? How do we know what we know?

When touching a hot burner, we learn from personal – or direct – experience! = write this down! Example: “One way we learn is from direct experience.”

There’s only one other way to learn. Can anyone guess what that is? Did anyone say “through indirect experience?” What does THAT mean?

Indirect experience is when we hear or learn about it from someone else. (Write that down, please.)

WHOM do we hear or learn things from? Our friends… Our families…

Our healthcare professionals… Who else? Did anyone say…? Our teachers…

Our Spiritual Leaders… Our Political Leaders…

Scientists… The Media… And Celebrities

However… If we don’t trust someone, we tend to dismiss or ignore what he has to say.

So… Indirect experience is when we hear or learn about it from someone…we trust. (If we don’t trust, we don’t take it seriously.)

But what if a person or organization tries to influence us, to make us believe something specifically to hurt or help another person or organization? For example, what if the Mayor of Seattle tried to convince us that the people of Tacoma secretly want to steal the Space Needle and move it right next to the Tacoma Dome?

Okay, that’s ridiculous. But what if the Mayor of Seattle used radio, television and newspaper ads to get us to boycott Tacoma because, he claimed, they were stealing our business? Hmmmm…that’s a little more believable. And that, my friends, is Propaganda!

Propaganda is: 1 : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions 2 : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person 3 : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; : a public action having such an effect From: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda

For now, let’s stick with the middle definition: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person (Tomorrow, we’ll look at other ways to define it.)

??? Let’s go back to indirect experience for a moment. If your best friend tells you not to buy a smoothie from Landfill Smoothies, that’s probably not propaganda because… ??? It isn’t clear that she’s doing it specifically “for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” Maybe she just hates garbage in her smoothies.

But if Yummy Smoothies puts up posters telling you that their arch-rival Tasty Smoothies’ drinks are bad for you, this is probably propaganda because… ??? It sounds like Yummy Smoothies is trying to harm Tasty Smoothies’ business, doesn’t it?

To be clear: Propaganda is spread most easily by people or organizations we trust, like the media or the government. People or organizations we do not trust must work much, much harder to spread their propaganda.

Because it is intended either to help or to harm, propaganda can be either inspiring or offensive. We will explore many examples of propaganda in the next three weeks. But here are a few examples to get you thinking! *The views expressed in this propaganda are not necessarily those of your teacher, school or school district.*

Greenpeace No Stank You Brain on Drugs Willie Horton Obama Anti-Japanese Brain on Drugs Daisy Willie Horton

Here are some questions about Propaganda that we’re going to explore during this unit: What are some examples of propaganda? 2. What is its purpose? What is the purpose in helping or harming this person, group, movement, institution or nation?

3. Is propaganda a weapon or a tool? 4. If you harm an organization by spreading the truth, is that propaganda? Conversely, if you help that same organization by spreading lies, is that propaganda? 5. What is the relationship between propaganda and truth?

6. Is advertising propaganda? 7. What’s the difference between news and propaganda? 8. How can you tell if something you’re hearing, reading or seeing is propaganda? 9. How can we counter – or fight – propaganda?

10. Does the United States Constitution protect propaganda? 11. Is the President’s SOTU speech propaganda? 13. How does propaganda impact or shape history? 14. What is your opinion of propaganda?

So…why does any of this matter? Your thoughts? Remember the first question at the beginning of this slide show – how do we know what we know? Here’s another question for you…

What if much of what we think we know is actually the result of propaganda? And what if we’re making decisions in the world based on “knowledge” that isn’t necessarily accurate?

An understanding of what propaganda is and how it works can allow us to act intentionally and responsibly as citizens of this country and as human beings. Or, in other words… Your words…

What’s next? During this unit, you will… *Explore more propaganda *Learn how to identify it *Learn its techniques *Learn its history *Understand how it shapes world history *Create your own propaganda *Argue for or against propaganda

Questions? Please hand in your notes for today’s lesson. I will collect them as I come around to give you your exit ticket…which I am about to explain!

Sources & Further Reading: 1. http://www.historians.org/projects/giroundtable/Propaganda/Propaganda8.htm 2. http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/whatis.htm 3. http://www.suite101.com/content/the-definition-of-propaganda-a113806 4. http://www.foothill.edu/bss/people/peterson-david/ct/Module07_02_00.html 5. http://propaganda.mrdonn.org/techniques.html 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda 7. http://hq.abaa.org/antiquarian/images/pdfs/Andrew%20Fink%20NCBCC.pdf 8. http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/26596.aspx 9. http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/2002-p3/baker_p3_12-01_js/index.htm 10. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=propaganda&aq=f 11. Boyer, Paul. S. (2001) The Oxford Companion to United States History; New York: Oxford University Press 12. Delamater, John (2006) Handbook of Social Psychology; Madison, WI: Springer 13. Rosenbaum, Douglas. (2003) The Penguin Encyclopedia of American History; New York: The Penguin Group 14. Strayer, Robert W. (2009) Ways of the World, A Global History ;Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s * All images are public domain, except that of Jo Cripps (used with permission).