Communications+Technology

=**__Communication Technology and the Control of Information__**=


 * Purpose of the Lesson**

To develop an understanding of the use that innovations in communication technology could be put towards in misleading the public and distorting the truth. Students should come away with a grasp of the wide implications that communication technology had upon society, in both Canada and around the world.

While the content of this lesson may not be of direct use in the final summative, students should be able to develop the media skills that they will require to create a convincing newspaper spread.
 * Final Summative**

This lesson is ideally placed immediately after a lesson on the Winnipeg General Strike, for the final portion of this lesson will draw upon the events in Winnipeg as a primary example of media bias.
 * Prior Knowledge**

Design to Specs: Students will create a newspaper headline or radio broadcast that manipulates its audience using the same techniques taught in class. Through this challenge, students should realize ‘what makes a piece of media manipulative’
 * Critical Challenge**

- Familiar medium - Misleading details - Plausibility - Playing on audiences’ emotions [Note: Students may specify additional criteria during the Phase 1 Activity]
 * Criteria for Judgment of Media Manipulation**

Cause and Consequence, focusing mainly on the consequences that the communications revolution has had upon Canadian and global society
 * Portal of Historical Thinking**

Perspective – Students will see how media can present a certain very specific point of view and experiment with doing a bit of convincing manipulation of their own.
 * Habit of Mind**

When formulating criteria for manipulative media, students will create a T-chart, with one column listing the emotional factors that are in play during a media assault and the other listing the more intellectual factors.
 * Thinking Strategy**

This lesson will address the Curriculum mandates of ‘Impact of Scientific and Technological Development’ (Pg. 48)
 * Ministry Expectations**

HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, found here: []
 * __Materials Required__**

The following pictures need to be ready to be projected for the class through a projector or Powerpoint: Lenin and Stalin (doctored): [] Original Photo (Just Lenin): [] Trotsky with Lenin: [] Trotsky removed: [] Water Commissar Vanished: []

This New York Times Article should be ready on an overhead or powerpoint: []

One copy of the prompts in Phase 3, listed below, should be printed for each group in the class.

**__The Learning Experience__**
Following quote should be on the board when students enter: “ In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell Communication technologies played a very strong role in the shape of the early 20th century. Tools of communication like the phone, which linked cities together, or the radio that broadcast information were inventions of the late 19th century, but it was only in the first decades of the 20th century when these technologies became prominent and began to have an effect upon society as a whole, bridging communities through shared information across oceans and nations. But the rapid flow of information and the new mediums of broadcasting that information proved to not be neutral sources of information. Indeed, these new technologies could very easily be used to manipulate the public and pervert the truth, as this lesson will now show.
 * __Introduction__ – 3 Minutes**
 * Statement:**

Bear in mind as we go through this material that the final summative for this unit is to make a newspaper spread. Try to keep the styles and ideas we go through today in mind when you go back to create that spread.

__**Phase 1: War of the Worlds 1938 radio broadcast**__ à 6 million people listened and its calculated that about 1.7 million of them listened
 * Total 15 minutes**
 * Minds-On Activity – 10-15 Minutes**
 * Explanation** beforehand of what happened during the initial broadcast on CBS – this is a science fiction program about aliens invading the Earth told from the perspective of journalists – When people heard it they fled their homes, claimed to smell poison gas and said they saw flashes of lightning across the sky.

When finished: [PRESENT: New York Times Headline on overhead] Split class into groups of five, made by their choice. Give approximately **5 minutes** for them to consider answers and then put key points on the board. Ask students to write their answers down in a **T-Chart** that splits emotional factors from intellectual factors. Inform them that they will be called upon at random for answers. Look for the following answers (among others): Intellectual Aspects: - Familiar medium (Radio news broadcast – people expect that to be true) - Misleading details (The crowd, the little gaps while he changes spots – makes it seem more ‘real’) [Note: Points on the quality of the acting and presentation can be funneled into this point] Emotional Aspects: - Plausibility (War on people’s minds – point out headline on Jews right of the radio broadcast news) - Playing on audiences’ emotions (Right headline – even if aliens weren’t on people’s minds, war certainly was) [Note: Points on the audience being gullible can be reframed into these points] Once this criteria is in hand, explicitly make point that communication technology can be used manipulatively. Conclude exercise with statement: Orson Wells scared his audience to death for what ultimately were for entertainment purposes, but he was not the only individual to use these new methods of spreading and reaching thousands of viewers to their advantage. And other individuals that made use of this technology would not have such pure motivations.
 * [PRESENT: Clip from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds** [] **(5 minutes long)]**
 * Activity:** Question to class – “Why did people believe this? What about HG Wells’ broadcast made it so convincing?”

__**Phase 2: Manipulation of the Media in the Soviet Union**__ Across the world in the new Soviet Union, a man named Vladimir Lenin had deposed the old Russian Tzar and replaced him with a Dictatorship of the Proletariat. This isn’t the whole story, but Lenin consolidated his hold over what were once the territories of the Russian Empire and, through a combination of his personal charisma and a fair amount of propaganda. When he died, he left a leadership vacuum behind him that had to be filled by one of two men, Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin. Considering the esteem that Lenin was held in, it was very important that the Soviet public should consider the man who succeeded him to be truly close to him.
 * Total 25 minutes**
 * Explanation – 2 Minutes**

[PRESENT: [] Doctored Image of Stalin and Lenin on the park bench] Look at this image now. What does it tell you about the relationship between Lenin and Stalin? Are they close? Are they friends? After students give impressions (which should basically amount to “They were friends”), do the Reveal: [PRESENT: [] Original photograph of just Lenin] - This is the original photograph of Lenin. Stalin had his hat taken off (since Lenin’s baldness is sort of iconic), buttoned his shirt up and tilted him a bit towards Stalin. And then added himself. He then distributed this photograph to the public and in the Politburo. - The photo would have left the same impressions that were just heard in the Think Pair Share activity. Modeling: - Point back to HG Wells Criteria – familiar medium and its plausible (Photograph – they didn’t have photoshop then). It is deliberately misleading (the image is a lie) and play on emotions (sitting on a bench, the way any person would sit on a bench to talk to his/her friends).
 * Activity – Doctored Photo – 10 minutes:**
 * 5 minutes** - Think Pair Share Activity - 30 seconds to think, 2 minutes to talk, 3 minutes to share.

The technology that our modern media is based on can often be used for misdirection and propaganda. In the early 20th century, the innovations in and dissemination of communication technology could be as much about controlling information as they were about distributing it.
 * Statement – 1 Minute:**

[PRESENT: [] [] Two Photos, before and after alteration, of Lenin and Trotsky]
 * Reinforcement Activity – Two More Doctored Photos – 10 Minutes**

Ask students to spot the difference. Who was removed? Who do you think removed him? Discussion should reveal: -Who Trotsky was and identifying Stalin as the culprit - Touching on the points that Stalin’s chief rival for Soviet and that Lenin actually favoured Trotsky Mention: – Lenin’s last testament said remove Stalin and put Trotsky in charge
 * Preliminary – 2 Minutes**

- Erasing Trotsky not just as a competitor but as a person who existed - Something to specifically point out if it doesn’t come out in discussion – What effect would this have on people who //knew// it was a fake and that Trotsky had been removed? What does it tell them about Stalin’s power? [PRESENT: [] Two more photos, Stalin with Commissar Yezhov and Stalin with the Commissar vanished]
 * Question for the Class – 3-4 Minutes:** What was Stalin trying to achieve by modifying this photo? Consult with the established HG Wells Criteria

Explain that the vanished man is Commissar Yezhov, who was in charge of water transportation in Moscow. An extremely minor official who was executed by Stalin during one of the many political purges that the Soviet dictator undertook – not just Trotsky who got this treatment – the people that Stalin destroyed didn’t just lose their life but also were deliberately erased from all public memory. Stalin controlled the bottlenecks of information and thus could present whatever ‘truth’ he wanted to his citizens, no matter how small the matter might be.
 * Explanation – 2-4 Minutes**

__**Phase 3: Turning Back to Canada**__ In Canada, things weren’t and have thankfully never been quite as bad as they were in the Soviet Union – No single person has ever been able to hold that power in our country’s history – However, we do have a mass media which, more often than not, has not been entirely accurate in its representation of the truth Case study: The Winnipeg General Strike - The Communist revolution in the Soviet Union frightened Western governments – some would say for good reason – As we have studied, the Winnipeg General Strike occurred for very good reasons involving wages and the cost of living. But how was the Winnipeg General Strike portrayed?
 * Total 35 Minutes**
 * Statement – 3-5 Minutes**

[PRESENT: [] New York Times Article labeling striking workers as Bolsheviks] - Read a bit of the article for effect, try to get a few laughs with the blatant bias

Divide the Class into 4 groups of 5, using Numbered Heads. Each group is to present a newspaper headline with the first two paragraphs (and perhaps a picture) or produce a mock radio broadcast. This is a design to specs assignment, wherein students should attempt to utilize the HG Wells Criteria to create a media piece that is designed to deceive the public.
 * Group Activity – 30 Minutes - Misleading the public**

Imagine that you have travelled back in time to early 20th Canada and, using your extensive knowledge of future events gained in this classroom, have made yourself into the Canadian Stalin. In order to consolidate your rule, however, you have decided that certain aspects of Canadian history need to be ‘adjusted’ to better suit your purposes and ensure that the public does not get any funny ideas about opposing your rule.
 * Prompt (Place on board):**

Your priorities as the Canadian Stalin are: - Blaming the Halifax explosion on subversive Germans and/or Americans (Example headline if students require modeling: “Dastardly Foreigners Set Canadian City Aflame!”) - Covering up Canadian casualties during the Battle of the Somme (Example headline if students are stuck: “Bold Canadians Effortlessly Defeat Ill-Mannered Germans”) - Preparing your populace for war by showing that Trench Warfare really not that bad at all (Ex. “Canadians Served Swiss Chocolates and French Wine as German Corpses Pile High”) - Discourage dissent amongst your ranks by equating opposing conscription with treason (Ex. “Henri Bourassa spits on Canadian flag! Claims ‘Anglos should all die anyway!’”) (It should be clear that the students can take any angle on the issue that they wish, so long as the end result is somehow misleading.)
 * Distribute individual scenarios to students:**

Teacher should circulate during preparation period, resolving any misunderstandings and give suggestions to students. If any students are beginning to stray from the assigned task they should be directed back towards the established criteria which should still be on the black-board from the earlier exercise.
 * Preparation Time – 15 Minutes**

Students should be kept to a clock for the sake of time. A formative assessment of each presentation can be assigned for each presentation if the teacher feels that more accountability is necessary.
 * Presentation Time – 15 Minutes**


 * __Conclusion__ – 2 minutes**
 * Statement:** We as a class should see now the manner in which innovations in communication technology could be used to not just distribute information but also to control and subvert the truth. This is a pattern that we shall return to again when it comes time to study Nazi Germany and the Second World War and it is a factor that every citizen should recognize whenever they open a news site or turn on the news.