The book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins can be considered an analogy to the world-infamous genocide - the Holocaust. Hunger Games contains many symbols that correlate with real-life events of the Holocaust.
The TV's symbolize propaganda because they are the most often used tool used to broadcast Capitol-supporting messages. It is widely known that Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party, used propaganda to achieve tremendous power. I say tremendous because only a person with tremendous power can cause the wipe-out of 11 million lives by manipulation. "Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." Adolf Hitler wrote these words in his book Mein Kampf. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. The Ministry's goal was to ensure that the Nazi ideals were successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press. The propaganda targeted several audiences. Germans were reminded of the struggle against foreign enemies and Jewish subversion. Propaganda also encouraged passivity and acceptance of the extreme measures against Jews, as these appeared to depict the Nazi government as stepping in and “restoring order.” In the Hunger Games, similar tactics were used by President Corialanus Snow and the Capitol staff to control the thought process of the districts' residents. No matter how poor people were in the districts, the government of Panem made sure every household had a TV, and that several were hung for public view in the centers of towns. The importance of having a TV was that it was the Capitol's key to control over the people's minds. As it states in the book, "... when they're airing the Games or some important government message on television it is mandatory to watch." The most popular reporter that appears on the Panem TV doing regular news is Caesar Flickerman. One important series of TV broadcasts are the Hunger Games' interviews with the tributes. No matter what you feel, as Katniss had been coached, you have to say things that will make the crowd love you and want to sponsor you. Sponsors are the people who send you helpful items in the arena. Another reporter that is correlated with the Hunger Games is the legendary commentator Claudius Templesmith who does reports to the 24 - hour footage of the arena being broadcast day and night on the TVs of the Panem. Katniss along with her experiences in the Hunger Games mentions which scenes might be shown on the TV broadcast, and which the Capitol will want to keep secret - like the knowledge of different districts' industry/life style that Rue told Katniss about. Whether it's during the Holocaust, or whether it is in the Hunger Games in a fictional country of Panem, propaganda is the tool used to control people's lives. Adolf Hitler used literature, media, and education to get Nazi ideals stamped into the people's minds. The Capitol (government of Panem) used mandatory-to-watch TV reports to control the people's minds.
Another significant part of the book Hunger Games are the 12 Districts. The country of Panem consists of the 12 Districts, and the Capitol which is kind of the capital of the country of Panem. Along with the government rulers (President Corialanus Snow and his advisors) live the "chosen" people. All of the Capitol have access to luxurious residences, mouth-watering delicacies, and high-tech medicine/surgery. All of this while the 12 Districts are toiling to provide all of the luxury for them while the Districts themselves starve in unsanitory conditions. The Districts are very like the concentration and labor camps Hitler herded Jews and other "undesirables" into during the Holocaust. I say "herded" because this is the word used in terms of animals, and since the Nazis thought of the undesirables as not human, this is the correct word to use to describe the Nazis' actions. While Hitler filtrated the country from more and more Jews, some were sent to death camps marked for death in the self dug graves or in the gas chambers, while others miserably toiled in the labor camps, getting the bare minimum conditions for survival. Many, of course, died, due to the fact that the minimum is never enough. In the dystopian society Panem, Katniss admits that "Starvation is not an uncommon fate ... Who hasn't seen the victims? Older people who cant work. Children from a family with too many to feed. Those injured in the mines. Those straggling through the streets." That's why I believe the Districts of Panem (in this Hunger Games/Holocaust analogy) would represent the Nazi concentration, labor, and death camps.
Although this comparison is far-fetched, I believe the mockingjay symbolizes resistance, not rebellion. As it says in the book, the scientists in the Capitol breeded an engineeringly enhanced species of birds called jabber jays. The talent of jabber jays was that whatever words they heard they were able to memorize and repeat, if the memory was properly triggered by a Capitol official. The jabber jays had one purpose in the eyes of the Capitol: to spy on the people in the districts and report back to the Capitol with what they've heard. However, soon people figured out where the spying came from and started feeding lies to the Capitol which turned the whole idea into a big joke. So, the Capitol had to abandon those birds for destruction in nature (since the birds didn't have any nature survival skills). However, the jabber jays (which were all male) mated with female mockingbirds creating a new race - mockingjays. This was like a spit in the face for the Capitol - they think of everything as their possession and could never even suppose that their "possessions" have a mind of their own and are able to make their own choices to survive. During the Holocaust, many people fought back the Nazis in lots of different ways. People resisted within Germany by hiding Jews in their homes and transmitting anti-Nazi messages in literature (brochures, illegal books, etc). People resisted in other occupied countries like Denmark by secretly transporting Jews to Sweden, a neutral country. They also provided relief through hospitals and soup kitchens. This shows that all those non-Jewish, non-targeted people wanted to prove that they can think for themselves, and no one can control their actions. Also, after Katniss won the 74th annual Hunger Games with Peeta by tricking the Capitol, her good luck symbol (that Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter from District 12 gave her on the day of the reaping) turned into a symbol of defiance, resistance, but not necessarily rebellion which caused a chain reaction of uprisings in the districts. That is why I believe the mockingjay symbolizes resistance.