MYTH, PROPAGANDA, AND THE STATE   [Archived Catalog]
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog
   

PS 1604 - MYTH, PROPAGANDA, AND THE STATE


Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course focuses on a single notion: that states use narrative(s) to support their regimes. The class aims to prepare students for understanding how story, myth, propaganda, and indoctrination are used by various political actors to build, sustain, and/or destroy regimes. The course begins with a consideration of quintessential cases of states engaging in these practices (ancient Rome, fascist Italy, imperial Japan, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge). It then examines parallel examples within united states history and narratives. The second half of the course then focuses on the practice of propaganda specifically, considering its modern origins in WWI, examining transitions in technique across multiple states, weighing linkages to advertising and public information campaigns, and finally having students construct their own propaganda. The course concludes with a formal content analysis training focused on a particular vein of propaganda, and an assignment that has students blending content analysis consideration with political theory argument construction.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis


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