Propaganda Exercise

A significant control mechanism in many literary dystopias is propaganda. As we defined it last class, propaganda is intentionally misleading, biased information used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. It can appear in the form of slogans, speeches, false histories, etc., and is manipulative in nature. It often presents facts selectively, omitting information that would allow a fuller more complex picture of events. It often appeals to positive emotions, such as loyalty, sacrifice, and faith in a authoritarian power. It can also appeal to fear.

For this exercise, you are Gamemakers for the next Hunger Games. Your task is to create a poster advertising the games to the citizens of Panem, specifically the districts who will be participating in the games. You will want to come up with a slogan and a poster design that encourages people to participate and see the games as a positive thing, something that keeps the peace.

Elements of your poster to consider:

Slogan

1) Encouraging

You want people to volunteer as tributes, to see their purpose in the games as beneficial to themselves and others. 

2) Witty/Rolls off the Tongue

The slogan shouldn't be too long. Like "May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor," it should have a certain chirpiness and catchiness that sticks.

3) Misleading--Hide the Bodies!

Don't reveal the truth of the games.


Poster Design

The poster design elements should be carefully considered. What images and symbols might inspire tributes? How should they be arranged on the poster? What colors will you use, what fonts, what
other stylistic elements will appeal to your audience?

While you are not required to draw more than a rudimentary sketch on the board for next class session, you should be prepared to thoroughly discuss the choices you have made for your poster.

While you are not required to use multi-media to produce the image (since this is an exercise), you can consider what multi-media elements you might include were this to be a bigger project. Sounds? Moving images? Holograms?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Machine Stops

1) Describe the Machine at the center of the story. What are its functions? List as many as you can. 2) This story was written in 1909, prior to the advent of much of the communication technologies we have today. For example, the radio was not mass used then, the telephone existed but was not in every home, there were no televisions, etc. However, Forster was able to see these forms of technology of his day and project them into an imagined future. He also looked at industrialization itself, and saw how it changed the lives of people (in the story, he mostly focused on negative changes.) The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powe...
Read more

Annihilation

The ANTHROPOCENE is an unofficial, debated term between geologists and environmentalists that describes the epoch (time period) we are living in. It assumes that we have moved out of the Holocene (the epoch that began 11,700 years ago after the last Ice Age) and into a new epoch where humankind has caused significant changes to the environment, such as  mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluting the oceans and altering the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts. It has sometimes been linked to the start of the atomic age (1950s) or the start of the Industrial Revolution (1800s).   Meaning: Anthro-man  Cene -new   Vandermeer: "I wanted to provide a glimpse o f mid-Collapse in the Anthropocene—a transitional state in which those affected may not even realize the progression of decay  in the moment ."    Vandermeer  talks further about how weird fiction in particular can help us to understand a concept like c...
Read more

Annihilation Qs

1) Discuss how the characters understanding of the tower/tunnel changes over time. What might be significant about the fact that the biologist is the only one who can see the Tower's true nature? Why is it important that its true nature is not revealed to her right away? What has to happen first? 2) Discuss the disciplines of the main characters, their fields of study. Why is it significant that they are not named directly? What is meaningful about their fields of study in relationship to Area X? 3) What is uncanny about the environment of Area X? (See definition on board). 4) What might be significant about the fact that the map is not accurate from the moment the characters enter Area X? What does this tell us about what kind of place this is? 5) Jeff Vandermeer is from Florida, a place that is under high threat from climate change. How do you see the climate and environment of Florida reflected in Area X?
Read more