Chapter 12 Exercises: Symbols, Images, and Visual Propaganda

Exercise 12.1 — Visual Grammar Analysis

Objective: Apply the chapter's compositional analysis framework to a propaganda image.

Instructions:

Select one image from the following list of historically documented propaganda images. (Your instructor may provide reproductions, or you may locate them through an academic image archive.)

  • A poster from the U.S. "Four Minute Men" WWI campaign (1917-1918)
  • A Soviet socialist realist poster from the Stalin period (1928-1953)
  • A Nazi propaganda poster from the period 1933-1939
  • A Chinese Cultural Revolution poster (1966-1976)
  • A U.S. Office of War Information WWII poster (1942-1945)
  • A contemporary political campaign advertisement image of your choice, approved by your instructor

Analysis Questions:

Write a structured analysis of approximately 600-800 words addressing each of the following elements. For each element, first describe what you observe objectively, then interpret what the visual choice communicates.

  1. Scale and proportion: Who or what is shown as large, monumental, or visually dominant? Who or what is shown as small, diminished, or subordinate? What political or moral argument does this relative scale communicate?

  2. Juxtaposition: What visual elements are placed in proximity to each other? What associations does this proximity generate? Is there a juxtaposition of human figures, symbols, objects, or environments? What claim does the juxtaposition make without stating it explicitly?

  3. Color coding: What is the dominant color palette of the image? What emotional register does each major color carry in its cultural context? Is there evidence of deliberate color choice designed to activate specific associations (e.g., red for revolutionary energy; black for threat; gold for prestige)?

  4. Lighting and shadow: Where is the primary light source? What is fully illuminated, and what is in shadow? What does the lighting communicate about moral or political valence?

  5. Gaze direction: Where do the subjects in the image direct their gaze? What does this communicate about their orientation — toward the future, toward authority, toward the viewer, toward an enemy? How does gaze direction shape the viewer's relationship to the image?

  6. Emotional inventory: Set aside your analytical observations for a moment and report honestly: what was your felt response to this image before you began to analyze it? How quickly did that response arrive? Did the compositional analysis change your felt response? If the analysis did not change your response, what does that tell you about how the image is operating?

Discussion: Bring your analysis to class for small-group sharing. Compare analyses of different images. What compositional conventions appear across multiple propaganda traditions? What is culturally specific?

Exercise 12.2 — Symbol History Mapping

Objective: Trace the historical construction and transformation of meaning in a political symbol.

Instructions:

Choose one political symbol from the following list:

  • The raised fist (tracing through labor movement, Black Power, and contemporary use)
  • The peace sign (the CND symbol: designed 1958, adopted by anti-nuclear and Vietnam-era movements, contemporary use)
  • The rainbow flag (from early 20th-century gay liberation symbolism through the Gilbert Baker 1978 flag to contemporary LGBTQ+ movements)
  • The Confederate battle flag (as analyzed in the chapter)
  • The hammer and sickle (from early Soviet symbolism through the Cold War to contemporary neo-communist and counter-propaganda uses)
  • The fasces (from ancient Rome through Italian Fascism to its contemporary presence in U.S. government symbols)
  • A symbol of your choosing, approved by your instructor

Research and Analysis:

Conduct research into the historical origins and transformation of your chosen symbol and produce a written analysis of approximately 700-900 words addressing the following:

  1. Original meaning: What did this symbol mean in its original cultural context? What visual form did it take, and why was that form chosen?

  2. Appropriation and transformation: Has this symbol been deliberately appropriated by a political movement or commercial entity? If so, describe the mechanism of transformation: what associations were deliberately built through repetition and recontextualization?

  3. Current meaning(s): What does this symbol communicate today? Is there a single dominant meaning, or do different communities carry different associations? If meanings vary across communities, what accounts for the divergence?

  4. The "overwriting" question: In your view, has any prior meaning of this symbol been successfully overwritten by a later one? What would it take to reverse this overwriting? Is there evidence that anyone is trying to do so?

  5. Propaganda lesson: What does your symbol's history teach about how meaning is made and unmade through repeated association? What does it reveal about who has the power to determine what a symbol means?

Note: The Confederate battle flag analysis in the chapter provides one model for how to approach this exercise. Your analysis should demonstrate similar historical specificity.

Exercise 12.3 — Meme Deconstruction

Objective: Apply the chapter's framework to deconstruct a political meme as a propaganda artifact.

Instructions:

Locate one political meme currently circulating on a social media platform you use. The meme should be explicitly political in content — it should make or imply a claim about a political figure, party, policy, or social movement. Do not choose a meme you created or have previously shared.

Analysis (approximately 500-700 words):

  1. Description: Describe the meme precisely: what image does it use, what text does it include, and how are the image and text combined? Where did you encounter it, and what does that context tell you?

  2. Juxtaposition analysis: What is placed next to what in this meme? What association does the image-text combination generate? What claim is being made by the combination that is not explicitly stated in either element alone?

  3. Emotional function: What emotional response is this meme designed to generate? How does it use visual grammar (scale, color, gaze, lighting) to amplify that response?

  4. Symbol use: Does this meme employ any pre-existing political or cultural symbols? If so, what associations do those symbols carry, and how does the meme deploy or transform those associations?

  5. The implicit claim: State, as precisely as you can, the proposition this meme is designed to install in the viewer's mind. This is the claim it makes without stating. Is this claim accurate? Is it verifiable?

  6. Spread mechanism: Why would someone share this meme? What does sharing it communicate about the sharer to their social network? How does the sharing mechanism function as a form of implicit endorsement?

Reflection: After completing this analysis, consider whether you shared or were tempted to share this meme before analyzing it. What does your own response reveal about how the meme's design works?

Exercise 12.4 — Comparative Visual Composition (Group Exercise)

Objective: Produce visual propaganda and counter-propaganda to understand how compositional choices shape meaning.

Instructions:

This exercise works best in groups of 3-4. Your group will be assigned a single subject — a person, an organization, a policy, or a concept — by your instructor. Each group receives the same subject.

Part 1 — Favorable Treatment:

Using only images available in the public domain or under Creative Commons licenses (no original photography required — found images are acceptable), compose a visual presentation of your subject that uses the chapter's visual grammar conventions to present it in the most favorable possible light. Apply at least four of the following techniques deliberately: - Monumental scale (photographing from below; showing figure as dominant in frame) - Upward gaze direction - Full, warm lighting with no obscuring shadow - Color palette associated with legitimacy and authority in your cultural context - Favorable juxtaposition (placing subject near visual elements that transfer positive associations) - Symbol deployment (incorporating symbols that carry desired associations)

Part 2 — Hostile Treatment:

Using the same or different available images of the same subject, compose a visual presentation using visual grammar conventions to present the subject in the most negative possible light. Apply at least four techniques: - Diminishing scale - Downward or sidelong gaze - Shadow-heavy lighting - Color palette associated with threat or contempt - Hostile juxtaposition - Hostile symbol deployment or symbol desecration

Part 3 — Debrief Discussion:

Present both versions to the class. Discuss: - What specific compositional choices changed the most between the two versions? - Did any group members feel uncomfortable creating the hostile version of a subject they support, or the favorable version of a subject they oppose? What does that discomfort reveal? - How did the visual presentations affect the responses of class members who were not in your group? - What does this exercise demonstrate about the relationship between visual composition and political argument?

Exercise 12.5 — Comparative Film Analysis

Objective: Compare the visual propaganda strategies of Triumph of the Will and a contemporary political communication.

Instructions:

Watch the first fifteen minutes of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), available through academic film archives and educational platforms. Then select one of the following contemporary visual political communications to watch in its entirety:

  • A presidential campaign announcement video (from any party, any recent election cycle)
  • A political party convention keynote speech video
  • A major political activist organization's advocacy video
  • A government public health or national security campaign video

Write a comparative analysis of approximately 800-1,000 words addressing the following:

  1. Opening sequence comparison: How does each video establish its primary figure or subject in the opening sequence? What visual grammar is used to communicate authority, legitimacy, or power? How does the Triumph of the Will opening (the descent from clouds) compare to the contemporary video's opening?

  2. Crowd and scale: How does each video handle the relationship between the central figure and the surrounding community? What does the visual composition of this relationship communicate about the nature of the movement, party, or cause?

  3. Symbol deployment: What symbols are visible in each video? What associations do they activate? Are there significant differences between the 1935 German context and the contemporary context in how symbols are used?

  4. Shared techniques: Identify at least three specific visual propaganda techniques that the two videos share. For each, describe how it functions in both contexts.

  5. What is new: Identify at least two significant differences in visual propaganda technique between the 1935 film and the contemporary communication. What accounts for these differences — is it advances in technology, differences in political context, differences in the relationship between creator and audience?

  6. The Riefenstahl question: The chapter notes that Triumph of the Will still affects contemporary viewers despite their full knowledge of what the Nazi regime was. Did the contemporary political video you analyzed affect you? Did knowing about its visual propaganda techniques change that effect? What does your experience reveal about the limits of critical literacy as a defense against visual propaganda?

Important note: This exercise is designed for analytical purposes. The goal is not to equate contemporary democratic political communication with Nazi propaganda, but to identify which visual techniques appear across different political contexts and thereby understand them as techniques rather than as expressions of any particular ideology.

Chapter 12 | Part 2: Techniques | Propaganda, Power, and Persuasion