Propaganda and Product Defense

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course explores how powerful institutions shape public understanding through propaganda, misinformation, and deliberate strategies of "product defense." We begin by examining the core mechanisms of propagands,, how it works, why it succeeds, and the psychological, political, and cultural conditions that allow it to thrive. From there, we study major arenas where propaganda has reshaped public knowledge, including tobacco, climate change, policing, and technology, tracing how industries and governments manufacture doubt, manage public perception, and defend harmful products or practices. The course also investigates the production of organized ignorance and the role of media systems in reinforcing or challenging dominant narratives. Finally, we focus on traditions of resistance: the work of truth-tellers, community educators, cultural critics, and organizers who expose misinformation, reclaim narrative power, and build counter-hegemonic knowledge. Students will learn to analyze how propaganda is constructed, how it becomes embedded in everyday life, and how it can be effectively confronted.