Understanding Propaganda

Propaganda occurs when ideas and information are presented to either further or damage a cause. (Webster’s New Explorer Dictionary) There are two types of propaganda, revealed and concealed. Revealed propaganda is easily recognized as an attempt to get people to change their actions and/or way of thinking. Concealed propaganda is used in an attempt to change our actions or ideas without us being aware of it. Propaganda is something we all need to be able to identify and on the look-out for because it “influences what we buy, what we believe, how we behave and how we make important decisions.”1

Types of Propaganda:

The seven main types of propaganda are listed below along with a brief description.

1. Testimonials: People tell you they use a certain product, support a certain group, or believe in a certain way in an attempt to get you to do the same.

2. Get on the Bandwagon: This type of message centers on making you believe that “everybody is doing it” so you should too.

3. Name Calling: This is used as an attempt to place labels on a generalized group of people.

4. Glittering Generalities: This is the use of phrases that sound good but have no real meaning behind them.

5. Plain Folks Appeal: This type of propaganda is focused toward the common person. Its goal is to build trust by making you believe they think as you do.

6. Card Stacking: This occurs when big, attractive symbols or pictures are used to show favoritism and small, ugly pictures represent things that are not believed to be good or right.

7. Loaded Language: This is the use of language that may seem neutral but actually is creating feelings of either support or non-support.

Group Activity:

Look at the following list and decide as a group which type of propaganda is represented:

1. A candidate is telling you to vote for him/her because they are one of the common people.

2. All students are lazy and unwilling to learn.

3. While running a story on an upcoming election, a newspaper places big pictures of their favorite candidate while only featuring small pictures of the other candidates.

4. A certain actress says she uses a specific type of make-up so you should use it too.

5. If you support a certain political group you might call them a “public interest advocacy group.” If you do not support them you make refer to them as “lobbyists.”

6. You are told to join in an activity because everyone else is going and you don’t want to be left out.

7. A politician chants “A vote for me is a vote for peace” without giving any information to support this claim.

Understanding Perspective

Propaganda is a part of our society and can be seen everywhere. Our job is to be able to identify propaganda when we see/hear it and derive truth out of what is being presented to us. In the previous section entitled “Understanding Propaganda” you began to understand and identify different types of propaganda. Now you will learn how to take information presented to you and find the truth within it.

In order to find truth you must be able to put yourself in the place of those who present the information. You must “walk a mile in their shoes.” Only by taking on the role of the person or group can you fully understand what is being presented to you. This is called understanding their perspective.

Guidelines for Understanding Perspective:

As you research your topic use the following steps to understand perspective:

1. For every source you use, you must make a point of identifying who is presenting the information and attempting to “believe” everything about their position.

2. Ask questions about the position to develop a deeper understanding of the issue.

3. Write a summary of the information on behalf of those presenting the information. When you are finished, go back and underline those things that you agree with.

After you have completed your research think about the following questions:

• What did you learn that you did not know or were not aware of before?

• What new things did you learn that helped you break through stereotypes or exaggerated assumptions?

• Did the way the article presented the information (either good or bad) influence your belief of the position?

• Were there values or concerns presented that were common to both sides?

The goal of this activity was to help you approach new beliefs and ideas with an open mind. This will allow you to completely understand other’s perspective before deciding what positions and opinions are different and similar to your own.

Identifying Propaganda and Perspective within the World Wide Web

Now that are familiar in identifying propaganda and perspective, you are ready to start using your skills to make sense of and draw your own conclusions from the world around you. For your Middle East project, and others similar in nature, you will be exploring sites on the web. Due to its nature, the web is loaded with all types of information written by various individuals with differing beliefs and ideas. Because of this you must become efficient in searching for and sifting through information on the internet. Click on the following link to open a checklist you can use when evaluating a website. This checklist should be completed for each site you explore for this project. You will be asked to turn in these checklists with your final project.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/pdf/evalhigh.pdf

1Information from this page adapted from: http://www.esrnational.org/believinggame.htm