Fending off Fake News: Identifying and Analyzing Propaganda in Imagery

Abstract The rise of social media outlets along with the explosion of information platforms has helped to fuel an intensification of tribal epistemology. As a result, propaganda aimed at uplifting one group over another is on the rise. This article aims to explain the nature of propaganda and historically situate propaganda techniques currently employed. Using past efforts of the Institute of Propaganda Analysis from the 1930s, the author resynthesizes some popular propaganda analysis tools to better serve the contemporary citizenry to identify and analyze modern political propaganda. This article provides these tools and incremental steps that teachers can use as a practical effort to empower students to be better critical consumers of propaganda, particularly image-based propaganda.