• Political strategy in which techniques of agitation and propaganda are used to influence public opinion. Originally described by the Marxist theorist Georgy Plekhanov and then by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, it called for both emotional and reasoned arguments. The term, a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, has been used in English, typically with a negative connotation, to describe any work — especially in drama and other art forms — that aims to indoctrinate the public and achieve political goals.
- Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Agitprop first appeared in post-Revolutionary Soviet Union. It was intended to promote values among the masses, and has taken on many forms, from trains and cars, poster campaigns, agitation centres, and even 'agitpunkts'. Agitprop proved to be a powerful technique to politically educate the mass of population. Books and libraries played an important role in enforcing this concept of agitprop, with many books published about certain 'educational' topics, such as ones that promote the pride in the valour of labour, or ones that enforce the memory of great moments in the revolutionary history.
Agitprop reached its peak during the Stalinist era, and was one of the most important Central Committee sections by 1946. Agitprop's role was to oversee publishing, television, radio, and sports, to control the masses and directing the agitation and propaganda work, to educate them politically and conducting cultural work with trade unions. Early Agitprop techniques included parades, spectacles, posters, scultures, films, kiosks and such, and there existed these agit-stations which were present in most railway stations, which held libraries of propaganda material, lectures and the like.
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Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
"We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society."
https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads
http://thebookman.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/postmodern-terms-absence-to-curtain-wall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
http://www.answers.com/library/Russian+History+Encyclopedia-cid-1458
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/agit.htm
- 22nd April lesson
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