TOK - Semiotics

1. TOK - Semiotics Propaganda and Persuasion

2. Object Classification • Your mission: classify the following 12 objects into categories • Rule 1: Create 3 or 4 categories that will accommodate all the objects. Describe each category with the label “things that are..” • Rule 2: Each category must have 2 or more objects (no orphans or empty categories) • Rule 3: Each object must belong to one, and only one category (the difficult part) • Rule 4: Be as creative as you can. Groups are encouraged to handle the objects in order to get the creative juices flowing • Each group will describe their classification scheme using a table or chart. The class then critiques each groups scheme, from those left, the one that best satisfies rule 4 is the winner

3. Classification • Carl Linnaeus 1730 devised the Species Plantarumand System Naturea(kingdom/phyla/classes/orders/genera/species) • How did he select criteria for classification? • In his 10th Edition he changed whale classification from fish to mammal • He used reasoning skills • Linguistics were an issue • Classification can be subjective, varying, specific and can depend on the classifier

4. Project Implicit • In his book “Blink” Gladwell argues that our attitudes toward race, gender and ethnicity operate on 2 levels. The deliberate conscious level, where we believe/adopt certain values, and rapid cognition an “immediate, automatic association before we have time to think”. • Using the IAT (Implicit association test) from Harvard, take the RACE test and another of your choosing • According to Gladwell “the disturbing thing about the test is that it shows that our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values”.

5. Project Implicit Discussion • How did you react to your results? Were you surprised? Angry or hurt? Discuss what you felt and why you think you felt what you did. • Do you believe that your test results say something about you that you should pay attention to? Why/why not? • Do you think that these tests are valid? When you first saw your results, did you question or accept the test’s validity? • Give examples of cultural messages that may support attitudes linking a dominant group in your nation or culture with a “good” or “superior” attributes and a subordinate group with “bad” or “inferior”

6. Nuclear Testing- Persuasion Exercise • Team A: You are the president of a European country. You want to test nuclear weapons in a region in the South Pacific despite the protests of much of your own population and many other countries. You want to persuade Europeans that the faraway nuclear testing does little damage and certainly will not hurt Europe. What kind of map do you use to persuade them? Design it. • Team B: You are a leader in a worldwide environmental organization. You are distressed that the president of a European country is testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific and want to communicate the damaging impact of the blasts on both the immediate region and the rest of the planet. You want to support the protests that are already coming from many countries. What kind of map do you use to persuade more strongly? Design it.

7. Propaganda- borrowed associations • American Propaganda During World War two. • What does this say? How is it persuading you? • How were women viewed at this time in history? • What do the colors make you feel?

8. Nazi Propaganda-sense of belonging • Nazi propaganda appeals to a sense of belonging • What do the images of these children evoke during the Nazi regime? • Find two examples for emotional appeals in the newspaper and include them in your journal.

9. Emotion- pity • Appeal to pity • We have compassion for those in distress, but is that a sound basis to conclude they have actually been wronged? • Does hardship itself prove innocent victimization?

10. Emotion- Fear • Fear is a primitive emotion. • Fight or flight • It is easily exploited as evidenced by the atomic bomb poster shown here • Fear and reactions based on it create the reality

11. Semiotics • se·mi·ot·ics • noun \-ˈä-tiks\ : the study of signs and symbols and how they are used • pluralsemiotics • Full Definition of SEMIOTICS • :  a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics • — semioticadjective • — se·mi·o·ti·cian \-ə-ˈti-shən\ noun • — se·mi·ot·i·cist \-ˈä-tə-sist\ noun

12. Semiotics in Advertising The arches are golden, signifying wealth, curved for continuity and the slogan tells you how to feel. What does this ad tell you about this perfume?

13. Semiotics project • Choose a product or ideology to promote, and one metaphor to present it positively and persuasively. (a lux product: diamonds, furs, a brainwashing cult that loves its members while draining their funds- just examples) • Suggestions for your image: (just as __, so too __.) nature is good source of images • Round 2 • Change your metaphor now to counter the persuasion you attempted in round one. For example, if you used ocean tides that were rising to rep the growing force of your ideology . If your metaphor cant “change” create a different metaphor to present your idea/product negatively but equally persuasive

14. Problematic premises • Opening statements provide the basis for the argument • Unstated premises are part of every exchange. Can you articulate all assumptions? • A key to critical thinking is being aware of unstated assumptions when listening/reading to understand other perspectives • The dubious premise- possibly true, possibly false • The implied premise- used to influence attitudes or conclusions “Have you stopped cheating? Yes or no?”

15. Flawed Generalizations • Argument from ignorance • Hasty generalization • Manipulation of statistics • Believing a claim with no evidence. • A conclusion reached on the basis of insufficient evidence. • Evidence depends on statistics.