Nice link - propaganda

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Propaganda

Some reminders...

Hi boys,

Thank you very much for your contributions on propaganda, satire and advertising.

Please remember the following, for your next test:

Rule a right hand margin; number your questions in the middles of the page; and rule off after each question.

NEVER start an answer with, ‘Well, basically...’

Read each question carefully and look at the mark allocation!

There is no such thing as celcastic... or solcastic... The word is SARCASTIC.

:)

Propaganda

Have you ever walked up to a complete stranger and asked, “Excuse me, do you know what propaganda is?” Well we’re willing to bet R100 that the person will answer you with the words “Hitler” or “Apartheid” somewhere in his sentence.

Propaganda has become such a big factor in society that an “Institute for Propaganda Analysis” was created in 1937. The founders of this society, Kirtley Mather, Edward A. Filene and Clyde R. Miller, grew concerned with the amount of influence that media had on the general public and started this society to ‘spark rational thinking,’ and basically challenge the public to have healthy debate on media based views.

There are as many as ten different ‘types’ of propaganda used in society today:
· Assertion – “An assertion is an enthusiastic or energetic statement presented as a fact, although it is not necessarily true.”
· Bandwagon – “Bandwagon is an appeal to the subject to follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well.”
· Card Stacking – “Involves only presenting information that is positive to an idea or proposal and omitting information contrary to it.”
· Glittering Generalities – “Glittering generalities are words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects, but are linked to highly valued concepts.”
· Lesser of Two Evils – “The lesser of two evils technique tries to convince us of an idea or proposal by presenting it as the least offensive option.”
· Name Calling – “Is the use of derogatory language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy.”
· Pinpointing the Enemy – “This is an attempt to simplify a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as the enemy.”
· Stereotyping – “Simplification is extremely similar to pinpointing the enemy, in that it often reduces a complex situation to a clear-cut choice involving good and evil.”
· Testimonials – “Testimonials are quotations or endorsements, in or out of context, which attempt to connect a famous or respectable person with a product or item.”
· Transfer – “It is an attempt to make the subject view a certain item in the same way as they view another item, to link the two in the subjects mind.”

During the past few weeks our class has been investigating and discussing propaganda used in modern day society. We also had a look at some historic speeches and were set the challenge of finding ten words or phrases which were used to bring propaganda into the speaker’s message.

We had the opportunity to debate whether a spokesperson, that came to our school to talk about street children, had been using propaganda as a way to set off a thinking spark in our heads, and if so, whether this meant that there are good and bad kinds of propaganda.

As a class we have learnt a lot during the past few weeks in terms of propaganda and this linked in very well with the advertising section. So next time you are walking through a shopping centre and a complete stranger (who will obviously have read this blog) walks up to you and asks, “Excuse me, do you know what propaganda is?” You now have the ability to give an educated answer, hopefully completely omitting the words “Hitler” or “Apartheid”, therefore causing us to owe someone a hundred bucks.

By: The Fuzz

Satire In a Nut Shell

Satire is sharp wit, irony or sarcasm used to highlight, expose or ridicule human, social or political weakness or stupidness. The satire aims to change the situation, educate and entertain through humour. this ploy allows someone to express himself in a way that would normally be construed as libellous, it is used in plays, cartoons and comic strips and caricatures in cartoons are often the vehicles for satire. Basically think of people like zapiro, they portray a character like Zuma in a humours way, but if you think about it he portrays a really serious message.

Don't panic

Dear Form 4s

Please don't stress about the fact that you did not do all that well in the Standardised Test. There is still lots of time to improve your marks. Also, in the whole spectrum of eternity, what is one little English test?

Hopefully, these little language class tests will augment your results beautifully and you will all do brilliantly well!

Love Ma'am Reyburn

Advertising, Leb Island

Over the past few weeks of school our theme in the English class has been Advertising, one of the more exciting topics that we deal with in english. Over the past 2 weeks we have been watching videos on advertising, discussing certain advertising techniques, analysing how some companies advertise, and comparing American and English humour. For the most of the class, watching the humorous advertising clips was the most enjoyable. We delved more into satire and sarcasm/irony than we ever did last year. We also had our speeches last week. These were quite enjoyable as each group found very humorous adverts and gave entertaining and insightful talks about what techniques were used in the ad, who/what was being advertised etc. More recently we started analysing short stories that contained either sensationalism, emotive language, or was written from a biast point of view.

The past 2 weeks of the english class has been a success in our eyes. We are sure that once the advertising theme has been complete there will be other enjoyable topics that we are going to delve into throughout the remainder of the year.

Leb Island

Something to consider when your'e bored...

You sit down in your bedroom
And all you can do is cry
You do not feel like studying
But you really must score high
So you open up your maths book
Just big numbers do you see
Big numbers fill the pages
They just make you want to flee
So you set your sights on Bio
And you open on page five
But you see "Atherosclerosis"
And you know you won't survive.
So then it's on to Physics,
Where you can have such fun
You'll learn about such cool stuff,
Like Newton's Laws, for one.
But then you see those numbers,
Those numbers that you hate.
They're ready to instantly take you down,
Like an enemy at the gate.
By now you're getting desperate,
You really must study
So why not try accounting,
It's easy as one, two, three.
But after but a minute
You tire of balancing debt
Frustration is a sword, and
All accounting does is whet.
Or maybe you do Music,
In which case you poor bastard
You'll be bored to death by Beethoven
"How could his stuff have lasted?"
Or if you're a geographer
You'll get killed by boredom too
Only this time caused by contours
of mountains, old and new.
But if you've chosen History,
Don't regret it for a day:
You must put the past behind you... (Pause for laughter)
But Boredom's here to stay.
So you've been through all you're options
You've been driven up the wall
You're tired, frustrated, angry
And you've not studied at all.
But there's one last consideration
Before you throw in the towel.
You could study now for English
Things like consonants and vowels.
So often do we bypass
All of that 'easy' stuff
"There was only one distinction"
Do you think I've said enough?
So why not try to study
Just open up a book
For you to pass exams
We all know that's the hook
If you think I'm giving you a bit of hope
My friend, you're very wrong
In fact, for you there's no hope
To see my point, read on.
I'm sorry to bring the bad news,
But you'll never study
And that's 'cuz you procrastinate,
You're almost as bad as me.

If you want proof of my statement,
Consider this small thing:
You've spent you're time
Reading a stupid rhyme
While you were meant to be studying.