The Language of Propaganda – LNGN 250_01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Dr. Susana M. Sotillo

Time: 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. Face to Face (F2F) Session

Location: Schmitt Hall 110 (Face-to-face session)

Asynchronous session: Consists of Readings and Online Assignments

Synchronous session: Via BigBlueButton and Chat tentatively once a month. In case there is a snowstorm or dangerous ice on campus and roads, we will meet in our virtual classroom: Canvas BigBlueButton. You will be sent an invitation.

Office: Schmitt Hall 240E – Phone number: 973-655-7377

Office hours: Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. Thursdays from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and online by appointment only via FaceTime ().

Course Description: This course introduces students to the basic techniques of propaganda and aims to improve their ability to reason well about problems they encounter in everyday life. The readings will encourage students to think critically about issues that are debated in the social and political arena. Students will be able to identify cogent and fallacious reasoning, language manipulation for commercial purposes, news control and dissemination, ideology in media, and political propaganda.

Course Requirements:

  • Attendance and informed classroom participation.
  • Completion of all reading assignments.
  • Analysis of readings and posting of short essays to Canvas Discussions (Discussion Board).
  • Completion of timed quizzes and essays deployed online (via Canvas).
  • Students are expected to monitor their Canvas email messages.
  • In case of inclement weather, we will meet in our virtual classroom. I will not ask any student to risk being injured in a snowstorm.
  • If you need to reach me immediately, please text me at 201-341-0319.

Required Textbooks:

Nonsense by Robert J. Gula (2007). Axios Press. ISBN 978-0-9753662-6-4

Propaganda by Edward Bernays (2005-Originally, 1928). Ig Publishing, Incorporated -ISBN:9780970312594

A Government of Wolves by John W. Whitehead (2013). Select Books, Inc. ISBN978-1-59079-975-8

Online Scholarly Resources: Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies, The Black Agenda Report, Free Inquiry, OpEd News.Com, Z Magazine, Intelligence Report

The proposed schedule of topics represents a basic outline. Changes will be made at the discretion of the instructor and students will be notified via Canvas. Please purchase or borrow a headset for our synchronous sessions once a month or during snowstorms; otherwise you will create an echo when pressing the Talk button. Access the virtual classroom preferably from home or a lab if you live on campus.
Week / Topic / Readings – Assignments
January 20–23, 2015 / Introduction to the Language of Propaganda
Fill out online survey by Friday / Download PP Slides from Canvas. Also, explore The Nature of Propaganda(Modules). Read Nonsense, pp. 1-90.
January 27–30 / Examining political and social propaganda – We will explore Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies / Friday: Read the front page headlines of two major newspapers (e.g., NYT and The Washington Times or The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post). Identify whether these are biased or neutral. Explain your reasoning. Post your answers to Discussions on Canvas.
Homework for Tuesday: Select a TV commercial, news story, magazine article, or poster and discuss the type of propaganda it represents. To whom is this aimed?
February 3–6 / Please be prepared to present in class the news report, TVcommercial, or magazine article you have selected for analysis. / Friday: Continue reading Nonsense, pp. 91-153. Ask questions in our F2F session. Propaganda Poster: See revised guidelines under Modules and present your work as a poster or via PP slides in class on Tuesday.
February 10–14th / Present your Poster or PP slides in class. Be creative and use your own language. / Friday: Finish reading Nonsense, pp. 153-197. Go to Discussions and answer questions about Logical Fallacies.
February 17 –20 / Propaganda techniques in films and documentaries. What was unique about Goebbels’ use of propaganda?
We will watch Goebbels: Master of Lies / Friday: Go to Sprague non-print media and watch Goebbels: Master of Propaganda
1998
Distributed by Films for the Humanities and Sciences.
February 24–27 /

The Origins of Propaganda. Who was Edward Bernays? What was one of his most lasting contributions?

/ Friday: Read Bernays’ Propaganda, Parts I through VI. Join our online synchronous Chat discussion.
March 3–6 / In-Class Discussion of Bernays’ Propaganda Techniques. Who forms part of the invisible government? What do you think of America’s two-party system? / Friday: Finish reading Bernays, Parts VII-XI. Ponder Lippmann’s famous phrase” “Make the world safe for democracy.” What does this mean?
March 10 –13 Spring Break
March 17–20 / Review Propaganda Techniques – Download and study the PP slides based on Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies
Positive uses of propaganda: promoting civic responsibility and social justice. / Friday: Mid-Term online quiz
March 24–27 / Political Propaganda – In-class exercises working in small groups – Identify message structure and logic behind propaganda techniques used by corporations and government agencies. Analyze Republican and Democratic arguments concerning Social Security. / Friday: Read A Government of Wolves, pp. 3-49. Be prepared to discuss this in class.
March 31–April 3 / Dissidents and the Police State. Has fiction become a reality? In-class discussion of Parts I & II. / Friday: Easter Holiday
April 7–10 / Bring newspaper articles to class that discuss police misconduct and brutality. Analyze the language used based on what you have read about biased language. Is the writing prejudiced toward those arrested or the police? / Friday: Go to Sprague’s non-print media and watch one of the movies set aside for this class. (See list below.) You can watch movies in groups of two, but no movie should be watched by more than two groups. Prepare about five to six PP slides for your in-class presentation.
April 14–17 / Student Presentations based on movies analyzed. (Five minutes per group) / Friday: Continuation of movie presentations via Chat or BigBlueButton.
April 21–24 / Who was George Orwell? Read Government of Wolves, pp. 53-132. / Friday: Answer questions about Part III posted to the Discussions.
April 28–May 1 / Working in groups of two, please investigate one of the following controversial issues:
  • Obamacare (How will this affect young and old who are currently uninsured?).
  • Privatizing elementary and higher education. Who gains from this?
  • Privatizing social security. Whom does this benefit?
/ Friday: Upload the findings you discussed in class to the Discussions site.
May 5 / Course overview – Study Guide for Final Quizzes / Quizzes will be deployed via Canvas on
FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE – Spring 2015
May 7–13
LNGN 250 Exam scheduled for Friday, May 8th: For Classes with First or only Meeting on T or F at 0400pm...... 0315pm-0515pm
Quizzes and essay question will be deployed online via Canvas

Evaluation of students is based on:

  • Discussion Board Assignments and short in-class presentations (@5 points each)
  • Midterm Quizzes (20)
  • Film Analysis (10)
  • Final Quizzes and short answer questions (20)

Films and documentaries set aside for individual or small-group viewing (two students only): A sign-up sheet will be available at the non-print media desk (basement, Sprague library) accompanying the material that I have placed on reserve. Please inform your classmates via Canvas email/Inbox system which film you have chosen. If a film has already been chosen by one or two of your classmates, select something else. I really don’t want to be reading the same film/documentary analysis over and over again.

The following films are based on historical accounts of the expansion of various empires throughout the world. Do some research at the library or talk to a Reference librarian who can guide your research:

  • The Mission (Historical account of religious/political struggles between Spain and Portugal – Religious imperialism)
  • Cabeza de Vaca (Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (ÁlvarNúñezCabeza de Vaca, c. 1488- 558) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition. This is an extraordinarily beautiful film that shows what it means to adapt to other ways of being (achieving communicative competence in a different culture).
  • Snow Falling on Cedars (violence against Japanese-Americans during WWII in the United States)
  • The Salt of the Earth (an American film banned during the McCarthy witch hunts (mcCarthyism)
  • The Official Story (La HistoriaOficial -The 1970s dirty and brutal war in Argentina where thousands of young students were murdered.)
  • State of Siege (The CIA reaps what it sows)
  • Hotel Rwanda The true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.
  • The Bandit Queen (Based on the true story of India’s Poolan Devi, the Bandit Queen)
  • Missing (Based on the true story of American journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the bloody aftermath of the US-backed Chilean coup of 1973 that deposed the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende.)

Science Fiction films from the Cold War Era:

The Lathe of Heaven (The individual vs. the collective from a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin)

Gattaca(a futuristic society where genes determine one’s class and occupation; in other words, one’s future.)

Brazil(Totalitarianism very similar to today’s Homeland Security movement and the NSA surveillance that has given rise to a police state.)

Recent ScyFy movies with a message:

Elysium A glimpse at what may become a reality at the rate we are going. Elysium is set in the year 2154; the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a scorched, ruined Earth. (This is what might await us.)

Prometheus. Archeologists and space explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. (This is a philosophical film.)

For historical films, evaluate the background information presented. You will have to do some research at Sprague using materials on microfiche for newspaper accounts of the events surrounding Missing, Snow Falling on Cedars, State of Siege, and the Salt of the Earth. Books on Cabeza de Vaca and the accounts depicted in The Mission are available at Sprague library.

Does the film director or screenwriter present a cogent argument based on the historical record? Find primary sources that help clarify historical events/topics discussed in the film you have chosen and attach copies of these documents to your report or scan them and copy and paste them to your PP slides. For example, describe the events leading to the kidnapping of a CIA operative in State of Siege. What can you say about the nature of Western propaganda? Please relate your findings to some of the arguments presented by Chomsky and the authors of the books you have read, or from various articles in Fair, Z-Magazine, or OP-Ed News.

If you decide to analyze the propaganda content of science fiction movies such as Gattaca, Brazil, Prometheus, Elysium, or The Lathe of Heaven, you should do some research on the Cold War and the Eugenics movement of the early part of the 20th century.