By Renee Hobbs
Media Literacy IN ACTION
Questioning the Media
CHAPTER 5
What is the difference between advertising, public relations, and propaganda?
Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the similarities and differences between advertising,
public relations, and propaganda
2. Appreciate how advertising is regulated in countries around
the world
3. Recognize how propaganda can lead people to bypass critical
thinking
4. Consider the reasons for the blurring of journalism and public
relations
5. Reflect on spin as a duel of interpretations in the construction of social reality
Blurry lines between advertising, public relations, and propaganda present challenges
for both media consumers and creators
I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE
CREATE TO LEARN
Compose a Video
to Comment on Propaganda
Explore the Mind Over Media online platform, which includes a gallery of thousands of examples of contemporary propaganda from all over the world. If you like, you can upload an example of advertising, propaganda, or PR to the website.
After selecting a specific example that interests you, work individually or with a partner to discuss the following questions:
The Message: What is the content of the information and ideas being expressed?
Techniques: What symbols and rhetorical strategies are used to attract audience attention
and activate emotional responses?
Environment and Context: Where, when, and how do people usually encounter this
message?
Means of Communication and Format: What is the genre of the message and how does this
particular form influence audiences?
Audience Receptivity: How are people likely to think and feel about the message and how
free they are to accept or reject it?
After analyzing an example of propaganda, put your ideas together in a short video commentary presentation, using Adobe Spark, a free media production tool that enables users to use text, images, spoken language, and music to create moving image media.
FLIPGRID
INQUIRY
BENEFITS AND HARMS OF ADVERTISING, PROPAGANDA AND PR
After reading this chapter, reflect on the ideas you encountered, integrating them with your experiences with advertising, propaganda, and PR. Then respond to the following two questions by composing a Flipgrid reflection:
• How are advertising, propaganda, and PR beneficial for society?
• How are advertising, propaganda, and PR harmful for society?
Share your views by using examples, ideas, reasoning, and evidence.
INTELLECTUAL GRANDPARENT:
ROLAND BARTHES
"The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning."
--Roland Barthes, 1975
Learn more about how Roland Barthes influenced a generation of media literacy educators, researchers & activists
VIDEO
The Trump Mythology & Roland Barthes' Semiotics
