By Nikita Duke (Media Education Lab)
The Media Education Lab is proud to announce the launch of Planet of Propaganda, a podcast series created and hosted by Media Ed Lab’s research assistant, Nikita Duke.
Interviews around the globe
Planet of Propaganda promotes media literacy through interviews with educators, researchers and activists from around the globe. It explores the different ways by which media literacy leaders are educating citizens about media and tackling the issue of contemporary propaganda with students and teachers in their home countries.
The first season of Planet of Propaganda focuses on propaganda and media education in Europe via interviews with the European partners involved in the Mind Over Media EU project, a project co-financed by the European Commission with 7 partners from 6 EU countries, developing the Media Education Lab’s Mind over Media platform further into a multilingual tool adapted to local formal and non-formal teaching contexts. Season one of the podcast series spans six episodes; five 15-minute episodes (each dedicated to a partner interview) and one 5-minute introductory episode. In addition to the interviews, each partner was asked to provide and discuss a piece of “significant contemporary propaganda” from their country. Examples range from political cartoons to government-created short films.
Same phenomenon, different perspectives
The first interview of the series is with Igor Kanizaj, associate professor at the University of Zagreb in Croatia in the department of Journalism and Media Culture. The second episode travels to the Nordic countries to talk with Sonja Hernesniemi, Executive Manager at the Finnish Society on Media Education, an organization which supports and develops research on media literacy education. Listeners then hear from Maya Dobiasz-Krysiak, a media literacy expert from the Center For Citizenship Education in Poland. Making its way back to Western Europe, the podcast then focuses on media and propaganda in Belgium with Bert Pieters of Mediawijs. The last interview of the season is with Nicoleta Fotiade, president of Mediawise Society in Romania.
The Planet of Propaganda series offers perspectives from Eastern and Western Europe and listeners are left to contemplate the similarities and differences in the ways these two regions are experiencing the same phenomenon. The concept of propaganda carries a lot of connotations – some similar, some different, depending on a country’s history. All interviewed educators have their own take on how to address the challenges related to these connotations.
Teaching About Propaganda 