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Draft Syllabus
Propaganda: Fakes and facts
Summer 2017
Session 3
Copenhagen
4 Credits
Study Tour: Brussels
Major Disciplines: Communication, Journalism, Political Science.
Faculty Member: Jon Kyst
Program Director: Iben De Neergaard, [email protected]
Assistant Program Director: Nya Oxfeldt Jensen, [email protected]
Program Assistant: Jenny Han, [email protected]
Normal class hours are between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. In three cases (3 July, 10 July and 25 July), the class
continues until 2 pm. Note that there is no class on Monday, 24 July. In addition, a number of field studies are
held during afternoons, see below.
Course description: Where is the difference between propaganda, bias and strategic communications? How do
media and governments place themselves in the space between information, persuasion and manipulation? In
fact, is there a truth out there at all, and if there is, why do we have to speak it?
We gather in Copenhagen for four weeks of in-depth discussions of news reporting, fake news and standards in
journalism, and government communications. We visit newsrooms in leading Danish and European media and
encounter the filter bubbles of social media. We travel to Brussels, the European capital, and hear what
decision makers and top European media professionals think about the latest developments in media and in
government communications. We will also take a tour in time into the history of propaganda and study its aims
and methods.
At the end of the course, we will formulate a set of red lines, which we, as a group, agree that media and
government communicators should not cross. In addition, we will have developed tools that can be useful to
defend truth against disinformation - in media, social media and government communications.
Course Faculty: Jon Kyst, Ph.D.
Jon Kyst holds an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in Russian and English, for which he studied at the University
of Copenhagen, St. Petersburg State University in Russia and Columbia University in New York. In his current
position, he is seconded as a Russian media expert by the Danish Foreign Ministry to the East Strategic
Communications Task Force at the EU's diplomatic service (EEAS) Headquarters in Brussels. The Task Force has
been tasked by the EU Member States to analyze and create awareness about Russia’s ongoing disinformation
campaigns. Dr. Kyst has been affiliated with DIS since 2003.
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Approach to Teaching:
This course relies on in-class participation. Class time will be largely discussion-based, with some lecture and
interactive activities. You should read all material prior to class and will be expected to actively participate in
both all class discussions and group work.
Some assignments will require independent fieldwork.
Late work will be deducted a third of a grade point per day it is late.
Expectations of the students:
In order to pass the class, you must:
1. Read all material before the class.
2. Actively participate in discussions of your readings.
3. Be active participants in group work.
Computers and phones are NOT allowed in class unless specifically agreed.
Assignment
Participation:
Percentage of final grade
60 %
Deadline
Ongoing
Participation includes: Active
participation in class
discussions (20%), simulation
game (20%), study tour
research, presentations and
discussions (20%)
Final paper:
20 %
Brussels study tour reflection
paper
20 %
July 27-28
July 25
Media and Government Communications Simulation Game
The course includes a special simulation game section, in which students work as policy officers, press officers
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and journalists.
In the process, we learn about the relationship between media and government; the sources, the leaks, the
narratives, the dos and don'ts of government communications and how media stick to critical reporting, finding
themselves under political pressure.
Schedule of classes:
Schedule is subject to change if necessary with as much notice as possible. Do all readings BEFORE CLASS.
1: Monday, July 3 10.00 – 14.00 (feel free to bring lunch to class!): What is propaganda?
Class discussion: Prepare for this first class by identifying an example of what you think is propaganda. Email
your example to the professor no later than 24 hours before the class starts. He will then distribute the
examples to the class. We then all prepare for the class by studying the examples and taking notes for the class
discussion. Your example must be short. If it is a text, it should not be longer than half a page. It can also be an
image or a link to a video clip of maximum two minutes’ length. Prepare to briefly introduce yourself and your
example in class: What are the features in your example that make you think it is propaganda?
The exercise will help us to mobilize some fundamental definitions of propaganda. We also use the exercise to
get to know each other and to establish the classroom as a space for shared reflection, discussion and
creativity.
2: Tuesday, July 4: 10.00 – 13.00 What can media do to avoid propaganda?
Class discussion: In this class we will discuss our expectations to media in the light of the propaganda problem
we started outlining in yesterday’s class. Should media stick to reporting facts? If so, why? What problems do
media face if they should only report facts?
We prepare for this class by reading the below texts. Take notes when you identify points you find relevant for
writing the first draft of our collectively written guidelines for media on how to avoid becoming involved in
propaganda.
Readings:
Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why facts don’t change our minds”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds
Craig Silverman, This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On
Facebook
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-onfacebook?utm_term=.rs9K1ZoD0#.xk5zQODYA
Philip N. Howard, Unless The Government Acts Soon, Fake News Will Produce Deep Information Inequality
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-trump-data_us_58e3b2abe4b0f4a923b22015?
Adrien Chen, The Agency
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?_r=0
Afternoon:
Field study to Danish national public service radio and television, DR. We discuss with journalists and editors
which methods they apply to avoid bias and relaying incorrect data and propaganda.
3: Wednesday, July 5 10.00 – 13.00: Fact checking – the case of MH17
Prepare for this class by reading Bellingcat’s open source investigation of the downing of flight MH17 over
Eastern Ukraine. We begin the class with a discussion of the MH17 incident, the way it was covered in media in
the aftermath of the event, and discuss Bellingcat’s investigation as an example of fact-checking investigative
journalism. We create a list of examples of the methods applied by Bellingcat to challenge the ways the
incident was explained by officials and in media.
Towards the end of the class a fact checking assignment is handed out. We spend the rest of the day solving
the assignment in groups and prepare to present our results on the next day.
Reading:
Bellingcat, MH17 – The Open Source Investigation, Two Years Later https://www.bellingcat.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/mh17-two-years-later.pdf
4: Thursday, July 6: 10.00 – 13.00 Fact checking exercise
We present the results of the fact checking exercise in groups and discuss the methods and results we have
applied.
We then move to preparing for tomorrow’s class. We look at the Russian media landscape and the place
occupied by two English language outlets financed by the Russian authorities, RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik.
5: Friday, July 7: 10.00 – 13.00 RT (Russia Today), Sputnik and “the information war”
We start the class by reflecting in groups on the news stories we have prepared for this class by looking at - in
the light of the background reading (Pomerantsev and Weiss). We then present our findings and move into a
class discussion of the political context many observers call “the information war” between Russia and the
West.
Reading:
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Select fresh news reporting about European affairs from RT and Sputnik
Peter Pomerantsev & Michael Weiss, "The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information,
Culture and Money"
http://www.interpretermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Menace_of_Unreality_Final.pdf
John Pollock, “Russian Disinformation Technology”
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604084/russian-disinformation-technology/
6: Monday, 10 July 10.00 – 14.00 (feel free to bring lunch to class!): US “alternative” media and their global
context
Over the weekend we have read a number of texts, both about the American “alternative” media landscape
and the current political context. We discuss the dichotomy “alternative” vs. “main stream” media and its
political implications, including the degree to which we find that what we have found out about the Russian
media landscape overlaps with the situation in the US. In class, we also, first in groups and then as a class,
discuss examples of fresh news reporting about Europe in American “alternative” media. We reflect on this
reporting against the background of last week’s discussions and our experience after having been in Europe
now for one week. In what ways would we ourselves report about European affairs?
Reading:
Select fresh reporting about European affairs in US “alternative” media.
Kate Starbird, “Information Wars: A Window into the Alternative Media Eco System”
https://medium.com/hci-design-at-uw/information-wars-a-window-into-the-alternative-media-ecosystema1347f32fd8f
Evan Osnos, David Remnick, & Joshua Yaffa Trump, Putin and the new cold war.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war
Masha Gessen, “Russia: The Conspiracy Trap”
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/06/trump-russia-conspiracy-trap/
7: Tuesday, 11 July 10.00 – 13.00: Germany's in the 1930s and 1940s: Propaganda and European right-wing
extremism
We invite a guest professor (philosophy or sociology, name TBA) to give a lecture and participate in the class
discussion. What role does the discussion of facts vs. myths play in the modern European history of ideas? In
what ways did fascism and Nazism challenge truth? While look at the Nazi German case as described by
Hannah Arendt and Victor Klemperer as a form of worst case scenario, we also try to connect our findings to
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what we have found out about modern media and political communications.
Reading:
Images and film clips from Nazi German propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s
Hannah Arendt: “Totalitarian Propaganda” (from Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism)
Victor Klemperer: LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii (excerpts)
8: Wednesday, 12 July 10.00 – 13.00: How to counter propaganda
There are different schools and different historical experience in countering propaganda. We prepare for class
by reading texts that discuss this problem, and then have a class discussion where we draw on our previous
discussions in order to formulate what we think can and should be done about fake news and propaganda. We
revisit the first draft of our guidelines (from class 2) to media on how to avoid getting involved in propaganda,
and amend it by adding a section on what media and governments can do to not just avoid producing or
relaying propaganda, but also countering it.
Reading:
Edward Lucas & Peter Pomerantsev: “Winning the Information War”
https://cepa.ecms.pl/files/?id_plik=2773
Afternoon field study: Visit to the Royal Danish Military Academy. Meeting with propaganda expert Thomas
Elkjer Nissen. Discussion of propaganda and countering propaganda in the light of defense and national
security.
9: Thursday, 13 July 10.00 – 13.00: The EU’s project to counter pro-Kremlin disinformation
As a preparation for our visit to Brussels we look at and discuss the work done by the EU’s East Strategic
Communications Task Force to counter pro-Kremlin disinformation. We look at the team’s communications
output and its work with three objectives – improved government communications, support of independent
media and creation of awareness about the methods of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign. We prepare
for class by studying examples of the team’s output with a focus on the use of social media campaigning.
Reading:
Examples of the East Stratcom Task Force’s communications:
www.euvsdisinfo.eu, www.twitter.com/euvsdisinfo, www.facebook.com/EUvsDisinfo
Afternoon field study: Visit to the Representation of the European Commission in Copenhagen. How does the
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EU communicate its policies in the Member States? What are the challenges?
9: Friday, 14 July 10.00 – 13.00: Politicians, their communicators, the pundits and the journos in the Brussels
Bubble
Also as preparation for the study tour, we look at the EU capital and its current political agendas with a focus
on global affairs and political communications. We go through all our planned meetings and activities in
Brussels, learn about and discuss the different roles played by different actors and clarify the expectations to us
as a group and the assignments in an after the study tour to Brussels.
Reading:
Tour program, select fresh news stories about current global affairs from the Brussels and EU perspective.
A draft tour program will be made available when the course begins. A final printed version will be handed out
in this class.
Monday, 17 July – Friday, 21 July: Study Tour to Brussels
The tour will aim at understanding the rules and the agendas in Europe's political capitals. What are the
challenges the European Union is facing and how is communications used to support the EU's global policies?
We go behind the scenes and meet the people who define and change agendas, both in media, in think tanks
and in the political institutions. In addition, we contextualize our impressions in Brussels via a cultural program.
9: Tuesday, 25 July 10.00 – 14.00 (feel free to bring lunch to class!): Study tour debrief and discussion
This class focuses on following up on all loose ends and unfinished discussions from the study tour. We look
back at what we have found out and discussed also before the study tour and make as much sense as possible
of our meetings and impressions from Belgium. We share thoughts from the stidy tour reflection paper we
have just submitted. We then look into this last week and the final exercise
Reading:
Texts of relevance to following up on Brussels program, TBA
12: Wednesday, July 26 10.00 – 13.00: Media and Government Communications Simulation Game I
Preparations for the simulation game
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13: Thursday, July 27 10.00 – 13.00: Media and Government Communications Simulation Game II
We play the game
14: Friday, July 28: Final discussion: The red lines. How not to become a propagandist and how to counter
propaganda?
In this final class we tie all parts of the course together. We finalize the recommendations we have been
drafting and reflect on what we have learned from all the course activities
Final paper due on Saturday, July 29.