Please read the sociology article on Hannah Arendt.
In pairs discuss the key ideas in the article. Refer to the handout/conversation by Kellyanne Conway regarding "alternative facts" as support for Arendt's theories.
All advertising (commercials, product placement, billboards, etc.) is propaganda to a certain extent. Ads are meant for the viewer to BUY something. This can be a material object (a physical product or item) or an idea. The media is constantly bombarding us with products (physical or ideological) to sell us. Being aware of how you are "sold" a product is an important critical skill to have in our day and age.
Propaganda is the idea or statement (often false--perhaps 'alternative facts'--or exaggerated/hyperbole...) that are spread culturally in order to help a cause, a political leader or party, a government, or any established institution.
In the LAB: Please complete the following group/solo activities:
TASK #1: With your partner, please examine the posters below and discuss what you see. How is the artist/writer persuading you, what's the message, how is the subject treated or represented? Please note: some of these images are disturbing or promote politically incorrect material.Discuss with your partner your reaction and interpretation of the ad. Note the dominant and subdominant images/text.
TASK #2: Alone or sharing earphones with your partner, take a look at these cartoon and videos. After viewing, discuss: What is the idea or statement being spread? How might the message help a specific cause? What biases are inherent in the message?:
In pairs discuss the key ideas in the article. Refer to the handout/conversation by Kellyanne Conway regarding "alternative facts" as support for Arendt's theories.
All advertising (commercials, product placement, billboards, etc.) is propaganda to a certain extent. Ads are meant for the viewer to BUY something. This can be a material object (a physical product or item) or an idea. The media is constantly bombarding us with products (physical or ideological) to sell us. Being aware of how you are "sold" a product is an important critical skill to have in our day and age.
Propaganda is the idea or statement (often false--perhaps 'alternative facts'--or exaggerated/hyperbole...) that are spread culturally in order to help a cause, a political leader or party, a government, or any established institution.
In the LAB: Please complete the following group/solo activities:
TASK #1: With your partner, please examine the posters below and discuss what you see. How is the artist/writer persuading you, what's the message, how is the subject treated or represented? Please note: some of these images are disturbing or promote politically incorrect material.Discuss with your partner your reaction and interpretation of the ad. Note the dominant and subdominant images/text.
TASK #2: Alone or sharing earphones with your partner, take a look at these cartoon and videos. After viewing, discuss: What is the idea or statement being spread? How might the message help a specific cause? What biases are inherent in the message?:
- Education for Death (1943) Walt Disney
- Make Mine Freedom (1948)
- Duck and Cover (1951)
- Elbow Room (1976)
- The Great American Melting Pot (1977)
Post a comment in the COMMENT section below about what you think regarding propaganda from viewing these materials. What sorts of propaganda do you notice (or have you noticed) in our school or in your own lives? What is the message "we" want to sell you?
TASK #3: Now that you've completed tasks #1 & #2, it's your turn. Alone or with your partner, brainstorm an idea for your own graphic "flier" or "poster" advertising or using propaganda to appeal to a viewing audience. If these come out good, we'll hang them around the school.
How to do this:
Then: Create and design!
HOMEWORK: None.
How to do this:
- identify a current, modern-day issue that you feel passionate about
- What images come to your mind when you think of this issue? (jot these down as notes)
- What words or phrases do you think of? Write these down too.
- Can you connect a song, poem, person, celebrity, symbol, or popular culture item to the issue?
- What colors, shapes, lines, graphic elements might be connected to this issue?
- Decide what will be your poster/ad/flier's dominant and subdominant images?
HOMEWORK: None.
The propaganda in these materials can be, at times, disturbing. Most of them are getting at a big message (like Fascism, anti-Fascism, Communism, anti-Communism and being nice to animals) that they feels needs to be spread. It does seem effective, however, as they attempt to refute any opposing points before said points are made.
ReplyDeletePropaganda in the school includes attempting to convince us that the school cares about us as individuals (they don't), that they believe our opinion matters (try acting on that and see how far you get) and other hokey lies regarding self-esteem. There's also pro-LGBT and anti-bullying posters all around. Yet you try to put up one damn "Missing Harambe" poster...
And Justice ^^^^^
DeleteYeah, there is justice for some in the modern society.
DeleteSome of the propaganda I notice around school is posters for clubs, sports, tests, and colleges. I always see flags of colleges people have gone to and in the basement there is a sticker of a college name with the word go to written before the name. In my everyday life I see things like clothing brands being advertised and it's usually like Abercrombie and they usually use half dressed men to advertise it. The T.V. commercials are usually for new T.V. shows coming out or new movies or a T.V. show that's coming back with a new season.
ReplyDeletePropaganda exists in even the most simplest of things and although something may not look like an ad, it may be what its intended to be. Most propaganda you see today is media in general. Specifically in the news. For example, certain newscasters exclude details and other important trinkets so that we can hear what they want us to hear and to blind the people from seeing the situation for what it is. That's what they're trying to 'sell'.
ReplyDelete-Faduma and Fadumo
I have seen propaganda in many places that I have gone too, including SOTA. Most of the videos contained propaganda about nationalities. Like in school, in Spanish class, I see a bunch of different flags of different Spanish countries and pictures of their foods, which appeals to the eyes of people to want to learn that language and visit the different Spanish countries. In school, there are also posters of the rules and the importance that education has, and the importance of students. This is so that students are motivated to come to school to learn, and so that they can have a good communication with the adults in the building.Most of the propaganda wants to persuade humans into following what the creator of it wants the people to do. It is to appeal the eyes of the people, so that they are not left out and have something to follow, so that the creators ideas become more powerful.
ReplyDeleteI think in The Great American Melting Pot the propaganda used is to persuade all types of people into coming to america. The propaganda I notice in school are all types of posters and sign up sheets that persuade you into joining a sport or club and there are also big bulletin boards that have information about something in particular. The message the teachers and other people in the school want to sell us is to encourage us, the students, to join sports and after school activities. (Me and Andrea worked on this together.)
ReplyDeleteI think propaganda is just about everywhere. There's even times where you wont notice all the propaganda around you. The most propaganda that's seen around is the one that's in the media.In the commercials, they want to make their commercials look good. The propaganda that's shown around the school is all the LGBT posters, and those posters trying to convince us that they care about us.Propaganda tries to make things seem like a good thing.
ReplyDeleteand sometimes it's not true and the creators don't follow them.
ReplyDeletePropaganda exists almost everywhere, most of the time though consumers don't realize that it's propaganda. The videos and posters were a bit morbid. The propaganda that is shown around the school, is that all teachers believe in students and respect them. And I don't think this is all that true. In my opinion that doesn't seem true at all, but that's the purpose of propaganda to convince the consumer.
ReplyDeleteFrom viewing the propaganda videos, I've noticed that they have used the younger generation. This way as they grow up they know of nothing other and would have no complaints. The children that grow up learn only one thing so that the children would be able to influence the generations to come, carrying only one idea along with them. Which they will eventually teach their own children with what they think is right because as a young child that's what they learned.
ReplyDelete