Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age

Abstract

While the book feels oddly reminiscent of a high school US history class, Hobbs provides a lot of compelling evidence on the importance of media literacy in the 21st century. Hobbs takes the reader down a seemingly never-ending spiral of all the ways propaganda has been weaved into our daily life, sometimes without our knowledge. It was a little unnerving to read that propaganda has become such an inescapable feature of everyday life, from online streaming services to the inserts of our water bill. However, the book is certainly a convincing read as to why children should be taught the skills to critically analyze and interpret information, so they can make their own informed decisions. To start, Hobbs gives a lot of background information on propaganda and its development over time, including the economics of it and how propaganda has become so powerful in this day and age. The book also includes how it has historically been taught, or rather not taught, in schools. It contains input from educators on attempts to teach current events in such a polarized society. Hobbs discusses key historical and controversial events from a neutral point of view, identifying positive and negative consequences of propaganda. The last section, arguably the most important, is how propaganda is seen in the eye of the observer. Hobbs emphasizes that individuals must evaluate for themselves whether a piece of propaganda is beneficial or harmful based on their existing knowledge, personal opinions, and beliefs. At the same time, she also encourages cultivating intellectual curiosity and humility by respecting other point of views and recognizing shared cultural values. I think the real highlight of this book is the learning activities, equipped with reflection and discussion questions, and takeaway points. Hobbs encourages learners to explore modern day propaganda by gathering information from different sources, asking questions, and being curious and critical through fun, relatable hands-on activities. Tasks start out simple with defining one's personal definition of propaganda and coming up with arguments for beneficial and harmful aspects. The activities progressively become more challenging with tasks such as creating a public opinion poll and a video game prototype. These activities also encourage readers to watch historical films and documentaries, read key novels, and visit monuments and memorials in the community. Some activities reference a website, Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda. The website is the result of a collaboration between the author and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to develop educational programming and resources to support a special exhibition. Activities on the website offer the opportunity to learn how to recognize, review, and rate propagandas. Overall, by connecting with learners through these engaging activities, educators have the ability to teach the value of inquiry as they learn to define for themselves what is propaganda. This book would be a great read for teachers looking for creative ways to teach about propaganda in the age in which almost anything and everything can be considered propaganda. These learning activities show the value of connecting classroom education with modern day culture. Parents may also benefit from Hobbs' strategies for teaching children about how to identify and evaluate propaganda in everyday life.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 55 citations exist upstream.