Zobel Fall 08 WP #2

Working Portfolio #2: Propaganda Analysis

All work in Working Portfolio #2 is group work except for the ICWs and the Group Work Letters.
Still, each individual must turn those in for all group members to earn credit. One important point
of WP #2 is the emphasis on collaboration, collective work, accountability, and shared
responsibility. Similarly important is the ability, skill, and art to effectively and efficiently select
collaborators with whom you can best work.

There is NO WAY you can get around, avoid, or ignore the group aspect of WP #2. Doing so will
earn you a zero.

Propaganda Analysis: Background and the Basic Process

The propaganda analysis is the first part of Working Portfolio #2. The purpose of this project is to
test out some of the theories proposed in your readings. One pieced discusses the use of fear;
another piece focuses on how politicians win by emphasizing being likable people instead of
skilled, honest, or capable leaders; the third piece, by Flesch, presents and discusses a number of
methods used to fool and bamboozle people.

The first handout you have focuses on propaganda in general. Most people think of propaganda as
something that “bad people” do during times of war and strife. Multiple searches for definitions
reveal that propaganda is, at its heart, the use of messages, images, words, and/or ideas to influence
people so that one person, group, or cause may benefit. As you work through this assignment, keep
that definition as your center.

Thus, when you get worksheet #1, the Propaganda Analysis Sheet, you and your group will need to
select a piece of propaganda and analyze it. This should IS NOT just ANY piece of propaganda, it
needs to be something centered in the realms of health, wellness, and physical culture.
Infomercials, videos, advertisements, testimonials, stop smoking campaigns, alcohol industry-
sponsored designated driver ads, vegan/vegetarian pamphlets, etc. are all viable.

Step 1: Form a group

Step 2: Review the assignment & the Propaganda Analysis Sheet
Step 3: Locate an item—video, flyer, website, ad, etc.—to analyze
Step 4: Write up the analysis sheet as a group
Step 5: Convert the written up handout/sheet into a 500 word SFD propaganda analysis

Your Goal: The Paper: Persuasive Propaganda

Your paper—the final draft which must be at least 1,000 words—must make a convincing and
persuasive argument that the object or piece of media you have selected is a piece of propaganda
because it uses messages, images, words, and/or ideas to influence people so that one person, group,
or cause may benefit. Simply asserting that this is so does NOT make a good paper. You must
present sustained analysis and a convincing argument.

This is where handout #2 comes in.

Once your group has written your SFD, we will work in class with handout #2 to make sure that
you have a full skeleton for a persuasive paper and that you are on target. The goal of this exercise
is to make sure that you are not missing any of the critical elements for a persuasive paper.
Zobel Fall 08 WP #2

Handout #3 is centered on helping you develop key thinking, working, and writing skills and habit.
Additionally, it is designed to make sure that you develop sustained analysis throughout your paper.
As sustained analysis is one of the most important things instructors look for when scoring the
portfolio, you want to build these skills for personal and grade-based reasons.

There will also be a peer feedback handout for this paper, and it should be conducted by one group
on another group’s revised draft. Again, the point is to share responsibility and communication
within a group and between different groups. Yes, this may be awkward or uncomfortable, but that
is one of the ways which helps people learn most deeply, quickly, and efficiently.

Where do you use the Flesch, fear, and credibility segments?

Yes, you have read those three brief required readings. Each of them sets forth different criteria and
different methods by which one group of people work to manipulate another group of people. Often
that is based upon being likable or using fear. Flesch elaborates on some other strategies as well.

As a budding intellectual, it is your task to apply some of the ideas and suggestions made in these
readings and apply them in your own work. It is not enough to suggest or mention the author—it is
important that you mention them, their idea—and present a short, mini-summary and then indicate
how that idea supports your interpretation and your idea.

Remember:
Your topic must remain centered in the issues of Health,
Wellness, and Physical Cultures.
Some Notes on Thinking, Education, Perspective, Intellectualism, and Closed Minds
Whether or not you agree that advertising, marketing, and wellness campaigns are or are not
propaganda, it is important that you become used to analyzing and examining familiar messages in
the media from a variety of perspectives. This does not require your agreement with the
perspective, nor does it assert that one perspective is right and all others are wrong. Instead, this
process of examination is intended to awaken an understanding that there are a multiplicity of views
and that many of these views all use the same basic pieces of support and evidence; they differ in
their interpretation of what those pieces of evidence mean, how valid that evidence is, and how the
different pieces of evidence are interrelated.

It is an easy and a lazy intellectual move to simply dismiss other perspectives or ideas because they
are not what you have always known. That requires no thought, perspective, or effort. The sad part
is that it is easy, comfortable, and what many people think of as a critical thinking. It is not critical
thinking—it is avoiding the fact that other people do not think like you do.

Again, the purpose of these processes is not to make you think like Z, V, or the Borg. The goal is
for you to be aware of some other potential perspectives, understand how a person could or does
arrive at that understanding perspective, and then have the necessary skills to be able to engage with
them in an intelligent and meaningful conversation.

It is impossible to communicate with anyone if the only image you look at and think about is your
own.
Zobel Fall 08 WP #2