Page 4
News
Street Roots • March 17-23, 2017
is indifferent to truth and truthfulness, knowledge and understanding.
*s a fos'®» of strategic communication that uses any means to accomplish its ends."
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WALTER CUNNINGHAM
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Distracted and distractible’
BY EM ILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
o you think of Saturday Night Live as
propaganda? What about those
commercials of sad-looking puppies in
cages that can’t be helped “without your
support”?
At Mind Over Media, a
crowdsourced online
collection of media
messaging, you can
explore these and other
examples of
contemporary
propaganda. Users can
comment on how they
perceive the
messaging and rate
it on a scale of
“beneficial” to
“harmful.”
This project is one of
many online tools for
teaching critical
ijginking inmedia
D
Media
literacy
expert Renee
Hobbs says
'propaganda
is on the rise
around the
world
consumption
internationally
renowned digital and
medi,a literacy
education expert Renee
Hobbs has produced.
Hobbs is a professor
of communication and
. education and director of
the Media Education Lab at the Harrington
School of Communication and Media at the
University of Rhode Island. There, she
co-directs the Graduate Certificate in Digital
Literacy, a blended learning program that
attracts educators and media professionals
from across the country. She has authored
several academic books about digital learning
and media literacy. Her latest, “Create to
Learn: An Introduction to Digital Literacy,”
is available for pre-order.
At a time when the line between news and
propaganda seems to be increasingly blurred,
we asked Hobbs about ways to recognize and
combat the propaganda that seems to be
coming at us from all sides.
Em ily Green: First, a personal question:
What is it about the pursuit o f media literacy
that attracted you?
R enee Hobbs: I have a complex love-hate
relationship with print, sound, visual and
digital media. I’ve always found that I enjoy a
movie more if I get the chance to talk about
it with others. That’s also true for listening to
music, watching TV and especially reading a
newspaper. I believe that when people use
media intentionally and purposefully, they get
more pleasure from it - and they have higher
expectations for what they consume and
create. When I come across really well-
produced websites, blog posts, videos or
news, I am deeply appreciative. But then
there’s all that dreck that drenches us with
its superficiality and sensationalism.
Ultimately, we have to have higher
expectations of our media system in order for
it to meet our culture’s real needs.
E.G.: Earlier this month, you were the
keynote speaker at a United Nations Alliance of
Civilizations event titled “Media and
Information Literacy: Educational Strategies
for the Prevention o f Violent Extremism. ” This
branch o f the UN was launched in December
2015 to counter xenophobia, racism and
narratives o f hatred in the media. I wanted to
ask you about your thoughts on media literacy
worldwide, gleaned from this conference or
through other channels. Are you seeing any
notable trends in propaganda? Are there any
major differences in the way different
populations consume media, and is there
anything unique about the fake news
phenomenon we are seeing in the U.S.?
R.H.: Propaganda is on the rise around the
world. There’s a big increase in the amount
of “positive propaganda,” which is created by
nonprofit organizations and governments and
activists to address issues of social, political
and economic concern, including issues like
xenophobia, racism, poverty, homelessness,
domestic violence, violent extremism,
LGBTQ rights and more. Today, all over the
world, people are using media on their
mobile devices, and this means they are a bit
more distracted and distractible. It’s
challenging to read deeply if you’re using
media “in between” doing other things. This
practice tends to reinforce the use of media
to reinforce our existing beliefs, to amuse
and to entertain, rather than to learn new
things or take social action. The term “fake
news” has been co-opted beyond all
recognition here in the U.S., but in its
original formulation, the planting of false
news stories as a means of disinformation
See HOBBS, page 5
Above, Stephen
Bannon,
President
Trump’s senior
policy advisor, -
shaking hands
before an
interview with
Trump supporter
Sean H annity on
Fox News.
Below Alec
Baldwin portrays
Donald Trump
on Saturday
N ight Live.