Leading authority on media literacy education shows secondary teachers how to incorporate media literacy into the curriculum, teach 21st-century skills, and select meaningful texts.
Published in association with the Society for Theatre Research, this is a comparative study of regional theatre in Britain and Germany during the key period of 1918 to 1945.
Most current research on the evolution of China’s propaganda discourse only touches upon recent variations of official propaganda rhetoric grounded in popular media. Here, the research is extended by tapping into the most recently released popular cultural media narratives such as online documentaries, films, TV drama serials and education programs, all of which are enlisted and co-opted by the state for propaganda goals. This book maps out the cutting-edge expansions of official propaganda that are embedded in the entertainment industry of contemporary China. Its case studies bring to light the progression of the mainstream propaganda discourse in terms of its merging, cooperation and compromise with the commercial features of both the traditional and newly-emerging entertainment media. In particular, it examines a group of mass entertainment products which include two best-selling mainstream blockbusters, two on-line commercial web documentaries, the China Central Television Moon Festival Gala series, socialist revolutionary TV drama serials, and a prime time science and education program. In so doing, it forefronts the up-to-date developments and novelties of state propaganda: its motives, reasoning and approaches within the mediasphere of today’s China. Illustrating how the CCP propaganda apparatus and tactics evolve and become embedded in popular media products, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese studies, Media Studies and Popular Cultural Studies.
Winner of the AAP 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences. Propaganda is inescapable. It’s everywhere. Students need to analyze, resist, critique—and create. Media literacy educators have always insisted that we are both creators and receivers of media messages. The truth of this is even more apparent in today’s digital environment, with children and adults alike participating in a ubiquitous, nonstop stream of social media. Clearly, students need the tools to interpret news and information critically—not just for school but for life in a “post-truth” world, where the lines blur between entertainment, information, and persuasion. Renee Hobbs demonstrates how a global perspective on contemporary propaganda enables educators to stimulate both the intellectual curiosity and the cultural sensitivities of students. Replete with classroom and online learning activities and samples of student work, Mind Over Media provides a state-of-the-art look at the theory and practice of propaganda in contemporary society, and shows how to build learners’ critical thinking and communication skills on topics including computational propaganda, content marketing, fake news, and disinformation.
Films and television shows aren’t just entertainment. They are powerful vehicles that influence social and political trends, ultimately shaping the very fabric of our culture. Because of this potential, there are various agencies which work behind the scenes in Hollywood to harness these forces for their own aims or those of their clients. Few people outside the industry are aware that such agencies exist and are hired by advocacy groups to lobby studios, writers, and producers in order to get their ideas inserted into plots of popular works. These Hollywood lobbyists have been instrumental in successfully paving the path for same-sex marriage to become legal, destigmatizing abortion, encouraging mass immigration, and sounding the alarm about climate change; all under the cloak of mere “entertainment.” More recently we’ve seen these same powers levied against President Trump, his supporters, and used to demonize “white privilege” as an invisible enemy that’s supposedly around every corner. Even sports and late-night comedy shows are employed for political causes, violating the once unwritten cardinal rules of their industries. In this groundbreaking work, media analyst Mark Dice details the true power of entertainment and proves how it is being used to wage a psychological war against the world.
Defining propaganda as "efforts by special interests to win over the public covertly by infiltrating messages into various channels of public expression ordinarily viewed as politically neutral," this book argues that propaganda has become pervasive in American life. Pointing out that the 1990s society is inundated with propaganda from numerous sources (including government, business, researchers, religious groups, the news media, educators, and the entertainment industry) the book exposes these channels of propaganda and the cumulative effect they have on public opinion and the functioning of American democracy. Chapter 1 reviews materials on diverse vantage points from which American writers and opinion leaders have tried to reconcile mass persuasion with the democratic way of life during the 20th century. Chapters 2-6 examine propaganda in: (1) government (e.g., Federal Bureau of Investigation, aid to the Contras, Star Wars, presidential styles); (2) research and religion (e.g., national security, private sector, religion and politics); (3) news (e.g., getting good coverage, pressure groups, and business); (4) classroom (e.g., business propaganda, pressure groups, textbooks, pressures on teachers); and (5) entertainment (e.g., film, television). Chapters 7 and 8 question: (1) what action a democratic people should take to safeguard intelligent discussion and free choice from the taint of devious communication; (2) to what extent propaganda casts a shadow over public life; and (3) whether large-scale, engineered persuasion can ever be squared with the ideal of democratic public deliberation. Extensive chapter notes and an index are included. (NKA)
While the individual elements of the propaganda system (or filters) identified by the Propaganda Model (PM) – ownership, advertising, sources, flak and anti-communism – have previously been the focus of much scholarly attention, their systematisation in a model, empirical corroboration and historicisation have made the PM a useful tool for media analysis across cultural and geographical boundaries. Despite the wealth of scholarly research Herman and Chomsky’s work has set into motion over the past decades, the PM has been subjected to marginalisation, poorly informed critiques and misrepresentations. Interestingly, while the PM enables researchers to form discerning predictions as regards corporate media performance, Herman and Chomsky had further predicted that the PM itself would meet with such marginalisation and contempt. In current theoretical and empirical studies of mass media performance, uses of the PM continue, nonetheless, to yield important insights into the workings of political and economic power in society, due in large measure to the model’s considerable explanatory power.
Featuring tools, activities, and insightful stories from a CIA analyst and instructor with 30+ years’ of experience, this practical and engaging book supports busy educators to teach the lifelong skills of news and media literacy to their students. Based on existing curriculum and teaching standards, this guidebook shows how social studies and English language arts (ELA) teachers can build students’ confidence with social media evaluation skills, which are critical to engaging in civic discourse and building a stronger democracy. In Part 1, Whitehurst gives an overview of the media evaluation techniques based on those you would learn as a CIA analyst, including understanding how our biases and mindset make us vulnerable to disinformation, learning how media tries to persuade us, checking facts, and spotting disinformation. Part 2 dives deeper by showing teachers how learners can check if an argument on social media is valid, and how fallacies and manipulation tactics in online arguments can complicate this important skill. It is illustrated by examples from social media and contemporary popular culture in different mediums, including videos, photos, memes, and AI-generated content. You can also find fresh and updated social media examples on the author’s website, News Literacy Sleuth. Packed with practical classroom resources, examples from popular culture, and engaging insights into the CIA analyst role, this book is designed to support middle and high school teachers with news and media literacy in social studies, civic education, and ELA.
Most of the classroom discipline problems are actually created by the teacher. The way a kid can be sure of getting her reinforcing attention is by misbehaving. If you put misbehaving on extinction and provide other avenues to reinforcement, there will be no discipline problems.