Emotional manipulation Project (Propaganda during the WWI): The Anti-Propaganda World Fair (Cáceres Edition)

FIRST OF ALL, what is the difference between ADVERTISING and PROPAGANDA?

propaganda-vs-advertisementfrom Vi-Ann Javil

Did you know the average teen is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements per day? Without the skills to look critically at all these messages, it’s easy to be persuaded by them without even realising it. Propaganda is media that uses carefully-crafted messages to manipulate people’s actions and beliefs. It has one purpose, and one purpose only: to persuade you. There are a variety of propaganda techniques. They use biased, or one-sided, messages and are designed to appeal to peoples’ emotions instead of their judgement and reasoning.

HAVE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING POSTERS

How about this one?

Your Country Needs You Image: IWM (Art.IWM PST 5970) Warm-Up

In this Project you will be able to recognise emotional manipulation even before naming the concept.

Follow the lesson in the provided worksheet

Activity 1: Take a look at 2–3 striking WWI propaganda posters (for example, “Your Country Needs YOU”, German “Hun” depictions, Red Cross nurse posters).

What do you notice? What do these posters want people to feel or do?

Activity 2. Work in pairs. Define propaganda, using your own words. Ask your teacher to show the meaning of propaganda and write it down in your notebook, next to your own definition.

What is brainwashing? Link this term to the term "propaganda". Write it down in your notebook.

LISTENING AND NOTE TAKING

The project prep in action

Let's now go back to the POSTERS for an analysis (in pairs, please), then present your answer to the class in 1 minute each.

What is the poster asking people to do?
Which emotions does it target (fear, pride, guilt, hope)?
What techniques do you notice (bold colours, symbols, slogans, stereotypes)?

LEARNING SITUATION: The Anti-Propaganda World Fair (Cáceres Edition)

Now that you’ve seen how propaganda manipulates people, your mission is to create propaganda that warns people about propaganda itself.

In pairs or trios of anti-propagandists, design an anti-propaganda propaganda poster. The SLOGAN is essential as you may imagine. Here you have some ideas: “Think Before You Believe”, “Posters Can Lie Too”, “Don’t Be a Puppet”. Try to encourage irony, parody, or subversion of WWI imagery.

As anti-propagandists, you will exhibit your posters and slogans in a World Fair that is taking place in Cáceres! Wow, an amazing event taking place in our city! In order to perform this we will use the Gallery Walk Technique.

Gallery Walk The pairs or trios will display their posters around the classroom. Each pair/group will present the poster to the rest. You must walk around and leave sticky-note comments next to the posters.

GROUP REFLECTION

What did you notice about the techniques you used?
How easy is it to manipulate a message once you know the tricks?

“Propaganda in WWI was powerful because people didn’t always realise they were being influenced. But once you see the strings, the puppet show changes.”

SESSION 4

Our AUXILIAR DE CONVERSACIÓN, Luke prepared a presentation on propaganda in Louisiana during the 1900s.

SESSION 5

FOLLOW UP

Now, as anti-propagandists, you are researchers and you need to make a research about a modern propaganda example (e.g., social media campaigns, political ads) and compare it with a WWI poster. Use a Venn Diagram (or other graphic organiser of your choice) and present your conclusions to the class. Do not forget to mention the sources. Provide the two posters you are comparing (you can print them out in "Conserjería" for only 0,05 cents, if you do not own a printer at home).