Media Literacy Backlash: Reconsidering Clyde Miller and the IPA

Media literacy backlash: Reconsidering Clyde Miller and the IPA
Friday, November 15, 2024

10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

The Forum at Columbia University
601 West 125th Street
New York City, NY 10027

This convening will consider the legacy of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, one of the forerunners of today’s media literacy movement which was established at Columbia University Teachers College in 1937. Broadening into anti-racist education and analysis of right-wing propaganda, the group of scholars running the IPA were criticized by conservative groups and columnists.  This conference will assess the trajectory, context and legacy of IPA’s founder, Clyde R. Miller and the IPA, particularly in light of renewed interest in the political economy consequences of online mis/disinformation and the attacks on researchers and the  researchers who study it.

9:30 AM – Registration and Breakfast

• Name tags and conference materials will be distributed in the lobby of The Forum, outside of the security desk in the West Atrium.

10:00 AM – Opening Remarks 

• Anya Schiffrin, Director, Technology, Media, and Communications Specialization at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

• Tom Asher, Director of Research & Engagement at Columbia World Projects

10:10 AM to 11:15 AM – Panel 1: Reconsidering Clyde Miller and the IPA

Panelists:

• Elisabeth Fondren,  St. John’s University – “Propagandists for Democracy? The IPA’s Propaganda News and the Evolving ‘Strategy of Truth’ to Expose Fascist Views.” Pioneering American propaganda scholar Harold Lasswell (1927; 1935) was the first one to argue how systematic propaganda begets counterpropaganda, leading to an ever-growing need to adopt new methods and tactics. In the interwar period, mass manipulation via media, and increasingly polarized and fascist propaganda (including Nazi, KKK, and extremist groups in the U.S.) proliferated. “In a democracy, freedom of speech necessarily means freedom to propagandize,” the IPA wrote in 1938. Led by Clyde Miller, the Institute worked from 1937– 1942 to produce analytical newsletters, books, and study materials for the general public, and engaged in the process of agenda building to raise awareness for their publicity work. The IPA failed to expand their efforts due to a lack of funds and mounting political pressures. During WWII, U.S. government propaganda echoed earlier educational efforts to promote a ‘strategy of truth,’ as American information designed to expose Nazi lies encouraged readers to apply critical thinking skills. 

• David Greenberg, Rutgers University  –  “The IPA and the Paradox of Advocacy Messaging”.

• AJ Bauer – “Glittering Generalities: Reconsidering the Institute for Propaganda Analysis.” Among media historians, there has been renewed interest in the U.S.-based Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), a short-lived progressive educational initiative concerned with teaching the public how to spot and not be swayed by propaganda campaigns. This paper contends that the IPA’s public-facing messaging against propaganda masked its own propagandistic aims. Using scientific language and claiming to be above the political fray, the IPA unwittingly exacerbated the problem it claimed to combat. This paper concludes by drawing lessons for contemporary communication researchers invested in understanding and counteracting mis/disinformation.

Discussant: Dr. David B Woolner, Professor of History Marist College

11:30 AM to 12:45 PM – Panel 2:  Media literacy in schools

• Panelists: 

  • Lauri Johnson – Boston College, author of Populist Housewives, the Catholic Press, and an “Organized Right:  Conservative Backlash to Intercultural Curriculum in Springfield Massachusetts and Los Angeles, 1945 – 1953.” 

  • Ryan Abt – “Propaganda Analysis in Practice: New York City Teachers’ and Clyde Miller,” 1937-1946.” 

  • Renee Hobbs – "Teaching the Persuasive Genres in High School English: A brief History."

• Discussant: Michael Schudson, Columbia University

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM – Lunch Break
2:15 PM to 3:00 PM – Panel 3: Politics and the IPA

• Panelists

  • Victor Pickard, The role of redbaiting in the early formations of the field of communication.

  • Jelani Cobb, Race and Backlash, Dean of Columbia Journalism School.   

  • Silke Graf, University of Wuerzberg and Lars Reinking. "Counterpropaganda and beyond? Continuity and Change in German Media Education since the 1930s.”

• Discussant: Jeff Pooley 

3:15 PM to 4:00 PM approx–Methodology of media effects

Seeing things under the bed? The hypodermic needle? What do we actually know about media persuasion? Comparing debates about methodology then and now.”

Clyde Miller believed  in science as part of objectivity and thought that science would help the  republic (Dewey, Roosevelt, La  Guardia, Henry Wallace).  Academics have lost status  and  reputation  and now  it’s down with Congressman in the low  teens. Should  we continue to assume we have the mantle to claim to be speaking objectively. Where is  liberalism going in the  post Cold War era.  Effort on building global  institutions and making peace the centerpiece. No one discusses violence in GAza  and Ukraine as symptomatic  of a global sickness . what are next steps to  create  a new  generation  of progressives  to create  a self conscious globalism to create a …trump  a symbol of new global  oligarchy, with tech, creating a new sphere. 

• Andrea Prat with Richard Parker 

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM – Panel 4:  Relevance for today

• Panelists –Peter Pomerantzev and Efrat Nechushtai

• Closing remarks: Anya Schiffrin, Director, Technology, Media, and Communications Specialization, at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University