Where the Truth Lies

Last week, we attended Where the Truth Lies: A Symposium on Propaganda Today, organized by SVA and the PhD programs in history and sociology of The Graduate Center at CUNY. Organizers Stuart Ewen, Steven Heller and Mary Jeys brought together a diverse panel of academics, journalists, designers, marketing execs and a documentary filmmaker, all in an effort to take the pulse of contemporary propaganda and discuss new methods being utilized to distort opinion and perspective. Speakers weighed in on the persuasive effects of everything from corporations in the classroom and viral marketing to the social and political advantages of ethical spectacle and the rise of the commentator class.

Above, we offer you a distilled (nay, propagandized?) version of that afternoon. For more information about the speakers and their presentations, please visit the event site: http://wherethetruthlies.org/.