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Media, Censorship, and Propaganda Essay
Instructions:
Please choose only ONE of the following two prompts to construct an essay around covering media literacy, censorship, propaganda, and construction of historical narratives.
The paper is due by Wednesday April 17th hard copy in class and uploaded to Canvas by the end of the day. The paper should be 4-6 pages (1,000 to 1,500 words), 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, one inch margins, properly cited in Chicago Style (Links to an external site.) (endnotes or footnotes- see the Censored book for examples). Please completely address all of the questions in whichever prompt you choose. Again, this paper must be uploaded in Canvas (save in doc., .docx, .pdf, .rtf only). The final essay work in the class will also have to be submitted hard copy and uploaded to Canvas. More will be posted about those assignments soon, but plan accordingly as there will be two papers after this one due in early May and then at finals.
Remember to include the readings on media literacy in the Discussion Area, as well as both Censored books, and the Project Censored movie you watched (also linked online) for materials relating to this assignment. Don’t forget all the work you are doing in groups as there are examples there from the Censored book you may incorporate into your essay. The Group research Posts go in the Discussion area, and are due by the end of April 15th, which is a separate assignment than the essay here. Please e mail any concerns.
For citation methodology, please see the Chicago Style (Links to an external site.) (<–note that I’ve linked this twice)
Please chose ONE of the following as a Prompt for this essay.
1. What is Project Censored and what do they mean by modern media censorship? What support do they offer and is it compelling? Are there really issues of censorship or rather imperfections where mistakes or news judgment are construed as obfuscation (and what of Junk Food News or News Abuse stories covered in lieu of relevant, factual reporting)? Be specific and include examples of modern media censorship and follow up with an example to the present. Do you see these as anomalies, or are these examples part of an overall structural problem with corporate media in the United States? In conclusion, do we have a truly free press? Why or why not? How or how not? How might this phenomenon impact not only our interpretations of present events, but past ones as well? Be specific. Support all statements with facts and logical argumentation.
2. Noted linguistics scholar and activist Noam Chomsky has said that propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a dictatorship. What are his and Edward Herman’s theories about Engineering Opinion, also known as “Manufacturing Consent, in free societies (critiquing the ideas put forward by Edward Bernays we discussed in class)? Explain their Propaganda Model with its filters, and the role of mass media and government in democracies with regard to educating the public. How do you see the issues concerning private for-profit corporate ownership of the mass media affecting information dissemination in a democratic society? What of Michael Parenti’s suggestions concerning media distortions (omission, attack, labels, preemptive assumptions, face value transmission, slighting of content, false balancing, follow up avoidance, framing)? Again, give examples from the right or left. What additional evidence may either support or debunk these ideas? How does this impact American democracy and specifically, the construction of history? Be specific and provide ample support for your views. Remember to think critically and logically.
