Sure, there's a crude message that propaganda is trying to get across. But like poetry, when you know how to read it, propaganda contains lots of more subtle messages that you might not see at first glance. This week: examples, big and small, from around the world.
Guerrilla Marketing
Producer Sean Cole tells the story of a brand of war propaganda developed in Colombia that was so ambitious and ornate, it's almost hard to believe. You can watch Jose Miguel Sokoloff's TED talk, which is featured in the story, here. (15 1/2 minutes)
Not Our Town
When Jon Mooallem went to see his six-year-old daughter in a musical at her after-school program, he didn't know what to expect. But it certainly was not the performance saw. The musical was created by Children's After School Arts. (15 minutes)
The Spy Who Didn't Know She Was A Spy
On September 29th a medical researcher in Philadelphia fired off a simple, well-meaning tweet, and then barely thought twice about it. Little did she know that by doing that, she was perpetrating covert propaganda on behalf of the U.S. government. Ira explains. (7 1/2 minutes)
Party On!
Evan Osnos, a staff writer for the New Yorker who for years reported on China, tells producer Nancy Updike about an incredibly shrewd and successful propaganda campaign that hinged on two words. Evan's book about China, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, won the national book award in 2014. (12 1/2 minutes)
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Act Two: Whose Idea Was This Anyway?
Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Bill Strassberger explains why INS opposes parts of the 1996 immigration law, even while it enforces it.
Act Three: Health
Deborah Lott comes from a family that obsesses over health.
Act Two: Beautiful Downtown Wasteland
There are so few farmers in the United States that in 1993, the census stopped counting the number of Americans who live on farms at the time.
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