Renee HobbsProfessor of Communication StudiesDirector, Media Education LabUniversity of Rhode Island USA@reneehobbs

Exploring the Links between Media Literacy, Propaganda and Radicalization

BRUSSELS 10-11 March 16

PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING Today’s Goals

Define radicalization in the context of media literacy education

Consider the power of virality in the spread of propaganda

Tour the “Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda” website

Overview learning principles embedded in the design

Discuss the challenges & opportunities of teaching about contemporary propaganda

Suffragette (2015)

RADICALIZATIO

N

1. Personal grievances or need for adventure

2. Sense of righteousness about the cause

3. Feelings of personal & political empowerment

4. Active participation in social networks5. High levels of poverty &

unemployment

RADICALIZATIO

N

ACCESS

expanding the concept of literacy

VIRALITY

when information, an image or video gets circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to

another

30-minute documentary was viewed 112 million times in just 7 days

between March 6 – 12, 2012

VIRALITY

VIRALITY

LEGITIM

ATING

SOU

RCES

LEGITIM

ATING

SOU

RCES

New Propaganda

Social Sharing

New Propaganda

Content Marketing

PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING Design Principles

People learn through exploration, browsing & pattern recognition

Making judgments about the relative benefits/harms of media messages requires consideration of text, author, purpose, audience and context

Exposure to diverse interpretations heightens awareness & stimulates intellectual curiosity New forms of propaganda – virality & content marketing – are unfamiliar to many people

Dialogue about propaganda is sensitive and requires high levels of trust & respect

Perhaps the “almost true” is potent precisely because the audience has to bridge the gap of truth and in so doing become complicit in its viral spreading.

--Anthony Wing Kosner

What are the opportunities and

challenges?

PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING Today’s Goals

Define radicalization in the context of media literacy education

Consider the power of virality in the spread of propaganda

Tour the “Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda” website

Overview learning principles embedded in the design

Discuss the challenges & opportunities of teaching about contemporary propaganda

Educators and learners both

benefit from the process of critically

analyzing contemporary propaganda

Educators and learners contribute

to the public sphere in ways that

strengthen citizenship & the

democratic process

Renee HobbsProfessor of Communication StudiesDirector, Media Education LabUniversity of Rhode Island USATwitter: @reneehobbsEmail: hobbs@uri.edu

Exploring the Links between Media Literacy, Propaganda and Radicalization

BRUSSELS 10-11 March 16

Renee Hobbs@reneehobbs