From a webinar series organized by the Media & Learning Association Renee Hobbs is an American educator, scholar and well known advocate for media literacy education. She is a Professor in the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island, where she directs the Media Education Lab. One of Renee’s more recent initiatives is the highly successful Mind over Media resource for teachers and others interested in exploring propaganda with students. During this webinar, Renee talks about the representation of terrorism in the media and the importance of understanding virality as it shapes the spread of contemporary propaganda. She introduces Mind Over Media, a user-generated content websites for helping people critically analyze the wide variety of new forms of propaganda available today.

1. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
@reneehobbs
Exploring the Links between
Media Literacy, Propaganda
and Radicalization
BRUSSELS 10-11 March 16

2. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Today’s GoalsToday’s Goals
Define radicalization in the context of media literacy education
Consider the power of virality in the spread of propaganda
Tour the “Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda”
website
Overview learning principles embedded in the design
Discuss the challenges & opportunities of teaching about
contemporary propaganda

3. Suffragette (2015)
RADICALIZATION

4. 1. Personal grievances or need for adventure
2. Sense of righteousness about the cause
3. Feelings of personal & political empowerment
4. Active participation in social networks
5. High levels of poverty & unemployment
RADICALIZATION

6. ACCESS
expanding the concept of literacy

7. VIRALITY
when information, an image or video
gets circulated rapidly and widely from
one Internet user to another

8. 30-minute documentary was viewed
112 million times in just 7 days between
March 6 – 12, 2012
VIRALITY

9. VIRALITY

10. LEGITIMATING
SOURCES

11. LEGITIMATING
SOURCES

21. New
Propaganda
Social Sharing

22. New
Propaganda
Content
Marketing

24. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Design PrinciplesDesign Principles
People learn through exploration, browsing & pattern recognition
Making judgments about the relative benefits/harms of media messages
requires consideration of text, author, purpose, audience and context
Exposure to diverse interpretations heightens awareness & stimulates
intellectual curiosity
New forms of propaganda – virality & content marketing – are unfamiliar to
many people
Dialogue about propaganda is sensitive and requires high levels of trust &
respect

26. Perhaps the “almost true” is
potent precisely because the
audience has to bridge the gap of
truth and in so doing become
complicit in its viral spreading.
--Anthony Wing Kosner

27. What are the opportunities
and challenges?

28. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Today’s GoalsToday’s Goals
Define radicalization in the context of media literacy education
Consider the power of virality in the spread of propaganda
Tour the “Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda”
website
Overview learning principles embedded in the design
Discuss the challenges & opportunities of teaching about
contemporary propaganda

29. Educators and learners
both benefit from the
process of critically
analyzing
contemporary
propaganda

30. Educators and learners
contribute to the public
sphere in ways that
strengthen citizenship
& the democratic
process

31. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Twitter: @reneehobbs
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Exploring the Links between
Media Literacy, Propaganda
and Radicalization
BRUSSELS 10-11 March 16

32. Renee Hobbs
@reneehobbs