always hiring.