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ART 131 Assignment Playbook

Learn how to do a visual analysis of propaganda posters for ART 131.

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Belle's Visual Analysis Assignment

Ours...to fight for freedom from want poster

For this assignment, you will research propaganda and how institutions such as governments or movements use images to persuade their audience to support their plan or agenda. You will choose an institution and propaganda focus and provide images and historical context .

Propaganda

Propaganda "appears in a variety of forms. It is strategic and intentional as it aims to influence attitudes, opinions, and behaviors. Propaganda can be beneficial or harmful. It may use truth, half-truths, or lies. To be successful, propaganda taps into our deepest values, fears, hopes, and dreams." -- Steven Luckert and Susan Bachrach, authors of The State of Deception, 2009

Find academic sources

  • QuickSearch, the library's catalog, and the library databases can provide you with all the sources you need for your presentation. 
  • Search strategically: use nouns and combine them with AND.  These nouns should be specific to your topic.
    • Examples:
      • Your presentation is about the suffragist movement in the United States. Your search would then be: suffrage AND women AND united states
      • Your presentation will focus on Russia. First, you must choose an era or time frame to focus on--there's a lot of history to choose from!--and then choose your keywords. Examples:
        • Russia AND World War I AND propaganda
        • Soviet Union AND propaganda
    • Other suggested searches:
      • World War, 1914-1918 -- Propaganda (as a subject search)
      • Search by creator/designer/artist name: Johann von Leers
  • The library has many databases, but you will want to start with these:
    • In addition to the books linked on this playbook, use QuickSearch to find historical and cultural context for your chosen government, era, or movement.
    • Find background information on your country or movement by using Gale eBooks.
    • Use the EBSCO portal to have access to a wealth of different databases and millions of articles.  See also the list of databases below.

Finding Sources

This is not an exhaustive list of resources, but they could be a good place to start.

Suggested books:

Suggested websites:

Propaganda Posters

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