Dale note: the point of this page is not to quantifiably declare something "disinformation" or "propaganda", but to present images that may symbolically represent the core values of a population and ask ourselves: if I cannot look objectively at an image, can I name emotions, reactions, values, etc. that come to mind?
Potential Class Lessons
“Thought Recording” for Identifying Automatic Thoughts & Core Values
adapted from: Wright, Jesse H. 2017. "Working with Automatic Thoughts," In Learning Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: An Illustrated Guide. Second edition.. Core Competencies in Psychotherapy. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
outcome: students will learn how their own emotions can affect how they make meaning from a sample of disinformation or propaganda
Use as a full-class, or small-groups discussion
1. View a specific piece of disinformation/propaganda/meme
2. Record automatic thoughts & emotions
3. Move on to CRAAP/RADAR/Information Literacy Assessment
4. Reflect, as a class, on the value of the work, and its potential power
“Role Play” for Identifying Automatic Thoughts & Core Values
adapted from: Wright, Jesse H. 2017. "Working with Automatic Thoughts," In Learning Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: An Illustrated Guide. Second edition.. Core Competencies in Psychotherapy. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
outcome: students will learn a self-analysis technique for recognizing their own reactions and cognition when presented with challenging information
1. pair-up students: one will act as the “thinking adult (prefrontal cortex; rationality) and one will act as the ”emotional child (amygdala; emotion, reaction)
2. when presented with a specific piece of disinformation/propaganda/meme, what does each role think/react?
3. each pair present to class on what their outcomes were (note: can be done as a mind-mapping exercise on whiteboards)
Make Your Own Propaganda!
Small groups present to class and use exercises listed above to discuss.
Dale note: this and all the activities above are for emotionally mature, critically framed & prepared classes only with strict behavior rules set by the students and faculty together beforehand. Images and rhetoric are challenging and students need to feel safe in discussing these challenging but relevant topics.
Fear of running out of time?
“National Emergency” n.d. McNaughton Fine Art. Accessed June 4, 2023. https://jonmcnaughton.com/
Outrage/fear for religious values?
Reuters. 2023. “Fact Check-Target ‘Satanic Clothing’ Collection Is Not Real, It’s AI-Generated,” May 31, 2023, sec. Reuters Fact Check.
Fear of Missing Out?
“50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong: Elvis’ Gold Records, Volume 2.” 2023. In Wikipedia.
Self doubt & shame?
"Advertisement: Sugar Information." 1970.Ladies' Home Journal, 02, 104.
…we define “misinformation” as claims—well-intentioned or not—that are at odds with the best available empirical evidence. …Highly anxious individuals in our study were more open to both accurate information and misinformation…
Freiling, Isabelle, Nicole M Krause, Dietram A Scheufele, and Dominique Brossard. 2023. “Believing and Sharing Misinformation, Fact-Checks, and Accurate Information on Social Media: The Role of Anxiety during COVID-19.” New Media & Society 25 (1): 141–62.
…It is widely taken for granted that fictions, including both literature and film, influence our attitudes toward real people, events, and situations. …It seems that we can be “emotionally persuaded”: our preferences can be changed, our feelings about particular people or events can be influenced, and so forth.
Friend, Stacie. 2010. “Getting Carried Away: Evaluating the Emotional Influence of Fiction Film.” Midwest Studies In Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell) 34 (1): 77–105.
Since the general opinions of large numbers of persons are almost certain to be a vague and confusing medley, action cannot be taken until these opinions have been factored down, canalized, compressed and made uniform. The making of one general will out of multitude of general wishes is not an Heglian mystery, as so many social philosophers have imagined, but an art well known to leaders, politicians and steering committees. It consists essentially in the use of symbols which assemble emotions after they have been detached from their ideas.
Stanley, Jason. 2015. How Propaganda Works. Princeton: University Press.
humans are essentially creatures engaged in meaning making and meaning interpretation, which in turn comes from the cultures of a number of different social worlds at several levels
Berkowitz, Daniel A., and Zhengjia Liu. 2014. “The Social-Cultural Construction of News.” In *The Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory*, 301–13. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Opinions from others who are similar to you are especially valuable… who are you to argue?
Andrews, Marc. 2013. Hidden Persuasion: 33 Psychological Influence Techniques in Advertising. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: BIS Publishers.
By the early 1950s, advertising had started to boom again. In the USA, (a new idea) was called motivation research,... Its thesis was that consumers’ buying behaviour was more often emotional than rational...
Fletcher, Winston. 2010. Advertising: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford: University Press.
