Table of Contents What Do You See? Historical "Thickness" of Advertising Demonstrative and Associative Ads Advertising & Consumer Psychology Bandwagon & Anti-Bandwagon Effects Social Marketing & Exploitation Computational Rhetoric of Hyper-Personalization What Do You See? Let’s begin today’s lesson with a quick glance at these sets of images. What do they remind you of? ...
Lesson Module by Keren Wang, updated 4 Nov 2025. This lesson module examines the contested and ambivalent relationship between media and violence from historical and transnational perspectives. 1. Violence as Ritual & Power: Historical and Global Perspectives Let's open this session with a reference from Greek mythology: consider the telltale of Prometheus, whose theft of fire from the Olympian gods for humanity’s benefit inadvertently brought both civilization and destruction. Like Prometheus’s fire, the development of media technology simultaneously brings enlightenment and cataclysm. 1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice The history of the development of writing technology overlaps with the history of war propaganda and human sacrifice.[1] As early as the Narmer Palette, one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts ever found from circa 3200 BCE depicting scenes of conquest and violence: Similarly, during the height of the Chinese Bronze Age, also known as the Shang dynasty (c. 1250–1046 BC) produced ritual bronze artifacts at monumental proportions -- such as the 833 kg (1,836 lbs) Houmuwu Ding -- one of the heaviest bronze vessel from the ancient world -- and the 13-foot (3.96 m) tall Sanxingdui bronze tree (c. 1200 BC): ...
American economist Alan Blinder famously characterized the rhetorical style of bureaucrats – an umbrella term denoting unelected officials holding administrative, technical, and managerial positions – as “secretive, cryptic, [sic] using numerous and complicated words to convey little of any meaning.” Think of a career government worker who talks in jargon-filled canned statements with little substance. While it may be counterintuitive to associate bureaucracy with the art of persuasion, history tells us quite a different story. Not only did bureaucracy itself emerge as a rhetorical response to the exigencies of record-keeping and resolving disputes, but it also provides a powerful platform for propaganda, sometimes making unpalatable measures appear proper and necessary. In this case study, we will examine official narratives on involuntary servitude (slavery) in Early Imperial China, and focus on how the imperial bureaucracy justified its institutions of forced labor despite having officially abolished slavery. We approach this through a historical lens, the role of bureaucracy in persuasion and propaganda, and reflect on how authorities of power would employ subtle rhetorical strategies to make dehumanizing, exploitative structures appear legitimate and necessary. ...
by Keren Wang This essay was originally featured on the Penn State Civic & Community Engagement (CIVCOM) website, responding to this year's Constitution Day theme: "The U.S. Constitution & 'The Dangerous Thirteenth Amendment'." Please visit and share with your students this link http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/, where you'll also find essays by Lauren Camacci, Jeremy Cox, Michele Kennerly, Veena Raman, John Rountree, Mary Stuckey, and Kirt Wilson. Last year's resources on "The Spaces Between the First and Second Amendments" can still be found here: http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/past-constitution-days/2016-2/ The Constitution of the United States – Article XIII (Amendment 13 – Slavery and Involuntary Servitude) Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ...