POL 603: Interactive Workshop: Challenging Propaganda
Lecturers: Mgr. Petra Vejvodová, Ph.D. (vejvodov@fss.muni.cz)
Mgr. Miloš Gregor (mgregor@fss.muni.cz)
Day & Time: every second Thursday, 3.15 p.m. – 6.30 p.m.
Room: P52 
ECTS: 6
Course Objectives:  
The course is part of the international project „Peer2Peer: Challenging Extremism“ of the
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department and EdVenture
Partners. The project provides an opportunity for students to create and activate their own
social media campaign to challenge extreme ideologies, propaganda and recruitment
messaging. This year the workshop will be inspired by the issue of propaganda of foreign
countries in the Czech Republic. Students' team will be challenged to consider not only how
current messaging via digital technologies might be countered (positioning of being against
something), but also how to empower positive alternative narratives, models and pathways that
advocate for something (such as cultural and religious freedoms, living, civil society, for
example).
Students will run a real campaign conducted in the Czech Republic focused on civic
education countering propaganda and manipulative techniques. The aim of the course is to
provide students practical experience in preparation, planning and implementation of such
campaign in the real terms. The course structure reﬂects the various stages of the
campaigning (i.e. inventing a concept, message and target audience of the campaign, actual
implementation of the campaign in online and ofﬂine environments and ﬁnally evaluation of the
campaign – its strengths and weaknesses, successes and limits).
An integral part of the course are consultations with experts. They assess the quality of
ongoing campaign and provide feedback to the students. At the end, the team will submit the
workshop outcome (project with analyzed results) for review. Teams from all around the world
participating in the project will be competing for the chance to present their campaigns in
Washington, D.C. to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of
State and other intergovernmental agency senior leaders. Team can use English as well as
Czech language.
The course is practically oriented.
Terms of completion of the course:
Students are required to meet the ongoing tasks during the semester. The assignments will be
delivered during seminars. In the seminar, students actively consult their plans and speciﬁc
outcomes of the campaign with teachers and experts from practice. At the end of the course,
all materials which arose during the campaign will be uploaded to the Homework folder in the
Information System. It will include accompanying presentation that summarizes campaign
objectives, strategy, tactics, targeted audience, outcome analysis and evaluation of the
campaign by experts. Attendance at all seminars is obligatory.
Evaluation: passed / not passed
Important dates & deadlines:
‣ September 30: submission of the campaign creative brief
‣ Mid of October to the end November: running campaign
‣ December 5: submission of the summary and evaluation presentation to the IS
Course Structure:
September 22:
Introducing structure of the course, creative brief deﬁnition and campaign introduction. Every
student deﬁnes his or her role in campaign. Deﬁnition of propaganda and manipulative
techniques.
October 6:
Campaign preparation: developing project plan and strategy how to engage audience,
selecting communication platforms, setting up effectivity measurement, etc.
October 20:
Seminar with expert focused on communication tools (will be speciﬁed during the semester).
October 27:
Seminar with expert focused on propaganda (will be speciﬁed during the semester).
November 10:
Ongoing campaign evaluation, improvements in campaign design.
November 24:
Ongoing campaign evaluation, ﬁnal changes in campaign.
December 1:
Final project analysis, competition submission.
Literature:
• Baker, Frank W. 2009. Political Campaigns and Political Advertising. Santa Barbara:
ABC Clio.
• Bowers, James R. – Daniels Stephanie (eds.) 2011: Inside Political Campaigns.
Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Brader, Ted. 2006. Campaigning for Hearts and Minds. Chicago: Chicago University
Press.
• Johnson, Dennis W. 2011. Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century. New York:
Routledge.
• Johnson-Cartee, Karen S. – Copeland, Gary A. 2004. Strategic Political Communication:
Rethinking Social Inﬂuence, Persuasion, and Propaganda. Latham: LinkRowman &
Littleﬁeld, pp. 137-192.
• Macdonald, S. 2005. Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century:
Altered Images and Deception Operations. London and New York: Routledge.
• O’Shaughnessy, Nicholas J. 2004. Politics and Propaganda. Weapon of Mass
Seduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 13-69.
• Reynolds, A. (Ed.) 2016. Social Media as a Tool of Hybrid Warfare. Riga: NATO
Stratcom Centre of Excellence.
• Shaw, Catherine 2004. The Campaign Manager. Running and Winning Local Elections.
Oxford: Westview Press.
• Shea, Daniel M. – Burton, Michael J. 2006. Campaign Craft. Santa Barbara: Praeger.