Day 5: Propaganda, Persuasion, and Poetics

Links from Theresa Dawson's lecture:
Propaganda Powerpoint Presentation

Manufacturing Consent – entire film available

Levi’s Go Forth Ad

Notes on lecture and discussion:

Academic disagreement on defining propaganda

1973 Jacques Ellul Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

• Focused on propaganda as a sociological phenomenon: 
• "Propaganda is a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulations and incorporated into an organization."

Taithe and Thornton 2001 - propaganda political rhetoric and identity. See it as a form of political language

Jowett and O'Donnell 2011 "propaganda and persuasion" (fifth edition)

• "deliberate systematic attempt to shape perceptions.... To achieve a response..." 
• The Jowett/O'Donnell purpose model of propaganda (chart) 
• German WWII wartime propaganda: shows a child, innocence, a fruitful future. Makes fun of American ideals, shows the hypocrisy
• USA WWII wartime propaganda: keep the American ideal alive, "FAMILY," "BUY VICTORY BONDS" - shows a woman and her child being touched by two black hands with claws. One has the Japanese symbol on it, the other has the Nazi symbol on it.
• Use of propagandist methods to tell us about propaganda

Fahrenheit 9/11
What techniques are being used to persuade us?

• Shows the Bush administration looking like idiots, makes us already dislike them. Shows Iraqi citizens living their lives, doing mundane things as "victims."
• Juxtaposes words with other imagery and takes the words out of context
• Wars used to be very public - this imagery is chosen and edited it might be going for an opinion, but it's so easy to manipulate the audience

Noam Chomsky 1988: Manufacturing Consent

• Described a propagandist model of media driven by corporate interests
• "The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments: growth of democracy, growth of corporate power, and growth of corporate propaganda"

Chomsky's propaganda model, the five filters:

• size, ownership, and profit orientation
• the advertising license to do business
• sourcing mass media news
• flak and the enforcers
• anti communism/ the war on terror

Manufacturing Consent

• The corporatization of everything
• Media picks and chooses and they all share with each other
• Idea of choice -  for example, we tune into Fox News or we turn to MSNBC because we want to hear that style of news. We choose what we want to hear.

Model of the Process of Propaganda
Social-Historical Context - complicated example because of all of the media that we have

Levi's Go Forth

• Complex role of labor 
• How does being creative compensate?
• Idea that jeans can be the "mediator." "Be what you want."

Theatre of War

• First time the public theatre had ever allowed someone to film their rehearsals
• Implores viewer to understand the awful dilemma of Meryl Streep's character

Day 4: Films in the Post-Mass Media Era

Notes on Yolanda Pividal's lecture:

Films in the Post-Mass Media Era


May 15th "indignados" Spain – Background 

• Spain has the biggest unemployment rate in Europe– 24% unemployment rate by early 2011, up to 48% among population under 25 years old.

• Government approves first budget cuts in education and public health system.

• The “Bologna Plan”  is approved – This is an educational plan seen for many as an attempt to dismantle the public education system.

• The government prepares for the approval of the “Sinde Law” - A law that gives  government the power to close any website with the “potential” to violate copyrights  - In response to this, an important digital community against the law is born.

• The digital community “Real Democracy Now” organizes a big demonstration for May 15 – Snow ball effect through SOCIAL media (mainstream media don’t even mention it)

The government didn’t expect the huge response – all the information was flowing through social media.

The “Public’s Revolt”
A demonstrator holds a sign: "nobody expects the #spanishrevolution" - (From Mony Phyton’s sketch) with the mask from comic book and film “V for Vendetta.” Film: V for Vendetta


Other themes examined:

From micro-stories on twitter to participatory macro-films

• "Post-mass media era"

From passive consumers to active producers:

• The era of "bio operators"

New emancipatory social practices

• from a centered "contra-information" to a "rhizomatic paradigm"
• from "against the mainstream media" to "beyond the mainstream media"

Three videos of the protests in Spain:

• European news. Not emotional, more critical. An outside look at an event
• Independent news. It shows the hurt in people, shows the brutality of the police
• Music video from attendees of the event. Created by ANYONE, that's the point. Very creative, personal, strong.

From "representation" to "expression"

• Access to technology
• Political representation "erosion"- people redefine the concept of "representation" in the cultural field.

From the "universal" to "the commons"
Fom "everyone" to "anyone" (from mass to crowd)

Collaborative, participatory & interactive films

Two different types of collaboration:

Documentary on 15-M (Spanish May-15 movement) made by alternative online media.
15Mcc teaser- shows a collaborative company

Life in a Day trailer- "filmed by you"

Interactive Documentaries
Bear 71 interactive film

• Interaction: the viewer's status changes from passive viewer to active user-interactor-particpant-contributor
• Non-linear narrative- author lost control
• Rules/mechanism based
• Transmedia/ multiplatform
• Hybridation of language and formats

Prison Valley interactive film

Comments:
Some say both of them are too scattered, too much distraction
How do you think younger generations would respond to this type of interactive media?
Is it too distracted? Or is it exactly where we are headed?
Quite static
Is this education? Or propaganda?

Beyond activism film as mirror
Activism -action without reflection
Beyond activism-emphasizes reflection
Community self-documentation
Community storytelling



Additional resources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ds7b3pboW4&feature=related
Link to National Film Board of Canada. A site to xplore some interactive documentaries:
http://www.nfb.ca/
Other interesting link to Henry Jenkins’ blog:
http://www.henryjenkins.org/