P is for Propaganda

So I was bored the other day and thinking about PSD’s website. That inevitably made me think about Katniss Everdeen. Hey, we all have our little bit of pop culture that we’re vaguely embarrassed about liking. One Direction fans, I’m looking at you. Anyway, as you've probably guessed, mine is The Hunger Games.

Dear, lovely Katniss. So brave, so pretty, so bad at choosing boyfriends. One of the many things she taught me (besides first person present tense) is the word “Propaganda”. Her world calls them Propos. Videos, posters, messages put out by both sides of a conflict to support their own agenda. Mister google defines it thusly:

prop·a·gan·da

ˌpräpəˈɡandə/

noun

noun: propaganda; noun: Propaganda

1.

derogatory information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view.

The many Propos of Panem.

Propaganda can actually be a great thing. When you want to get your public to buckle up for safety or remember not to text and drive, PSAs are your best friend. And we all know that without Katniss being the Mockingjay, the districts might never have overthrown the nasty capitol. And we’d never have met Liam Hemsworth.  *sigh*

There’s nothing wrong with propaganda in and of itself. It’s a tool that can be used for good or awesome. Or evil. The real problem is when Propaganda goes about masquerading as something it’s not. As facts. When information is not what it claims to be.

I am not going to claim to know everything about propaganda, but I’m getting pretty good at spotting it when I see it. I've had ample examples over the last week with presidential hopefuls duking it out on the national stage. My favorite examples of solid propaganda, though, are Pasco School District's recently created, much touted and amply supplied Q&As. Really good propaganda. Again, I'd like to point out that propaganda isn’t a problem on its own, but it is a problem when we’re all told it’s informational posts designed to, well, inform the public.  

Katniss wasn't really surprised that Peeta proposed. But she wanted everyone to think so and used a Propo.

PSD actually went to the trouble of setting up an email address info@psd1.org a while back because the board and top administrators were being inundated by questions, and probably complaints, day and night. For a time, the address appeared to be nothing more than an informational abyss, a place to throw uncomfortable information and questions and never have to look at them again. Then, surprise! The Q&A page popped up! And, by Jove, some parents’ questions were actually on it! 

Then, of course, we actually read the page and disappointment promptly set in. A big issue was that many of the “answers” on the page never answer the questions asked. Others are so convoluted in language and style that it would take two dictionaries, a thesaurus and four grad students to tease them out. But the big thing I noticed was the spin factor.

Take this question from the August 27th group.

"I was wondering when the science curriculum will be updated."

PSD’s answer to that statement:

The science curriculum was reviewed and adjusted to the new science standards in 2007. Deputy Successor Superintendent Michelle Whitney has been charged with putting together a plan to review all of the instructional materials during her time this year as the new Curriculum and Professional Development leader. When she becomes superintendent, she will have a deep level of knowledge about what is in the plan and what it will take to implement it. Mrs.Whitney has been working since May on English Language Arts with a team of teachers and principals. As soon as the contract is settled, she will be able to take up that work once again.

The implicit question, when will the curriculum be updated, is never answered. What PSD did do was provide a misleading statement about science curriculum (reviewed and updated! Not adopted, provided or something meaningful, but we’re hoping you don’t read too closely) followed by a glowing review of the things they are doing in an entirely different area. This is a lovely plug for the future qualifications of Mrs. Whitney as a future superintendent and some interesting information about some possible plans to develop curriculum in English Language Arts. It leads us to think district leaders are hard at work on something that’s become very important to the community. Curriculum. But it’s like asking your local sandwich artist why the sandwich you paid for isn’t in your baggie, and having them answer you with an explanation of their theoretical smoothie making skills. So why was this tangent placed as the main focus of this "answer"?

Information of a biased nature used to promote a particular cause or point of view.

 

How about this question, from August 24:

"What can the district communicate about bargaining?"

And PSD’s answer was:         

Caesar Flickerman wishes you would just answer the question.

We will continue to post the most recent proposals from both PSD and PAE on our website www.psd1.org as they become available. We remain optimistic that an agreement will be reached and that students will be back in school on time. The district agrees that teachers deserve higher salaries which are the responsibility of the State. However, in order to settle this contract, the District has increased its financial offer over 300% since bargaining started. The parties remain far apart.

Again, the fact that the question is not actually answered is not what bothers me. What stuck out to me, was the district painting themselves as “optimistic” at a time when they were already preparing to file a rather pessimistic (and lengthy) injunction, following which they blame the state for tying their hands where salary is concerned. They finish up with a spectacular attempt to make the teachers look greedy by implying their 300% increase just wasn’t good enough to pacify those rebellious, grabby educators. Never you mind the original question didn't ask how close a resolution was, nor how much the district increased their offer. The state's constraints on them weren't touched on by this question. All this unsolicited information had nothing to do with the topic, but was provided anyway.

Information of a biased nature used to promote a particular cause or point of view.

It’s an unhappy realization but not the first one I had while reading the almost daily Q&A releases. The first thing I realized was that there was repetitive information posing as public questions. The first five questions from the first day of Q&As was a rehash of PSD's previously released budget information, along with another few previous posts. While I know there are a lot of people out there who likely wanted that information, it made me suspicious about the origin of these questions.

I confirmed with a few Pasco citizens who were (unsurprisingly) shocked that some of their real questions did make the final lineup but some of them complained the questions were altered slightly. Some of the questions appear to be lifted from Facebook comments. And then there’s the questions that no normal member of the public would ask. 

Katniss hopes the real questions weren't in that building that got all blown up.

Last night (September 1st for those of you who are reading this post later than today) was a particularly good example of this. The first ten questions (which start off with a whopper of a non-sequitur as of the time this blog is posted) read more like a blog post than a list of questions from the public. Believe me, I have some experience with blog posts. While I appreciate that someone may have taken the time to organize and answer a large number of similarly phrased questions in a logically progressive fashion, the list of questions looks far more like a meeting bullet list than honest inquiries. What is the public grumbling about now? How can we appease them? Someone write this down, I want it on our website, STAT.

In other words it reads very much like Information of a biased nature used to promote a particular cause or point of view. Controlling the dialogue with bogus questions or releasing previous information posing as public questions isn’t informational, it’s propaganda. And that’s just not cool, man.

Unless you're President Snow. President Snow would like to congratulate the fellow Propo Pros out there.

So where does this leave us? Confused, probably. A little uncomfortable. And likely a little bit unhappy, most especially the One Direction fans.

Like I said before, there's nothing inherently wrong with propaganda, so long as it stands up proudly and proclaims itself for what it is. Political ads, product placement in movies and cereal commercials. You know what they are when you look at them, there's no ambiguity involved. When a public school district is on the production and delivery team for propaganda, though, I must ask myself why?

So, PSD, Why? Why the games? Why the spin? If you've really got a good point and nothing to hide, just give it to us like it is. We're voting adults, we can figure out what's good on our own. Have your meetings and discussions in public. Give a strait answer to real, honest questions, even if the answer is "We don't know the answer to that question." And for the love of Gale, stop trying to sway public opinion with propaganda. It's not classy, the voters don't appreciate it, and you just can't pull it off well enough for us not to spot it.

And so, my fellow closet pop-culture fans, I leave you with these thoughts, hoping you take the time to spot the propaganda in your own life. Enjoy some closing music, on behalf of the people of Panem.

Katniss wishes you luck in future Propo spotting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdYDzTtaulo

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As a coda, to those who would accuse me of not being thorough, I really had many, many more examples of propaganda from PSD Q&As out and available, but I thought you wouldn't want to read through hundreds of pages of analysis. You're smart, you can spot it. However, if you'd like any question examined on your behalf, please feel free to comment with the one you'd like.