Prop Analysis Handout F 08

Zobel

Fall 08

WP #2

Working Portfolio #2: Propaganda Analysis All work in Working Portfolio #2 is group work except for the ICWs and the Group Work Letters. Still, each individual must turn those in for all group members to earn credit. One important point of WP #2 is the emphasis on collaboration, collective work, accountability, and shared responsibility. Similarly important is the ability, skill, and art to effectively and efficiently select collaborators with whom you can best work. There is NO WAY you can get around, avoid, or ignore the group aspect of WP #2. Doing so will earn you a zero. Propaganda Analysis: Background and the Basic Process The propaganda analysis is the first part of Working Portfolio #2. The purpose of this project is to test out some of the theories proposed in your readings. One pieced discusses the use of fear; another piece focuses on how politicians win by emphasizing being likable people instead of skilled, honest, or capable leaders; the third piece, by Flesch, presents and discusses a number of methods used to fool and bamboozle people. The first handout you have focuses on propaganda in general. Most people think of propaganda as something that “bad people” do during times of war and strife. Multiple searches for definitions reveal that propaganda is, at its heart, the use of messages, images, words, and/or ideas to influence people so that one person, group, or cause may benefit. As you work through this assignment, keep that definition as your center. Thus, when you get worksheet #1, the Propaganda Analysis Sheet, you and your group will need to select a piece of propaganda and analyze it. This should IS NOT just ANY piece of propaganda, it needs to be something centered in the realms of health, wellness, and physical culture. Infomercials, videos, advertisements, testimonials, stop smoking campaigns, alcohol industrysponsored designated driver ads, vegan/vegetarian pamphlets, etc. are all viable. Step 1: Form a group Step 2: Review the assignment & the Propaganda Analysis Sheet Step 3: Locate an item—video, flyer, website, ad, etc.—to analyze Step 4: Write up the analysis sheet as a group Step 5: Convert the written up handout/sheet into a 500 word SFD propaganda analysis Your Goal: The Paper: Persuasive Propaganda Your paper—the final draft which must be at least 1,000 words—must make a convincing and persuasive argument that the object or piece of media you have selected is a piece of propaganda because it uses messages, images, words, and/or ideas to influence people so that one person, group, or cause may benefit. Simply asserting that this is so does NOT make a good paper. You must present sustained analysis and a convincing argument. This is where handout #2 comes in. Once your group has written your SFD, we will work in class with handout #2 to make sure that you have a full skeleton for a persuasive paper and that you are on target. The goal of this exercise is to make sure that you are not missing any of the critical elements for a persuasive paper.

Zobel

Fall 08

WP #2

Handout #3 is centered on helping you develop key thinking, working, and writing skills and habit. Additionally, it is designed to make sure that you develop sustained analysis throughout your paper. As sustained analysis is one of the most important things instructors look for when scoring the portfolio, you want to build these skills for personal and grade-based reasons. There will also be a peer feedback handout for this paper, and it should be conducted by one group on another group’s revised draft. Again, the point is to share responsibility and communication within a group and between different groups. Yes, this may be awkward or uncomfortable, but that is one of the ways which helps people learn most deeply, quickly, and efficiently. Where do you use the Flesch, fear, and credibility segments? Yes, you have read those three brief required readings. Each of them sets forth different criteria and different methods by which one group of people work to manipulate another group of people. Often that is based upon being likable or using fear. Flesch elaborates on some other strategies as well. As a budding intellectual, it is your task to apply some of the ideas and suggestions made in these readings and apply them in your own work. It is not enough to suggest or mention the author—it is important that you mention them, their idea—and present a short, mini-summary and then indicate how that idea supports your interpretation and your idea.

Remember: Your topic must remain centered in the issues of Health, Wellness, and Physical Cultures. Some Notes on Thinking, Education, Perspective, Intellectualism, and Closed Minds Whether or not you agree that advertising, marketing, and wellness campaigns are or are not propaganda, it is important that you become used to analyzing and examining familiar messages in the media from a variety of perspectives. This does not require your agreement with the perspective, nor does it assert that one perspective is right and all others are wrong. Instead, this process of examination is intended to awaken an understanding that there are a multiplicity of views and that many of these views all use the same basic pieces of support and evidence; they differ in their interpretation of what those pieces of evidence mean, how valid that evidence is, and how the different pieces of evidence are interrelated. It is an easy and a lazy intellectual move to simply dismiss other perspectives or ideas because they are not what you have always known. That requires no thought, perspective, or effort. The sad part is that it is easy, comfortable, and what many people think of as a critical thinking. It is not critical thinking—it is avoiding the fact that other people do not think like you do. Again, the purpose of these processes is not to make you think like Z, V, or the Borg. The goal is for you to be aware of some other potential perspectives, understand how a person could or does arrive at that understanding perspective, and then have the necessary skills to be able to engage with them in an intelligent and meaningful conversation. It is impossible to communicate with anyone if the only image you look at and think about is your own.

Zobel

Fall 08

WP #2