On Tuesday night (9/16), from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at the Women's Center in the lower level of the UW Oshkosh Center for Equity and Diversity (717 W. Irving Ave.) professor Bob Hinrichs of the UW Oshkosh Department of Communication and I will be co-facilitating a screening of the Media Education Foundation film "Toxic Sludge is Good For You." The screening is part of the UW Oshkosh Women's Center Election Education Series, and is cosponsored by the American Democracy Project, the College Democrats, and the College Republicans.
Narrated by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, the film is based on John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton's book Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (Common Courage Press, 1995). Steeped in appreciation of small-d democratic values, the authors don't have a solution for the mass scale bamboozlement that has become the modern PR industry. But they do say this:
In truth, any such solution is likely itself to be part of the problem, because real democracy must be the common work and invention of all of us, acting together. The solutions we do possess are partial: first, learn to recognize the influence of PR in your life; second, seek out alternative sources of information; third become personally involved in local efforts to directly address important issues at the community level. (p. 204).
Perhaps coming to the screening and having a discussion afterwards would be a good start to that local effort. There will even be free soda and popcorn, and that's no PR pitch :-).
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Tony,
Please say how the film can be shown in Appleton. It's a piece I requested years back for the Appleton library.
The history of advertising and PR is important for understanding our current dilemma.
Also recommended: "The Century Of The Self" on dvd by Adam Curtis.
That's available through the library system.
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