Meningococcal disease

Leap Project Number One: Creating Propaganda

Creative Choices and Strategy

For this project, I decided to create a propaganda piece for a campaign that was to encourage your friends to protect themselves against ‘Meningococcal Disease’ and be aware of medical misinformation. Meningococcal disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (known as the CDC) official website is “any illness caused by bacteria”. These illnesses are commonly very severe, do have the potential to be deadly, and include infections to the lining of the brain, spinal cord, and bloodstream. The disease is mainly spread through actions that involve sharing of saliva such as kissing or coughing close to someone. The point of this campaign is to spread awareness about how to prevent getting these infections and the vaccines you would need to receive. Furthermore, they state that with Covid-19 showing us “the importance of public health”, it also has shown a rise of medical information online so we should be sure to get our information from trustful sources.

When deciding what form of propaganda would be most effective for this campaign, I thought about what would work for me the most. Personally, I would not stop to read a whole article or press release about medical information. However, I would definitely read through a neat poster or infographic that I found online. So, I decided that an infographic would be the most effective form of propaganda that would help this campaign grow and reach multiple different audiences. I chose to do an infographic over other types of visual mediums because I felt that I could diagram out all of the important information that was needed to be known about Meningococcal Disease. While creating the infographic, I chose a template that was very clear and concise with its messaging. Each section of the infographic is clearly labeled which allows the viewer to easily navigate through each of the sections that are presented.

I started, of course, with the header section which reads “Meningococcal Disease: What To Know”clearly displaying what the infographic is about. Then I mapped the other sections out in a topical order which I felt made the most sense. Starting first was the “What is it?” section which gives a clear description of Meningococcal Disease and the components of it. Then I moved to causes which give a description of how the disease that was just described is transmitted from one person to another. The next two sections describe how you would know if you possibly have contracted the disease and also how you will be diagnosed with it. After that, we went to the “treatment” section which showed the hideous methods in which Meningococcal Disease is treated. Finally, we move to the last section which shows the vaccines you should get to fully prevent yourself from ever getting the disease. I mapped the graphic out this way because I feel it was the best way to tell the facts of the Meningococcal Disease while also drawing some type of fear or a type of call to action from the viewer. There were also a few other added details to the graphic that helped it become an effective piece of propaganda. The first is the bottom header of the infographic. On the left side, we see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clearly displayed and on the right side it states “For more information on Meningococcal Disease, visit us on www.cdc.gov”. Along with the full link to the specific page with the stated facts underneath it. I felt this added an aspect of trust to the viewer that all of the facts stated in this graphic are true and also will make them believe that this graphic was created by a trustworthy source such as CDC. The other small detail I added to the graphic was all of the small images at the top of each section. I thought that it helped with the appearance of the graphic overall which helps with the rhetoric of the infographic.

Application of What I Have Learned About Propaganda

I made sure to apply multiple propaganda concepts that have been taught to us in this course so far to make this graphic. The main concept that I knew I wanted to make sure this graphic had was components of the ‘scare tactic’. The scare tactic is a method that tries to frighten people into achieving what they want the viewer to do. In my situation, I want the viewer to take the necessary steps to prevent themselves from getting Meningococcal Disease along with spreading awareness to people they know. So, I felt that the most effective way to do that with a disease was to scare viewers into how serious and harmful the disease can be. My method to achieve this was to make the wording in each of the sections create a reaction and/or a sense of fear. I changed certain adjectives to more powerful words and chose the most serious quotes from the CDC website to accomplish this goal. One example of this is in ‘What Is It?’ section, it states “These illnesses are often severe, and can be deadly”. This sentence alone strikes fear from the viewer about how serious and painful contracting Meningococcal Disease will be.

What Did You Like or Dislike About the Experience?

One part I enjoyed from the experience of creating a piece of propaganda was the strategy that I had put into it. Once I chose my campaign, I had to analyze what medium would be the most effective to accomplish the goal. After that, creating the infographic was a fun experience for me. I felt that I was creating a story in a way that would draw a reaction from any who viewed it. However, one part of this experience that I did dislike was the fact that I was trying to deceive anyone viewing the infographic. Even though nothing was necessarily misinformation, I still felt evil creating a fake graphic that had the ability to control someone’s actions or mind in a way.