Episode 39: Understanding and Countering Propaganda

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In this episode, April attempts to unpack the complicated topic of propaganda, a form of persuasion used by corporations, advertisers, pundits, influencers, and political personalities. These days, it's important for critical thinkers to understand that there should be a delineation between propaganda and the kind of rhetoric used in democratic governance, to recognize propaganda and to avoid being influenced by it. If this sounds important--well, it is.

Episode 39 Show Notes

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda--this references the origins of the word propaganda and its original link to religious proselytizing

https://www.thoughtco.com/propaganda-definition-1691544--Dr. Richard Nordquist's excellent ThoughtCo article about the difference between rhetoric and propaganda

https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/medialiteracy/propaganda --University of Oregon's Media Literary Research guide's deep dive into propaganda has some great information about how to determine if something is propaganda

https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/medialiteracy/propaganda --the Naab Research Center gives examples of positive uses of propaganda

Emotional Campaigning in Politics: Being Moved and Anger …--a pdf of Gruning and Schubert's article about the use of emotion in political campaigns

https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/glittering-generalities--YourDictionary.com has a great article with examples of glittering generalities

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Loaded_language--the list of "snarl" words is at the bottom of this wiki page devoted to loaded language

https://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/AllSidesMediaBiasChart-Version2.jpg--an updated version of the AllSides Media Bias chart

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/--a great source for checking the bias of any news source, as well as whether it has failed any fact checks

https://disinformation-nation.org/combat-propaganda/--great article about ways to combat propaganda

https://www.shortform.com/summary/thinking-fast-and-slow-summary-daniel-kahneman?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=531475976&msclkid=704335b2e9371134f6f7526e8cdafb8c--a long web address leading to a short summary of Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/202003/can-you-be-abundantly-cautious-and-fearless--while this article was written about the Covid pandemic, the ideas in it still resonate

https://www.neuroandcounselingcenter.com/single-post/informed-protect-peace--good ideas from certified mental health counselor Amanda Levison, about how to keep your cool and not get overwhelmed w